Psychedelics & Empathogens
Psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT/ayahuasca, mescaline, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT — substances that produce profound altered states.
Latest reporting
Washington Fast-Tracked Psilocybin This Year — Your Local VA Still Can't Prescribe It
FDA priority vouchers, a Nature Medicine depression trial, and new brain-imaging data all landed for psilocybin in 2026 — but the drug is still Schedule I and nobody can prescribe it yet. Here's the real timeline.
The FDA Just Cut Psilocybin's Review to Two Months — and the Drug Was Never the Slow Part
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary handed Compass Pathways a National Priority Voucher, shrinking psilocybin's review to weeks. The science looks real. The therapist-training and access infrastructure to actually deliver it does not exist yet.
Psilocybin's FDA Clock Just Started Ticking — the DEA's Hasn't
A VA trial, a Compass Pathways filing, and an FDA hearing all landed the same week. FDA approval of psilocybin looks close — DEA rescheduling doesn't.
Through eight lenses
Science
5-HT2A agonism (classical psychedelics), MDMA serotonin/dopamine/NE release, ibogaine multi-receptor (anti-addiction window).
Biology
Acute autonomic effects, serotonin syndrome risk in combos, ibogaine cardiac risk (QT prolongation — real, requires screening), HPPD rare but possible.
Psychology
"mystical experience" correlating with therapeutic outcome (Griffiths et al.); challenging experiences and how they're handled in set/setting.
Washington Fast-Tracked Psilocybin This Year — Your Local VA Still Can't Prescribe It
Aug 15People Who Drink and Occasionally Use Psilocybin Score Lower on Depression Scales. Don't Call It a Treatment Yet.
Aug 7Twelve Veterans Had Already Failed Every PTSD Treatment. Nine Are in Remission After Two Doses of Psilocybin.
Aug 1
Policy
Mostly Schedule I; Oregon Measure 109, Colorado Prop 122, FDA breakthrough designations; MDMA 2024 rejection; state-level initiatives for decrim/regulated access.
Trends
Psychedelic clinic growth (often off-label ketamine), "microdosing" research (mostly null), ayahuasca tourism.
Treatment
Psilocybin+therapy for AUD (NYU + Hopkins RCTs); ibogaine for OUD (Stanford case series, Kentucky state research); MDMA-AT for PTSD (post-2024 setback, new trials).
Twelve Veterans Had Already Failed Every PTSD Treatment. Nine Are in Remission After Two Doses of Psilocybin.
Aug 1The DEA Banned Ibogaine in 1970. This Week, Three Federal Agencies Bet on It Anyway.
Jul 20Psilocybin Just Got the Federal Fast-Track. The Science Is Further Along Than the Policy Knows.
Jun 30
Harm Reduction
Set/setting, integration, contraindications (SSRIs, heart conditions, family psychosis history for classical psychedelics), test kits.
People Who Drink and Occasionally Use Psilocybin Score Lower on Depression Scales. Don't Call It a Treatment Yet.
Aug 7FDA's New Psychedelic Trial Rules Don't Reach the Clinics Where Ibogaine Patients Are Dying
Jul 16Psilocybin Is on a 60-Day Approval Clock. Here's Who Probably Won't Be in the Room.
Jun 26