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Please Trip Responsibly: There Is No Virtue in Hyping Up Preliminary Psychedelic Studies 

Overhyped psychedelic studies may generate clicks, but they risk undermining both good science and the case for legalization.

By Patrick Maravelias

Psychedelic studies have become increasingly commonplace over the better half of the past decade, and I fear the free drug press has been routinely misrepresenting the scientific value of them. As a noted member of the national drug press myself, I humbly offer my sincerest pleas to my fellow journalists, to the research teams, and the general public: Stop hyping up extremely preliminary data in a misguided effort to portray psychedelics as a cure for everything that ails us. Let us aim our collective efforts toward broad legalization and decriminalization instead.

For those of you who don’t know or care about the legislative plight of our beloved psychedelics, allow me to enlighten thee. Once upon a time — from roughly the 1800s to the early 1900s — everything that got you high was either mostly unheard of in the United States or available through doctors or over the counter in a far looser fashion than they are today. There was virtually no regulation around drugs whatsoever. The old adage about Coca-Cola containing actual cocaine or the Tombstone-esque depiction of the laudanum-addicted housewife are both frighteningly accurate portrayals of pre-prohibition times.

In the past century, we’ve had a combination of bad luck, Richard Nixon, Nancy Reagan, Harry Anslinger — and Timothy Leary, but that’s a discussion for a different day — to blame for the prohibition of virtually everything under the sun that might be fun to get high on. We’re not here for a history lesson, but if you’re interested, it’s well worth reading about the past 100 years of American narcotics policy. It’s important to understand the path the federal government took from a free-for-all drug policy to the aggressive prohibition of plant medicines and entheogens, while the Sackler family, who owned Purdue Pharma, got rich killing patients with OxyContin. (Purdue Pharma is, of course, among the largest key players in igniting the early wave of the opioid crisis.) Eventually, that mode of operation gave way to a big lobbying push to legalize certain substances on the basis that they treat medical issues. 

In the mid 1990s, San Francisco was swamped with cases of people afflicted with HIV and AIDS. People were suffering, badly, and this is where the movement for legal cannabis began with the passage of California’s Proposition 215. Thank god that happened, because it eventually led to kids afflicted with epilepsy gaining access to life-saving CBD products in the early 2010s. Activists and legislators understood the logic that there were legitimate cases for the use of cannabis to treat debilitating illnesses. This spurred a massive push to legalize other drugs on the basis of using them as treatment for medical issues — often depression and anxiety — like ketamine (which was already legal, just used as an anesthetic in other areas of medicine, including surgeries, dentistry, emergency medicine), psilocybin, ibogaine, DMT, and more. 

This lobbying push, which undeniably started with the best of intentions and increased social acceptance of psychedelics, has opened the door to allow for more research to be performed. And that’s great! Unfortunately, a lot of that research seems to have been co-opted by amateur-hour research teams mischaracterizing and exaggerating the data we use to defend the medical potential of a lot of these drugs.

Personally, I’m a “progress is progress” kind of guy when it comes to beating back the shackles of prohibition. But we seem to have lost the plot a bit when it comes to how we study psychedelics and the conclusions we draw, and that will absolutely come back around to bite the movement directly in the ass. Also, when I say we, I’m referring to a spectrum of people ranging from actual scientists and medical researchers to ragtag teams of psychonaut undergrads, who scrape together a few thousand dollars and a research grant. We have especially gone off the rails when it comes to how a consortium of drug journalists tends to cover studies when they are released.

As a purveyor of substances and all things counter culture, I read most of these studies when they come out, and frankly, 90 percent of them are really poorly executed. Every day, I see a new study that hints at a splashy conclusion, like that shrooms make sex better or that a new LSD derivative might treat canine anxiety. Those are both real studies that I personally reported on or pitched, and there seems to be a new one every five minutes. So let’s analyze why these studies aren’t exactly good, or at the very least, why they are interpreted too broadly.

The canine anxiety study used a largely unheard-of LSD derivative on one particularly anxious, 13-year-old dog. And, not for nothing, the dog was still notably anxious by the end of the study, albeit less so than when they started. According to a questionnaire filled out before, during, and after the study, the dog just got slightly less anxious as a result of receiving 1cp‐LSD every three days for 30 days. 

The psilocybin and sex study drew on data sets from multiple online surveys in which participants self-reported on the effects of psychedelics that they “consumed in personal and ceremonial settings in the real world.” Only the second portion of the study involved a “phase II double-blind randomised controlled clinical trial” with a thoughtfully-chosen participant population. That approach is the only way you can really account for the multitude of biases that can and will enter into a study on something as subjective as a psilocybin experience or a sexual experience. But this part of the study only included 59 patients, and the study’s authors note that their conclusions are preliminary at best: “Being this the first quantitative investigation on the effects of psychedelics on sexual functioning/wellbeing, we strongly encourage further research on the topic in order to overcome the current limitations.” It also bears mentioning that almost any illegal drug is known to improve a sexual experience, including meth and heroin. 

A large swath of psychedelic studies are survey-based, which means they have a huge response bias in that they’re only getting answers from people who feel strongly enough one way or the other to fill out the survey. Many of these studies have a small pool of participants and only follow the participants for a short amount of time. 

My biggest pet peeve is that very rarely do any of these studies indicate selecting participants based on past or current usage of drugs. That shit matters! Giving someone LSD who has never done it before will lead to a vastly different subjective outcome than giving it to someone who has taken it once, and both of them will have a vastly different outcome than someone who has taken it 100+ times. As much as I criticize the often fast and loose research methods employed by big pharma companies, their studies still crush psychedelic studies nine times out of 10 when it comes to end-game scientific value. The point is, most people don’t see those caveats or even understand how to properly interpret research data; they just see the headline when a media outlet posts about it.

But really, first and foremost, the biggest issue is funding. Historically, the federal government has funded very little psychedelic research. Studying psychedelics is technically not illegal, but it requires extensive licensing, institutional approval, and DEA registration. Researchers almost always have to come up with private funding for the study, which is like trying to perform complex equations using a child’s abacus. We’re running a one-legged race trying to get accurate data on case uses for psychedelics, which is why almost every study published on them is held over a short time period, with a small number of research participants: The aforementioned canine anxiety study was performed on exactly one dog. We can bitch all the livelong day that the government needs to fund studies on these things, and we should! But we need to stop parading the data around like it means anything of value that we gave shrooms to a couple dozen people and they had good sex that night. 

Drug journalists are especially guilty of making these grandiose claims without the necessary caveats. Some are worse than others, and since we are a particularly small and incestuous community of degenerates, let me assure you that if I see you at the next trade show, you will receive a stern talking to. That said, I am just as guilty of this, because even my best-intentioned explanations of such things usually don’t appear until late in the article — and unfortunately, the TikTok generation doesn’t read past the headline. We need to report on this responsibly, even though it won’t get as many clicks. Trust me, I haven’t solved the issue of keeping media pubs solvent without incendiary reporting, but we still need to do better. The more nonsense we spout without proper data behind it, the harder it will be to make proper legislative progress. And frankly, we need to collectively start pushing the narrative that Americans don’t need a medically verifiable defense to do drugs.

In my humble opinion, the only defense anyone needs to take a drug is “I’m not hurting anyone.” That becomes a much more complex argument when you factor in the issue of addiction as a public nuisance. But almost nobody gets addicted to psychedelics, so our only defense to Congress and our respective state legislatures should be “they’re safe.” By almost every metric, Tylenol carries more inherent health risks than mushrooms. Unless we want access to psychedelics locked behind the same adamantium and mithril gate of impenetrable doom that we locked opioids behind, I suggest we start relying more on general safety than medical potential in our lobbying efforts.

I don’t mean to disparage the study of psychedelics. I simply want to encourage everyone to be careful about the conclusions they extrapolate from these studies. A good example of what I would consider to be the standard for how to conduct these studies are the studies on psilocybin for end-of-life anxiety, depression, and smoking cessation piloted by a group of medical experts and researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. That shit cost in the realm of $55 million, and they did it with the help of a federal grant — the first one given out in over 50 years, which means they were aboveboard enough for the feds to give them the green light. There were several different studies performed under the same organization, and they were performed on otherwise healthy volunteers with no prior history of psychedelic use. The researchers used double-blind studies, established a widely adopted list of safety guidelines for controlled psilocybin experience, lobbied for rescheduling of psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule IV, and generally set a very good example for how to study these things that, frankly, is not emulated nearly enough in research efforts performed by other teams. However, it warrants mentioning that there are a myriad of other teams conducting great research in a similar fashion.

This is not to say substances like psilocybin and LSD don’t have incredible potential when it comes to improving mental health — they absolutely do. It’s just really problematic to post headlines about “shrooms might be good for this” and “LSD might treat that” without proper context or nuance to the information. It’s irresponsible, and it tells people who are suffering that the answer to what ails them lies in something they don’t have safe access to and, frankly, might make the problem worse. (Please see my long-winded rant on why psychedelics absolutely and unequivocally do not cure addiction.) This is uncharted territory we’re entering into as a community of advocates for our beloved tryptamines, and, as much as I love you all, we’re not treating it with the subtlety and caution it requires to reach a place where people get out of prison, and humans can trip in peace. 

As such, my pleas for better behavior are directed not at the general public, who, bless their hearts, can’t be trusted to understand much, but to the journalists who cover psychedelics and drug policy and to the organizations funding these studies. Please, for the love of all things tie-dye, stop with the goddamn press releases and articles every time somebody eats drugs and feels marginally better in some capacity. We need better data than you’re currently pushing — mankind deserves it. 

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All photos by Mattha Busby

Ketamine Has Entered Its Bling Era, And There Are Spoons for Everyone

Akin to cocaine’s velvet excesses of the ’80s, today’s ravers flaunt custom spoons — at once drug tool and countercultural statement — as the emblem of the dissociation generation.

By Mattha Busby

“Got spoons?” asks a message scrawled in pink on a chalkboard enveloped by fluorescent LED lighting. I’m outside a stall in the corner of the vendor village at Shambhala in western Canada, the county’s largest electronic music weekender. It’s early on Friday afternoon and the store, Bits and Keys’, has already sold 500 snuff-style spoons, small spatulas which are typically worn as necklaces and used to sniff ketamine.

“We put them out and they’re gone,” says Mike Nelson, who is working in the Bits and Keys’ booth in the baking British Columbia summer heat on the paradisiacal woodland festival site several kilometers from any road. “We just can’t make them fast enough.” Behind him, two colleagues hurriedly assemble a diverse range of spoons, from simple scoopers for CA$10 to gigantic brass utensils, including one enormous sunflower-shaped spoon, for as much as $40. “A few guys who have brought the big spoons and I’m like, that’s the Sunday spoon, I guess,” Nelson adds, alluding to how the festivalgoers’ tolerance to ketamine will likely be far higher in two days' time.

Ketamine is entering its bling era. The pocket-sized spoon is steadily becoming an underground countercultural symbol, as recreational consumers push back against a mainstream narrative that largely dismisses the drug. Despite its reputation as a horse tranquilizer, many have found everyday transcendence in it.

“I wouldn’t wear this in my everyday life, but I find it really freeing to be able to [wear it] here,” says Robert, who has just brought a spoon with an owl on it. “You need to keep it hidden in the real world.” 

An OG ketamine spoon operation is also incognito at Shambhala. I hear whispers that a rogue organization called the “Dark Side of the Spoon” has set up shop in the campsite, unwilling to pay vendor fees in excess of $10,000 for an official booth. 

In the artist lounge, a DJ informs me that a Dark Side-branded spoon was dropped into his pocket the night before. One of the organizers of a stage tells me that he was also just given a Dark Side of the Spoon gift with engravings paying homage to that very stage. “There’s something about Shambhala that makes ketamine just perfect,” the DJ tells me, referring to a distinct blend of inclusive, silly, and wonky vibes that the social lubricant ketamine appears to help cultivate. “Everyone does it.” 

Over lunch the next day, I chat with a British couple who happen to be seasoned ketamine users. Upon hearing about my assignment, they insist that I immediately go to Dark Side’s camp and give me clear instructions on how to get there. En route, I ask someone where “Heron” camp is, since that is where I have been directed. “Oh, you’re looking for the Dark Side?” they respond. 

Ketamine spoons are estimated to have first emerged about a decade ago among ravers seeking to both better manage their doses and be able to do huge amounts that wouldn’t fit on a key. But the use of personal spoons also reduces the risk of transmitting diseases through shared utensils, like keys. And, let’s be honest, stuffing a dirty key up your hooter isn’t very demure. 

In the past couple of years, it’s become more common on dancefloors to take ketamine with a purpose-made spoon rather than using improvised tools, mirroring the ‘80s wave of luxury cocaine accessories, such as custom spoons, straws, and even mini vacuums. The ketamine spoon phenomenon has created a disparate, nomadic tribe of a highly visible “dissociation generation” of ketamine consumers who — when they do have their spoons on display, at raves and festivals — are prone to sharing their drug of choice with fellow spoon-bearers. 

Boasting a ketamine spoon around one’s neck signals something equally revolutionary and ridiculous. And here I am, spoonless and wilting in the scorching sun, until I set foot in Dark Side of the Spoon’s shaded emporium. Splayed out on a large desk are a few hundred custom sniffing spoons, a host of action character figurines with spoons in their hands going at $50 a pop, Spoon Boy Pokemon-style cards, and dozens of branded two-sided poker chips which are intended to be flipped to ascertain whether one is in the right place or not. I flip one, and it confirms that I am indeed where I am supposed to be.

All of this absurdity screams that ketamine culture has reached a high-water mark and that a lot of ketamine is being consumed — to the extent that ancillary businesses are thriving. This is a characteristic of specific drug subcultures, and only certain substances arrive in this weird nirvana — cannabis, mushrooms, and cocaine, for example — but their moment in the sun always seems fleeting.

“Sometimes it feels like, I don’t know, I’m doing a bad thing because I’m encouraging people to use substances,” says Jeremy Gilron, the enigmatic Dark Side of the Spoon founder, after playing air guitar on a giant wooden spoon for our photoshoot in his renegade camp. “The matrix programming is like, ‘That’s bad.’ But I’m trying to push it in a better direction. I want people to do what they’re going to do anyway in the best way possible, and focus that energy into positive vibes.”

Gilron, a moustached man who tells strangers that he loves them, advises people to “bless their bumps” as they snort ketamine from spoons. “Bless your K and be like, ‘What do I want?’ You tell the crystal, ‘I want to make new friends. I want to get out of my skin. I want to let loose on the dancefloor.’ And boom: You manifest it.” 

He used to be more of a “K connoisseur,” he tells me in the shadow of an underground-famous school bus known as the Millennium Falcon that is a central piece of the Dark Side roadshow. “I was pretty much using it as a depression treatment,” he says in his gravelly drawl. “It would give me energy and loosen up my back, so all the pain would go away for the dancefloor.” Now, Gilron claims to have moderated his usage, having cleared the depression, and is keen to present himself as more of a harm reduction-minded role model where possible. 

A steady stream of spoon-searchers mill into the camp as ‘90s G-funk tunes take over the sound system upon Gilron’s request. As of early Saturday afternoon, they’ve sold more than 500 spoons during the festival, as many as Bits and Keys’ had sold at this point yesterday. But it soon picks up pace, with group after group stumbling in, and Gilron later claims to have sold a few thousand spoons over the course of the weekend, and a quarter of a million in the last decade.

New recruits to the Dark Side get their first spoons for free, and Gilron’s friend, a reserve soldier in the Canadian army, asks if he can “bless your nose” by anointing them on both sides of the nose with the spoon and saying: “Welcome to the dark side.” 

Gilron got his first spoon in 2014, at Shambhala — which has long had leading harm reduction and drug checking services aimed to keep people who use drugs safe — when he traded three capsules of MDMA for a single spoon made out of wire wrap and fashioned onto a necklace. Walking from the campsite to the festival’s downtown, he looked down at his new accessory. “I was like, ‘Damn, this is dope.’ It was one of those lightning bolt moments: ‘Why doesn't everyone have one of these?’” By the next year, he had learned how to create spoons out of wire and would take 100 to each festival and go around campsites selling them. His legend has only mushroomed since then, going to as many as 15 festivals across Canada and the world each year, and becoming a successful entrepreneur — carving out a unique and very zeitgeisty niche in the process.

“Jeremy's like a celebrity,” says the soldier, Ollie, who did not wish to use his real name. “Everybody that you talk to, if they see a [Dark Side] spoon, they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, do you know Jeremy?’” Ollie first bought a spoon from Gilron at Pemberton Music Festival and since last year, has been in the inner spoon circle at Shambhala. “I just love being part of it: It’s hilarious,” Ollie adds, holding up his blingy “Daddy’s Girl” spoon.

But for all the fun and games, one customer, Josh, admits that since he started collecting ketamine paraphernalia, his usage has gone up considerably. “It’s easier to take out,” he says, and my mind wanders to tales of bladders destroyed by heavy ketamine usage and people becoming unmoored from reality and seriously damaging their psyches. And spare a thought for actor Matthew Perry, who k-holed and drowned. But Josh is still convinced of the benefits of ketamine’s loosening effect on the mind and body. “It helps me ease into myself in the rave. If I’m doing something else like molly, I just feel stressed out. This mellows me.”

The notion, however, of a “Dark Side” isn’t necessarily mellow. Naturally, it risks invoking a sense of fear, or visions of an extremely deep, unwanted k-hole, but Gilron says it is simply a fusion of his favorite psychedelic rock album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, and Star Wars, naturally blended with the verbiage of his beloved spoon. “The alkalization of taking something taboo and finding the best in it like a prism makes a rainbow,” he says, almost sagely.

As I browse the zany collection of bizarre-looking spoons and feel at a loss of which one to pick, Gilron tells me: “It’s like Harry Potter, the spoon chooses the wizard.” And lo, a spoon with a Jesus-piece attached to it soon catches my eye. I am duly anointed by the soldier.

Gilron is making his entire living from the Dark Side operation, and he points to other similar organizations like Spoon Platoon in Australia and Hell in the Melon in the UK, who are all on a shared WhatsApp group chat called Spoon Squad. “Spoonings the love of the game,” he declares with one of many catchphrases. But Gilron, in a perplexing aside, insists that his business is not ketamine-focused per se, but “tiny spoon” focused. “We'll be on the dance floor, and someone will have half a watermelon, and there's like eight people all taking tiny little bites out of it with their spoons.”

After leaving Gilron, I’m told of a “Ketamine Olympics” competition which is said to be taking place at the river this Saturday afternoon. The competition involves so-called athletes consuming a requisite amount of ketamine and then taking part in various competitive exercises like racing down the river on floaties, three-legged races, tug-of-war, and much more. En route there, I amble past a group in a floatie offering “mystery bumps” to anyone who wishes to snort an anonymous white powder. I do not hang around long enough to discover the identity of the drug, but I do pass a man wearing a huge “K” necklace made to look like diamonds encrusted in gold.

Photo by Mattha Busby

Further towards an area known as “muscle beach” on the bank of the river is where I learn the longstanding Ketamine Olympics did take place, until a year ago, when festival security and police sternly warned the freewheeling organizer to no longer give out generous amounts of ketamine after a competitor k-holed during the 50-person river race and floated 15 miles downstream and into the U.S. 

“First place has to do a gram line of ketamine. I’m Hawaiian, you can’t K-hole a Hawaiian," the victor of the final Ketamine Olympics told the Psyched Substance YouTube channel last year. “I got a high tolerance. I’m a big wave surfer, bro. I told my mum: She was like, proud of me.” 

Now, however, the competition is just a sober floatie race, and I’ve just missed it. “They weren't just giving it out like before,” the Hawaiian man later tells me. “Before it was like a ‘K’ trophy, and now it's a boat race trophy. They're making so much money here at that festival now, they kind of have to be more, you know…”

Safety-conscious? Meanspirited? Anti-ketamine? He does not finish his sentence, but don’t be surprised if you soon see people outside of festivals and clubs with tiny spoons around their necks.

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How to Introduce Your Parents to Magic Mushrooms

Some people are introducing their parents to psilocybin — not by persuading them to trip, but by sharing their own experiences.

By Michele Koh Morollo

Seventy-five-year-old Ryna Mehr calls the day of her first psilocybin journey “Ryna’s rebirth day.” Introduced to mushrooms by her son, Dr. Seth Mehr, she describes the trip as deeply emotional, finding a peculiar comfort in facing her own mortality. “This is what it’s gonna be like when we die. It’s gonna be OK,” she recalls thinking. After that experience, she felt ready to embrace the next chapter of her life.

If you’ve had a life-changing experience with psilocybin mushrooms, you might be eager to introduce your parents to them. With its potential to break negative thinking patterns and alleviate end-of-life anxiety and depression, some adult children are hopeful it might improve the well-being of their elderly parents. 

Mehr, the founder of Cascade Psychedelic Medicine and Health and Safety Director at Innertrek psilocybin service center in Portland, Oregon, views psilocybin-assisted therapy as particularly beneficial for baby boomers, who are increasingly grappling with their mortality and its impact on their loved ones. “Also, their extensive life experience means they've grappled with existential anxieties far longer than younger people, so psilocybin may help address issues resistant to traditional talk therapy,” says Mehr, who’s a state-licensed psilocybin facilitator in Oregon.

If you plan on broaching the topic of mushrooms with a parent, Mehr suggests keeping the conversation casual and open-ended rather than overly direct or prescriptive. Finding ways to engage their interests can also make the discussion more effective.

“Think of ways your parent’s circumstances intersect with the field of psychedelic research. For instance, if your parent sustained a brain injury, you could initiate a conversation about organizations employing psilocybin in TBI therapies,” he says. “If they've served in the military, you could bring up psilocybin programs such as the Heroic Hearts Project.”

Frank Li, co-founder of the Portland-based psilocybin service center Immersive Therapies, observed the lingering psychological and emotional toll of the immigrant experience on his 84-year-old Taiwanese American father. Relocating to a new country, enduring poverty, and adjusting to a foreign culture fostered a scarcity mindset in Li’s father. 

“My dad never spent money on himself and always felt guilty about taking time for self-care. He bottled up his emotions and had a hard time expressing love to his wife and children,” says Li, who introduced the topic by talking to his parents about how psilocybin helped him work through his trauma and depression.“They could see I’d changed for the better, and this piqued their interest.” 

Inspired by Li's positive experience with psilocybin, his father participated in a guided session and experienced cathartic release, crying for the first time in years. Subsequently, he became more comfortable showing affection to his family members. 

“It was heartwarming to witness my dad release years of pent-up tears,” Li says. These days, Li and his father exchange “I love yous” at the end of their phone calls — a previously unimaginable occurrence according to Li. “Now my father allows me to treat him to a nice meal without complaining about the cost. He also suggested that we go on a road trip together.”

Licensed marriage and family therapist and Oregon-licensed psilocybin facilitator Mandy Miller’s father was spontaneous about his decision to take magic mushrooms. Miller and her 84-year-old father had occasionally chatted about the legalization of psilocybin and her work as a guide. He'd battled anxiety, PTSD, and depression for years, experimented with low doses of psilocybin as a young man, read Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, and now wanted to try a therapeutic macrodose of mushrooms. 

“The ceremony was unplanned,” says Miller. “We were in a place where psilocybin was legal, and over dinner one night, my dad said, ‘I wanna do it tomorrow.’ So we did! It was not my preference to do it this way, but I trusted his decision and ability to deal with whatever would come up for him.” 

Miller facilitated the journey for her father. He vomited at the start of it, which worried her that he might be nauseated throughout, but that wasn’t the case. Looking back, Miller felt that his purging was a cleansing process that prepared him for a more enjoyable trip. After the experience, her father told her, “That was fun, but it didn't change me, I don’t think. But I’m glad I tried it.” 

However, four months later, he reported feeling less anxious and said he felt a more significant curiosity about the world and more enthusiasm for life. Miller, who is in her mid-50s, is comfortable with her relationship with her father and did not approach facilitating his journey with any motives to improve it. “I did it just to give him an experience he was curious about. Hopefully, it’ll help him experience more ease and comfort in his later years,” she says. 

“Psychedelics offer a bird's-eye view of your life, much like a topographic map highlighting peaks, valleys, obstacles, and various routes,” says Keith Gilmore, President of Portland Psychedelic Society. He introduced his parents to psychedelics by sharing his own positive experiences with mushrooms. “I talked about my own experiences a few times over a couple of years. One Christmas, I gave them microdose capsules as presents, explaining the benefits and how to take them if they wanted. After they started microdosing, the idea of having a deeper experience seemed like less of a stretch,” says Gilmore, whose hope was for his parents to find some peace around the inevitability of death. 

Similar to Miller, Gilmore also served as his 72-year-old father’s sitter. “I introduced him to the therapeutic process of lying down with closed eyes and listening to a curated musical playlist,” says Gilmore. This experience prompted his father to reunite with an estranged brother. “That was a few years ago, and now my dad and his brother have a good relationship,” he says, adding that the experience has also strengthened their father-son relationship.

The common thread among these approaches is that the choice to take psilocybin ultimately belongs to the parent. Mehr, who has treated patients in the ER who were unknowingly given psilocybin by their children or grandchildren, stresses that we consider the ethical issues of imposing personal agendas, manipulating parents into taking psychedelics, or exaggerating their benefits. 

Sharing information and resources about psilocybin is a good first step, but experts suggest that what truly matters is how you show up in your relationships after your own experiences. Gilmore says, “The positive changes your parents see in you after you’ve done medicine work will be more persuasive than anything you say.”

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I Swore Off Psychedelic Retreats, But Then I Started One

From luxury DMT immersions to mushroom summer camp, psychedelic tourism is entering its growth phase.

By Dennis Walker

The psychedelic tourism industry has, in recent years, grown into a significant international business. Nested within the broader $1 trillion wellness tourism market, this once-niche travel offering has coalesced into a global ecosystem that stretches well beyond traditional and neo-shamanic ceremonial healing frameworks, encompassing a wide range of lifestyle and adventure experiences. 

One analysis of the psychedelic retreat field found that there were over 440 different retreats and nearly 300 companies offering them in 2023 — and the field has grown even more since then. But is this rapid growth actually a good thing? As a multimedia producer with many years of experience in the world of psychedelics, there was a time when I would have said absolutely not.

I’m personally four-for-four as a participant of Wild West-style, unhinged international psychedelic retreat experiences. In 2010, I embarked on a journey to Iquitos, Peru, wild-eyed and ready to dive deep on a medicine quest at an ayahuasca center. After I arrived, I was terrified to learn that the center owner at the time was a gun-toting cowboy with a taste for local moonshine and a backlog of sexual assault allegations against him. 

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Over a decade later — after attending two more ayahuasca retreats that aesthetically veered between white saviorism and criminal lunacy — I traveled to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, to attend a mushroom retreat and saw firsthand how badly a psychedelic retreat could go off the rails. Mid-week, one of the male participants was caught loudly masturbating in one of the fully occupied co-ed dormitories, not once, but twice. The retreat organizers were unprepared and fumbled their response to the incidents, which only exacerbated the tensions and further outraged a number of participants.

Making the situation even worse, the retreat organizer disappeared for long stretches of time throughout the week. He would often reappear withdrawn and disoriented, and I eventually found out that he was macrodosing mushrooms in the double-digit-gram range every day. Apparently, he felt the need to attend to his personal process, rather than participate in the group retreat. That was outrageous: As any self-respecting psychedelic facilitator would know, a retreat organizer is responsible for the participants' safety, security, and for providing a meaningful experience for their group. He should be doing the work of a skilled trip sitter — not tripping himself!

Fed up with these experiences, I swore off psychedelic tourism retreats entirely. Instead, I decided to focus on solo tripping and attending festivals with friends. 

Of course, I’m hardly the only one to notice that the psychedelic tourism industry has its fair share of problems. In the worst cases, participants have reportedly been harmed — and even died — at retreat centers in multiple countries. Since regulation of the retreats is often lax or ambiguous, the barrier to entry remains strikingly low, allowing virtually anyone to open a center and begin administering potent combinations of psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT and iboga with little meaningful oversight or accountability. 

While the psychedelic retreat ecosystem is varied in breadth, many retreat centers market their services to the ultra-wealthy and celebrity classes. On a small island in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the world’s first legal luxury DMTx immersion experience is set to open in March 2026 under the name Eleusis. In the Mexican border city of Tijuana, NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre recently joined UFC superstar Conor McGregor in undergoing ibogaine treatment at the beachfront Ambio Life Sciences Center. Many retreats are held in parts of the Global South, where locals don’t have the same economic and social privileges as resort owners and attendees who fly in from overseas. Venues have included high-end resorts and other luxury settings where retreat participants are cut off from the local economy, or only get brief, superficial glimpses of local life. 

Although local staff may benefit economically from the retreats, the wealth disparities on display are hard to overlook. In one stark example, a foreign retreat owner in the Peruvian Amazon once told me point-blank that he was pulling in roughly $3,000 a day, while local staff were earning approximately $3 a day. 

So, how did I end up getting involved in co-organizing a retreat of my own? Let me explain.

The emergence of the multibillion-dollar psychedelic retreat industry has not been without growing pains. But many of the misgivings I outlined so clearly above are now being actively addressed as the industry matures and increasing international scrutiny is brought to bear on retreat operations and the teams running them. 

“Mushroom tourism has evolved quickly in the past couple of years and is still widely rooted in the ‘traditional’ space, meaning that many psychedelic retreats globally aren’t regulated by any kind of governing body,” says Santiago Ongay, mushroom industry professional and founder of Full Canopy Genetics. “We’re slowly starting to see more ‘healing centers’ licensed and regulated by the state, which means more quality control and compliance with licensing and regulatory protocols, but also comes with a much higher price tag. The trade-off for this is that a more regulated retreat industry comes with higher price tags due to all the compliance requirements, presenting a higher barrier to access. I’m interested in how the space evolves and hope that we can bridge the gap between Western medicine and traditional knowledge/use while remaining professional, ethical, and accessible to all.”

A major enhancement in the transparency and ethics of psychedelic retreats worldwide has come with the rise of psychedelic journalism and reporting. DoubleBlind has covered incidents of abuse in the space, and public forums such as Reddit publicize harms tied to specific programs and retreats.

For example, a recent study, conducted with representatives from 49 publicly advertised retreats, documents safety protocols in the field, including adverse event reporting. This type of qualitative study demonstrates an increased commitment to safety in the psychedelic retreat field. Against this backdrop of the rapidly expanding tourism market — one capable of delivering extraordinary personal experiences while channeling serious capital into local economies — I decided it was finally time for me to give psychedelic retreats another chance. In fact, I’m co-hosting my first psychedelic retreat in a bid to explore this industry from the inside out. 

The Laughter Is Medicine psychedelic retreat is scheduled for March 15-20 at Coral Cove Wellness Resort in Little Bay, Jamaica. We’ve intentionally framed it as a fun-forward “summer camp for adults,” centered on psilocybin mushroom-enhanced play rather than the heavy shadow work and solemn ceremonial aesthetics that typically define the psychedelic retreat field. 

To be clear, ceremonial and shadow work-oriented retreats remain invaluable for many people worldwide, particularly those without legal or financial access to that level of care in their hometowns. But my fellow retreat organizers and I see a meaningful opening for alternative approaches that center joy, levity, and play as primary elements of a well-lived life. We are not producing this model of retreat to do deep dive trauma work; we are catering to people who have already done their internal work and are ready to have some serious fun and take their relationship with mushrooms to the next level. 

“Nothing makes me happier than seeing the lights come back in people’s eyes after a deep dive with psilocybin,” says Laughter Is Medicine retreat co-host Andy Sudbrock of Sacred Path Retreats. “The cherry on top is to see the sparkle come back while having fun and enjoying the beauty of nature, things they may not have experienced in years!” 

A major reason I stopped being interested in psychedelic tourism is that I didn’t feel super comfortable in sharing deep, trauma-focused containers with groups of random people, who fly in overnight and immediately dive deep into visionary plant medicine rituals together. I experienced a lot of cult dynamics in the retreats I was a part of, and I often felt out of place as someone who thinks that fun and recreation are an integral part of psychedelic experiences. 

Traditionally, entheogens were taken in community contexts with people you lived alongside and had deep communal ties with; the modern invention of a psychedelic healing retreat is a recent phenomenon. Often, you have no idea what other energies and traumas the other people in the group are bringing into the container. 

I remember sitting in a sharing circle at one of the retreats, while people who had just met wept and shared their deepest secrets and trauma histories in a radical authenticity exercise. I would sit awkwardly and then crack a joke for my 30-second part before the group moved on to more bonding over trauma. 

With my retreat, I am taking a different approach to psychedelic tourism. I draw from my own experiences — consuming local, wild-foraged psilocybe mushrooms while trekking with mountain gorillas, swimming in crystalline pools beneath a waterfall on a low-dose of mushroom chocolate, doing mushroom-enhanced karaoke and stand-up comedy onstage with a group of close friends. Those and many other similar experiences have created amplified states of ecstasy and joy, and that has carried over into my appreciation for life and my overall well-being. In the psychedelic tourism market, where are these types of fun-centered, joie de vivre-amplifying experiences? 

Being on the backend business side of the retreat industry has been a learning curve for me. Everything I’ve done with Mycopreneur, a global platform that I founded five years ago, has been free for everyone to use: no paywalls for multimedia content, free weekly incubators for mushroom entrepreneurs, and no membership model. I believe that mushrooms and mushroom education should be accessible and affordable to all. I’ve been fortunate to have consistent sponsorships with different brands that recognize the virality and visibility of Mycopreneur media content, which has helped sustain the platform and compensate me as the sole proprietor. 

When working with a venue and partners on a retreat model, the bottom line is much different than running a media and education service — mostly because there’s a world-class private resort with operating expenses to cover. As such, putting on the “sales hat” is something that’s very foreign and new to me. There are variables to navigate, such as dealing with people canceling, accommodating different lodging and dietary requests, and managing international travel logistics. I’m fortunate to be partnered with a retreat industry veteran and to have the full support of the Coral Cove Wellness Resort team to address these considerations. If people are not able to afford this particular retreat model's price tag, there are a tremendous number of free resources and opportunities available through Mycopreneur to help them learn how to connect with mushrooms, community, and a sense of fun. 

While the psychedelic tourism industry continues to experience dramatic international growth, more niches within the broader space will emerge. Although I used to be a lot more skeptical, I feel a lot more confident now that the industry will continue to mature thanks to enhanced transparency and professionalism in step with a more regulated psychedelic industry as a whole. And if I have anything to say about it, psychedelic tourism will also include offerings that appeal to responsible, sensible adults who want to enhance their well-being and sense of joy, without having to feel like they’re undergoing a collective trauma exorcism in the company of strangers. 

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TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back to The Drop In, DoubleBlind’s newsletter serving up news, culture, and independent journalism about psychedelics straight to your inbox.

We’re kicking off today with a story about how scientists are beginning to predict the intensity of a person’s ayahuasca experience. Yes, you read that correctly. That means science can reveal where on the experiential spectrum, ranging between terror and bliss, we will land after consuming the plant brew. How is that even possible? You’ll have to read on to find out.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find pieces on religious leaders and psychedelics, healing your eco-anxiety with psychedelic therapy, and how to get your parents interested in mushrooms.

Stay grounded friends 🌳✊🏽,
Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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Your Brain Waves Might Predict the Intensity of an Ayahuasca Experience

An EEG study finds that ayahuasca produces distinct shifts in brain activity, and that baseline rhythms may help forecast how strongly people respond.

Ayahuasca, the Indigenous plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest, is known to produce potent psychedelic experiences. For some, these experiences can be extremely overwhelming physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. But why is it that some people barely trip, while others see god, demons, Gaia, or all of the above? Researchers say the answer to that question is (at least partly) held in a person’s resting brain waves.

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology tracked electrical brain activity before study participants consumed ayahuasca and after the psychoactive constituents of the brew (primarily DMT) kicked in. The findings suggest that ayahuasca reshapes neural rhythms in real time and that baseline brain patterns may help forecast emotional and bodily reactions.

Ayahuasca and other forms of DMT are psychedelic research darlings and are currently being studied as possible treatments for severe depression. But because the brew — a mixture of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis — can dramatically alter perception, clinicians are eager to understand exactly how it works biologically and whether patient responses can be anticipated in advance.

To investigate, researchers led by Natan Silva-Costa and Jéssica Andrade Pessoa at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte recruited 50 healthy adults who had never consumed ayahuasca before. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the active brew or a carefully engineered placebo designed to mimic its color, taste, and mild physical effects.

The team used electroencephalography, or EEG, to measure brain wave activity. Volunteers rested in a dim hospital room, listening to a standardized playlist of instrumental and soft-vocal music, PsyPost reports. Researchers recorded five minutes of baseline brain activity prior to participants consuming their respective teas, and then repeated the recordings two and four hours later.

The contrast between groups was blatant. Compared to the placebo group, those who consumed ayahuasca reported strong visual distortions, emotional intensity, and a pronounced sense of transcending time and space. Many also described feelings of unity and encounters with what they perceived as a “sacred presence.”

Participants’ thinking patterns shifted, too. Instead of day-to-day rumination, spontaneous thoughts became highly visual and personally meaningful. The authors characterized this mental state as “chaotic and meaningful mind-wandering,” according to PsyPost.

Those effects tracked closely with noticeable brain changes. The researchers observed a widespread drop in alpha waves, which are typically associated with relaxed wakefulness, across the brain. Because alpha activity typically helps suppress visual imagery during relaxed states, the decrease may explain the vivid internal visuals — or, “eyelid movies” — the study participants described.

At the same time, the team detected increases in slow delta waves near the front of the brain. Delta waves are linked to deep, inward processing. They also observed elevated theta activity, often associated with memory, imagination, and dream-like states. There was also higher beta activity, a faster rhythm tied to active thinking and alertness. One particularly notable finding involved theta rhythms: Lower theta activity was associated with stronger feelings of mystical unity and profound thought, according to the study’s authors.

Perhaps most clinically relevant is that participants’ baseline brain activity predicted parts of their later experience. Individuals who started with lower theta activity reported stronger interoception, meaning greater awareness of internal bodily sensations such as heartbeat and breathing. Meanwhile, lower baseline beta activity was linked to more positive emotional responses during the session.

The researchers point out that the tightly controlled hospital environment in which the study occurred differs from traditional ceremonial settings and that the powerful subjective effects of ayahuasca made full blinding difficult to achieve in the study. The issue, which is often described in psychedelic research as “functional unblinding,” remains one of the biggest issues and challenges with placebo-controlled psychedelic studies. The researchers also noted that some participants became sleepy, particularly in the placebo group, and that one key questionnaire was administered two days post-experience, which may have affected recall.

Even so, the findings point toward a potentially practical future tool for psychedelic research. If simple EEG scans can reliably forecast who is likely to have intense emotional or bodily responses to ayahuasca, clinicians could better tailor preparation and monitoring in psychedelic therapy.

Sneak Peek

& More Must-Reads

• A lifelong obsession with posters, Gonzo lore, and mind-bending canvases has turned Brian Chambers into one of psychedelic art’s most relentless champions. Read more here.

• An Episcopal priest’s fall from the pulpit over psilocybin use ignites a deeper clash between organized religion and the psychedelic revival. Read more here.

• Some adult children are opening careful, curiosity-led conversations with their parents about psilocybin, hoping to share the medicine’s emotional and existential benefits without pressure to partake. Read more here.

• As eco-anxiety surges worldwide, researchers and therapists are probing whether psychedelic therapy can help people metabolize the emotional weight of a warming planet. Read more.

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Around the Web

• DoubleBlind co-founder Shelby Hartman interviewed Michael Pollan about his mushroom-sparked quest to decode consciousness and why he believes our inner lives are increasingly under siege. Read more from the LA Times.

• DoubleBlind’s Editor-in-Chief, Mary Carreon, wrote cannabis strain recommendations for each of the 12 astro signs for the month of March. You can read it on Leafly.

• DoubleBlind co-founder Shelby Hartman interviewed Michael Pollan about his new consciousness book and the thorny questions about mind, meaning, and attention now driving his work. Read more from Newsweek. 

• In a sweeping investigation, SFGATE traces the elusive legend of Big Sur Holy Weed—and the regulatory squeeze that could erase California’s most storied cannabis genetics for good. Read more.

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Brian Chambers Is a Collector of Magicians

DoubleBlind caught up with Brian Chambers, founder of the Chambers Project and The Psychedelics Arts and Culture Trust, to learn about how he amassed one of the largest collections of psychedelic art in the world.

By Patrick Maravelias

The Chambers Project is quietly tucked in an unassuming warehouse on Main Street in Grass Valley, California. If you passed it in the daytime, you might not look twice. But when you pass it on an event night — when colorful rays of sacred geometric patterns wash across the walls and illuminate the building as if it were the epicenter of the Northern Lights — you can feel the presence of magic inside.

Brian Chambers is the founder of the Chambers Project and a manic collector of many things since childhood. It started when he was young with Smurf memorabilia, then baseball cards, comic books, and concert posters. But nothing has taken hold quite like psychedelic art. He’s been collecting it since the ‘90s and has been putting on shows since roughly 2009. The Chambers Project is just the latest in a near-lifelong series of endeavors he has engaged in to showcase, bolster, and orchestrate the creation of psychedelic artworks so as to preserve its history and prove to the modern art world that this particular means of expression is just as legitimate as anything on display in the MOMA.

“Well, I guess I've kind of been a collector my entire life,” Chambers told DoubleBlind in an interview. “Once I got into high school and started going to concerts, [I started collecting] concert posters. And then once I discovered the psychedelic side of life, my interest shifted to psychedelic art. I read ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ in ‘95 as a Sophomore. That had a serious, profound effect on me and the way I was living at the time.”

Profound is an understatement, because not only did that initial read of “Fear and Loathing” spark Chamber’s interest in psychedelic art, it resulted in one of the most prolific collections of Ralph Steadman art and Hunter S. Thompson momentos on display anywhere in the world (other than Owl Farm, Thompson’s historic home in Woody Creek, Colorado, which is now a museum of sorts). In 2015, Chambers teamed up with Steadman to make giant bronze statues of the vintage Dr. Gonzo character. After appearing in the press with Steadman — one of the leading figures of counterculture art, thanks to his work in “Fear and Loathing” — Chambers started getting calls from the depths of the Gonzo ether, one of which was in regard to the original RollingStone prints of the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” series from 1971.

“I immediately hung up the phone, and I called Ralph, and I was just like, ‘dude, you'll never believe what just happened. Will you please gimme your blessing to attack this shit?’” Chambers said. “I had to scrape together a million bucks and run it through the bank, and it was this whole fucking shit show. But I did it.”

Chambers also scraped together multiple pieces from the “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail” ‘72 series, and tons of relics from Hunter Thompson’s life and times, all of which are on display at the Chambers Project alongside some deeply hallucinatory artworks by Ralph Steadman that, personally, I’ve been drooling over for years.

DoubleBlind previously attended a Grateful Dead retrospective hosted at the Chambers Project and reported that Chambers was on acid (his self-professed psychedelic of choice) in his high school science class one day when his teacher pointed to an Alex Grey poster on the wall and told the class it was inspired by LSD. So began his lifelong hunt for psychedelic artwork. Of course, once you get locked into a serious psychedelic art collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. (Yes, that’s a “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” reference for those of you living under a Gonzoless rock). 

Since the late ‘90s, Chambers has worked to amass one of — if not the — world’s most comprehensive art collections by psychedelic and counterculture artists, including Ralph Steadman, Stanley Mouse, Mars-1, Roger Dean, Rick Griffin, and countless others. His fiendish hunt for psychedelic art culminated in 2009, when Chambers began commissioning live collaborations between Damon Soule, Mars-1, Oliver Vernon, David Choong Lee, Nome Edonna, Doze Green, and Alex Grey, who collectively became known as the “Furtherrr Collective.” It was around that time Chambers realized he had a thirst for putting titans of psychedelic art in the same room just to bear witness to what unfolds.

“When you get a bunch of magicians together in one room, magic inevitably happens,” Chambers said. “I just love getting talented people together in an atmosphere where it allows others to experience the creative process. I like to make world-class art accessible and allow people to meet these global superstars and to ask them questions and to watch them work and to learn from them.”

The Chambers Project began in Nevada City in 2020, just before COVID happened, in a much smaller space than it occupies today in Grass Valley. Chambers said that after the lockdowns ended, he decided to go full force and dedicate his painstakingly developed network of artists, money, and time to giving psychedelic art a proper home.

“I went from an 800 square foot gallery to an 8,000 square foot gallery and just decided that I was fully committed to my local area and community, and that I was just gonna double down,” Chambers said.  And I was just gonna do shit on such a high level that people would travel to see it.”

Needless to say, it worked. Grass Valley has become something of a mecca for artists, weed growers, and hippies over the years (I like to joke that when cannabis went legal, everyone in Humboldt County packed up and moved to Grass Valley), and the Chambers Project has certainly added to the draw for denizens of counterculture, lovers of substances, and servants of psychedelia. Their events attract crowds from all over the world. Just at the Grateful Dead 60-year retrospective, Chambers said they had attendees hailing from five continents (that he knew of).

When you enter the gallery, there’s no question why crowds flock to the space for events. Chambers has spent millions of dollars on his collection, and it shows in some of the meticulously curated works on display. When it comes to his personal taste in art, Chambers is far more thoughtful than your typical acid head who gets transfixed at the mere sight of a changing traffic light.

“I kind of like it looser, non-symmetrical and non-representational. I like to wonder what it is that I'm looking at,” Chambers said. “Clearly, trying to represent a certain thought or experience is less interesting to me than these more abstract sci-fi sort of landscapy things that these guys create. You never get bored of looking at them.”

Chambers is truly using all his resources and skills to hold psychedelic art right up to the faces of the traditional art world as if to say, fuck you, we’re here to stay. Having collected psychedelic art for 30 years is a true testament to that, as well as his current work with the Psychedelic Arts and Culture Trust (PACT)

PACT is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded by Chambers in late 2023 with a stated mission of honoring the past, celebrating the present, and shaping the future. PACT offers regular art exhibitions through the Chambers Project gallery, including most recently a 60-year Grateful Dead retrospective. They offer mentorships for aspiring psychedelic artists, workshops to hone artistic crafts like glass blowing and painting, panel discussions, lectures, and anything else to bring the Grass Valley community and beyond together to get creative and make more magic. 

“I wanted to really show what was possible and what's most interesting to me, and the direction that I would like to go in the future. And that's curating major retrospectives with a serious historical context behind them,” Chambers said. “We're stating it clearly. The psychedelic art movement is happening right now.”

Historically, psychedelic art has been marginalized and scoffed at by the traditional art world. But thanks in part to the work of Brian Chambers and the Chambers Project, the works of these legends are gaining more traction and respect in circles that previously scorned their very existence. This can likely also be attributed to the public shift in approval toward the use of psychedelic substances. Of course, on both fronts, there’s much more work still to be done.

“There's never been a more exciting moment in the history of psychedelic art,” Chambers said.  “It's happening right now, and as psychedelics shift and the public's perception of them moves, so too will the winds by which people want to see and experience psychedelic art.”

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Were There Psychoactive Plants in the Bible?

Psychoactive plants in the Bible may seem few and far between, but the Holy text is ripe with botanical medicines, ceremonial incense, and purifying extracts.

By Anna Wilcox

Human civilization is impossible without plants. Not only are plants vital for food, shelter, and warmth, but their influence in trade, medicine, and spiritual practice predates the advent of society. Indeed, the need to control plants is what led to one of the greatest human inventions of all time—agriculture. Plants and civilization are so intimately connected that some scholars believe that the seeds of modern religion come from prehistoric relationships with psychoactive and medicinal plants. Indeed, every major spiritual text reserves some special plants for divine purposes, including the Holy Bible. 

Plants in the Bible 

Identifying the plants mentioned in the Bible is no easy task. Biblical scholars recognize up to 206 distinct plants in the Bible, with overarching agreement on 96 total plants. But, differences in translations, lost botanical history, evolving language, and changing climates make identifying particular plants challenging and a topic of much debate. Many translations of the Bible, for example, were not made directly from the Hebrew and Aramaic texts. 

As such, some of the older translations, such as the popular King James translation, include passing references to plants that were not native to the ancient Holy Lands. Rather, these plants were perhaps more familiar to European readers. Additionally, the plants named in the Bible may feature different names from the same modern-day plants, making it difficult to figure out which plants the Holy book specifically references. 

Psychoactive Plants in the Bible 

Psychoactive plants come in more shapes, sizes, and varieties than you might expect. Not all plants produce the transformative visions that many come to expect from traditional hallucinogens. Hallucinogens, in fact, represent only a small portion of psychoactive plants. Others, like the coffee plant, act as stimulants. Some, like kava, inspire restful slumber. Others, like poppy, act as narcotics. 

The psychological effects of most plants are subtle—a fact especially true about the medicinal plants mentioned in the Bible. The dawn of the biblical era represented a departure from the previous polytheistic traditions of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. These cultures more often blended herbal remedies with shamanistic “magic”, a practice that was often viewed negatively in the Old Testament. 

Read: Beyond Mushrooms: The Mysterious, Magical World of African Plant Medicine

Followers of the Old Testament put faith in God as the divine healer, and disease—according to some scholars— was viewed as God’s will rather than ailments uniquely curable by man or by the plants themselves. As such, the majority of plants that are mentioned in the Bible are mentioned only in passing, not as part of a spiritual or healing practice. When specific healing or spiritual plants are mentioned, they are often tied to the Lord’s directive—such as in Exodus 30 when the Lord gives the proper recipe for anointing oil. 

Still, even amidst this transition, some plants retained a special place in the new biblical society. In some cases, certain essential oils may have unintentionally inspired the optimal mood for worship. In others, a plant may not have been used expressly for its psychoactive properties but maintained some mystical relevance. In others still, plant oils may have been used to facilitate divine healing. Here are a few examples: 

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Grapes

Grapes may not be psychoactive in and of themselves, but they produce one of the most popular intoxicating brews on the planet: wine. Wine is featured predominantly throughout the bible as well as in other ancient Babylonian texts. Its uses were many: medicine, food, intoxicant, commerce, ceremony, among other things. Wine was also was one of the most important economic crops in the biblical era of the Old Testament. 

In medical and spiritual practice, wine may not have been used alone. Archeological excavations in Israel upturned biblical-era wine jugs laced with residues of juniper, cinnamon, mint, cedar, Cyprus, and many other plants. Needless to say, wine and its various preparations were the most prominent and esteemed psychoactive concoctions in biblical history. Take this passage from the Talmud as an example: “It is only where there is no wine that drugs are necessary.” (Mas. Baba Bathra 58b) 

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) 

Mandrake is a plant with long-held mythology in cultures around the world. The plant is most famous for its human-like roots, but it’s also a powerful hallucinogen, sedative, and potentially deadly poison. Ingesting too much mandrake can cause death by asphyxiation, but it will also cause blurred vision, stumbling, vomiting, hyperactivity, and hallucinations. In Genesis 30, Rebecca, Jacob’s wife, uses mandrake root to address infertility. Although, she likely didn’t eat the plant.

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)

Wormwood is an ingredient once used to make the alcoholic drink absinthe, which is long associated with hallucinogenic properties. Although, the source of this hallucinogenic quality is highly debated. Most recently, analysis of old bottles of absinthe from 19th century Europe show that the drink contains 140-proof alcohol, which is substantially stronger than the 100-proof found in gins, vodkas, and whiskeys. 

The plant also produces a unique chemical compound called thujone. In small doses, thujone is rumored to inspire high spirits and a good mood. But, more generally, thujone is considered a poison. In large doses, it can cause potentially life-threatening seizures. In the bible, the bitter herb is most often referred to as a poison, like in the passage from Jeremiah 9:15,  “I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.” Other passages that mention wormwood include Proverbs 5:4 and Revelation 8:11.

Juniper (Juniperus)

Like wormwood, juniper also produces thujone, although not as much as wormwood or salvia, the popular modern-day hallucinogen. Berries from the juniper plant are historically used to make alcohol and still are today. Juniper is also used in some shamanic traditions, particularly by the Kalash culture in Pakistan. According to scholar and psychedelic historian Alan Piper, Kalash shamen’s burned juniper and ate juniper foliage as a part of spiritual ritual. 

In the Bible, juniper is not eaten but is burned intentionally for its warmth. In the Old Testament, the Juniper tree is also referenced as a place of divine visitation. In Kings 19:5, Elijah sleeps under a Juniper tree when he is visited by an angel who relieves him of starvation. Depending on the translation, juniper is mentioned again in Isaiah 55:13. The tree, along with myrtle, is planted as an everlasting symbol of devotion to God. 

Manna 

Manna of the most difficult plant foods to identify in the Bible. In biblical texts, manna is referred to early in the Old Testament as a resin or residue from bread or grain. Numbers 11:7, for example, describes extracted manna as “like coriander seed and looked like resin.” Exodus 16:14-16, however, describes manna a little differently. In Exodus, manna is a frost-like substance developed after the dew evaporated: 

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

Read: What Does ‘Entheogen’ Actually Mean?

After seeing this “small round thing,” Moses explains to the Children of Israel, “And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”

Some modern scholars, primarily Danny Nemu, postulate that the holy reverence given to “manna” may come from the ergot fungus. The ergot fungus is a natural source of ergotamine, which scientist Albert Hoffman used to synthesize the powerful hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). However, this view is not widely accepted among biblical scholars.

Frankincense (Boswellia sacra)

Frankincense is a beloved aromatic oil derived from the sap of the Boswellia sacra tree. The dried sap produces a yellow resin that’s home to a plethora of aromatic compounds. In the New Testament, this fragrant oil was Mary’s first gift from the three wise men. In later studies, researchers revealed that frankincense contains a compound called incensole acetate which, they articulate, may promote a euphoric experience during worship and boast antidepressant qualities. But, you don’t have to ingest frankincense to experience these qualities, it’s fragrance alone may be enough to inspire a mild psychotropic effect. 

Myrrh (Commiphora)

Myrrh is an essential oil of the flowering Commiphora trees. Myrrh is mentioned several times in the Old and New Testaments alike. Perhaps most famously, myrrh was the second gift given to infant Jesus by the three wise men—gifts that were as good as gold at the time. Recent scientific analysis reveals why; myrrh contains aromatic molecules that may have pain-relieving effects. According to rodent research from the University of Florence, chemical compounds in myrrh may act on opioid receptors, which influence the body’s sensitivity to pain.  

Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)

In the New Testament, Jesus refused a mixture of “wine and gall” during the crucifixion. Here’s where things get tricky; “gall” may refer to different plants or substances depending on the translation and context. In this case, some Bible scholars believe that “gall” refers to the poppy plant. Poppies are perhaps the most famous narcotic plants on the planet; they’re the source of opium, after all. In this case, some scholars interpret that Jesus was offered a mixture of sour wine and poppy as a sleep aid and pain reliever. But, this interpretation is up for debate. 

Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi) 

Spikenard, also called muskroot or nard, is one of the rare medicinal plants explicitly mentioned in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. Like many other biblical plants, however, muskroot is used as a fragrance and ceremonial incense, rather than ingested. As such, the active effects of the plant were delivered through inhalation and topical oils, instead of oral use. For example, in Mark 14:3, a woman anoints the head of Jesus with nard oil before he visits the home of Simon the Leper, perhaps to protect Jesus from the disease. In John 12:3, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with the same oil.  

Spikenard is a relative of the valerian root, which is a common homeopathic remedy for anxiety and stress. Spikenard is less studied than valerian root, but early rodent experiments suggest that it may boast some of the same anti-anxiety effects. Other early experiments discovered anti-inflammatory and antibacterial potential as well. A worthy biblical medicine, indeed. 

Acacia (Acacia tortilis, Acacia lactea)

Acacia and the famous ayahuasca may have something in common: DMT. In the 1990s, scientists discovered that several species of acacia trees produce the enthenogenic alkaloid, dimethyltryptamine. This discovery inspired at least one biblical scholar to radically rethink common interpretations of the Old Testament. Benny Shanon, a professor of psychology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, hypothesizes that the hallucinogenic properties of the acacia tree, along with another regional plant, Syrian Rue, may have played a part in the story of Moses and the burning bush.

Cannabis 

Cannabis is perhaps one of the more debatable plants that appears in the Old and New Testaments. The debate comes from the translation of one hyphenated Aramaic word: kaneh-bosm. Kaneh-bosm first appears in Exodus 30:23 when the Lord instructs Moses on how to make anointing oil for an incense altar, an altar dedicated to the Lord alone. The Lord instructs Moses to make the altar out of acacia wood, and anoint the altar with an oil containing myrrh, kaneh bosm, cinnamon, and other spices. Then, the Lord then gives of a holy incense that contains a variety of plants, including frankincense and galbanum.  

The majority of scholars interpret “kaneh-bosm” to be “calamus,” but this translation is debated. In 1936 Sula Benet, a Polish etymologist, postulated that “cannabis” may be a more accurate translation. Cannabis, of course, is one of the most popular psychoactive plants in the world. It’s also one of the oldest agricultural crops, with a history of human use dating back 10,000 years. To this day, however, Benet’s translation hasn’t garnered mainstream popularity.  

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Good morning and welcome back to the Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about a new reality TV dating show for music festival freaks called Wooking For Love. Yes, you read that correctly.

The show was conceived out of a joke that went viral on TikTok and has now basically grown into a TikTok with teeth and arms and has become an IRL phenomenon…and potentially even a respective dating app? Needless to say, the idea has proven to have legs, and Denver’s wook community is about to get its moment in the sun. You can find that story immediately below!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find stories on Iboga and OCD, do psychedelics need therapy to be truly healing, and releasing Catholic guilt.

See you on the other side🌕,
Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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Wooking for Love Is Getting Ready to Turn Denver’s Festival Scene Into a Dating Show

Producer LaRue Allegretto’s reality dating experiment is moving forward after a viral TikTok and a wave of casting interest.

Denver’s music festival scene has always been primed for reality TV. The backbone of the culture is a music-obsessed community comprised of beautiful weirdos, a lot of free-flowing, dreadlocked love, and enough group costume concepts to make Halloween archaic, niche, and boring. And, soon, there’s going to be a new reality show aimed at capturing the essence of this colorful rave world. It’s called "Wooking for Love," a dating show dreamed up by LaRue Allegretto. And it all started as a viral TikTok video.

“We saw somebody post who was griping about their romantic woes. And I said, ‘We should get these wooks on their own reality dating show and call it Wooking for Love,’” Allegretto tells DoubleBlind in a phone interview. “From that moment, it just slept in my brain like a sleeper cell.”

As the idea for the show ricocheted across TikTok, it gained wildfire momentum. Production became real, as did funding and staff. “Before I knew it, I had a team together,” says Allegretto. “I now have a social media manager, I have a casting director, I have three producers from Love Island, Jersey Shore, and Love is Blind. I have an entire production team.”

The team has received hundreds of online submissions, and they even held an in-person audition event in Denver on Valentine’s Day. “We have 1100 applications,” says Allegretto of the submissions the show had received ahead of the IRL auditions. “And that is from the entirety of North America. We both have Canada and Mexico wrapped in that as well.”

But before getting too deep into how the show will be structured, we must address the most pressing question: What the hell is a “wook?” “Our umbrella, operational definition of wook as it relates to our series, is somebody who lives and breathes the music festival scene,” says Allegretto, who coined the show’s slogan: “Finding Your Forever Groundscore.” “And that can be anybody from the most archetypal, dusty wook, asking to borrow everything at your camp that you can think of, to like somebody who is a white collar worker from Monday to Friday, and like, absolutely goes bananas on the weekend. We all know someone like that.”

Back to the show’s structure. Allegretto described it as a hybrid of “Love Island” and “Survivor”- style challenges, with wink-wink homages to psychedelics baked in. “It’s gonna be really cheeky and irreverent,” says Allegretto. “And we’re gonna make fun of ourselves as well as, like, you know, the format that we're doing.”

Rooster Magazine, which partnered with the Valentine’s Day audition event, framed the show as a response to "Love Is Blind" season nine, which was set in Denver. The overwhelming consensus was that the show in accurately portrayed the Mile High City’s culture and people. Allegretto said "Wooking for Love" will strike a different, and far more accurate, tone. “The circumstances will be somewhat satirical in their nature, a bit meta from time to time, but we plan on keeping most of the contestant interactions fully authentic.”

If the whole thing sounds like a meme that’s grown hair, teeth, and legs, that’s kind of the point. And it speaks to the power that the internet has on culture. "Wooking for Love" will air in the second half of 2026, which is a fast turnaround considering the idea was forged in Dec. 2025. Allegretto says fully committing to the bit is the reason the project has come as far as it has.

“Commit to the bit,” says Allegretto. “People keep playing along with my bit, which is, we’re doing the show, and the commitment to it is becoming panoptical in my community, where we’re all committed to it so hard."

Sneak Peek

& More Must-Reads

• As AI hallucinations and self-published sludge flood the web, separating real mushroom science from dangerous fiction is getting harder…and it has never been more urgent. Read more here.

• For a growing number of people unpacking religious trauma, psychedelic mushrooms are becoming an unlikely tool for confronting and softening the long shadow of Catholic guilt. Read more here.

• As psychedelics edge toward the medical mainstream, researchers and clinicians are split on a core question: Can the drugs drive lasting healing on their own, or does real change still hinge on therapy? Read more here.

• After years trapped in OCD’s relentless feedback loop, one writer turns to iboga in search of relief—and a different relationship to fear itself. Read more here.

• After years trapped in OCD’s relentless feedback loop, one writer turns to iboga in search of relief—and a different relationship to fear itself. Read more here.

DoubleBlind Digs

• ATTEND: Michael Pollan has announced a tour to promote his latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Check out his tour dates here.

• LEARN: Join a seminar hosted by the Integration Circle and Psychedelics Today, which will explore new therapeutic and conceptual paths of treating addiction, eating disorders, loss and grief, spiritual emergencies, and creativity. Learn more here.

• SPEAK: The Urban Indigenous Collective invites submissions from speakers, facilitators, wellness practitioners, and artist educators, whose work is grounded in indigenous practices and directly addresses the ongoing MMIWG2ST+ crisis. Learn more here.

• JOB OPP: InnerMost is hiring therapists-in-training and a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Manhattan as the clinic builds out its team for the next wave of psychedelic-assisted care. Lean more.

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Around the Web

• For the LA Times, DoubleBlind co-founder Shelby Hartman tests L.A.’s buzzy “dry float” trend to see whether weightless relaxation can really deliver without the soak. Read more.

• DoubleBlind’s Editor-in-Chief, Mary Carreon, is writing astrology horoscopes and cannabis pairings for each sign for Leafly, one of the last standing weed publications. You can read February’s wild Mercury retrograde, Saturn/Neptune conjunction horoscopes, and how to cope with the wild energy here.

• LSD is making a pharma comeback for the treatment of general anxiety, autism, and major depression. Read more here.

• In a sweeping investigation, SFGATE traces the elusive legend of Big Sur Holy Weed—and the regulatory squeeze that could erase California’s most storied cannabis genetics for good. Read more.

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What Psychedelic Therapy Can Offer the Climate-Anxious Mind

Climate grief is rising fast, and psychedelic therapy may be one way to face it without looking away.

By Leonie Staas

Have you ever found yourself in awe of a breathtaking landscape — be it a stunning valley view in the mountains or waves majestically slamming against oceanic boulders — but then are instantly fraught by a growing knot in your chest at the thought of this natural beauty being lost? Have you ever felt like you’d better not think about the future, because otherwise, the fear (for you or your children) might eat you up? Has general unease, or that sense that something is wrong in the world, ever oozed into your dreams?

If you can relate, you have indeed experienced eco-anxiety, or a chronic, intense fear of environmental doom and emotional distress regarding climate change and ecological crises. For me, this brand of anxiety showed up as a confusing amalgamation of fear, grief, anger, and guilt. I thought choosing an “impact” career in climate would help ease some of this existential concern, but during the years I advised governments on a sustainable energy transition, my sense of inefficacy and hopelessness only increased. Year after year, I witnessed emissions projections inch higher and higher, whilst the world continued to break heat records and global politics spiralled into aggression, creating an atmosphere of existential fear. 

I felt powerless yet responsible, and angry at the mystical forces governing reality for having placed me on Earth at this time. A tireless sense of urgency was draining the joy from my life. It was a new type of fear, not only for my own future but for my way of life and that of generations to come; a grief not only for my dreams of a stable and happy future, but for that of non-human species and nature as a whole. I didn’t know how to name or recognize the emotions associated with this constant sense of impending doom, or how to engage with our culture that encourages avoidance, because it made me feel alone in these heavy, terrifying feelings. But, as it turns out, a lot of people are feeling exactly the way I do.

The emotional impacts of the climate crisis are not well-understood yet, but institutions such as the Climate Mental Health Network (CMHN) are working to change that. This is no easy undertaking, considering “eco-anxiety” often goes unrecognized, showing up as hopelessness or disengagement. Because eco-anxiety often reflects a complex emotional response to environmental change, and can feel removed from daily life, many people struggle to recognize and name what they are experiencing. It does not always look like climate distress. Someone might feel grief at the realization that distant landscapes are disappearing and their child’s world may look nothing like ours, while someone else may worry about job security, national stability, or community safety. In reality, these concerns are often deeply intertwined with environmental change. 

Psychologists understand climate change as a “threat multiplier,” in which resource scarcity, social inequality, and political instability spiral and amplify one another. Our collective anxieties are therefore woven into the fabric of planetary health, reflecting a shared existential response to life amid a cascading multicrisis. But recognized or not, there is suffering, and it demands our attention.

According to a major 2021 global study surveying 10,000 young people, 75% said they were scared of the future. In some countries, including the Philippines, that number rose as high as 92 percent. Nearly half of the participants reported that climate worries were already affecting their daily functioning. National surveys conducted since confirm that the magnitude of the problem has reached epidemic scale.

As eco-anxiety began tipping me into burnout, I sought help in traditional psychotherapy. And while teaching me literacy about my emotions, the approach of pushing me towards a “realization” that my anxieties were unfounded did not help ease my dread. The climate catastrophe is happening, and for the rest of my life, it will only get worse. How could I — how could any of us — hold suffering of such proportions? This is where psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and later Ayahuasca helped me. 

The power of plant medicine and psychedelics to bring about transformative relief to existential fears is one of the best-documented properties of the psychedelic experience. For example, 80% of terminally ill patients in clinical trials felt relief from their anxiety and depression after a psychedelic journey. Could the same drugs that ease the fear of one’s own death also help people mourn the slow unraveling of species, landscapes, and the world as we know it?

In the expanded consciousness that mushrooms and LSD opened for me, I found myself finally able to face my feelings — all of them. The despair that moved through my body was so deep I thought it would physically break my heart. But it didn’t. Instead, my heart became wider; spacious enough to hold the enormity of what is happening to the planet in all its different facets. I emerged from the experience with a sense of I can handle this. If we trust our own depth, our capacity to feel, we find that in fact, we can bear the unbearable. 

The key lies in our relationship to time, and to the future we constantly anticipate. When I finally gave psychedelics a chance, they showed me what had been buried under decades of “saving my future”: the abundance available in the present moment. Isabel Santis, PhD, an eco-psychologist and psychedelic coach whose dissertation research explored the healing potential of psychedelics for ecological distress, explained to me why this grounding is a life-changer. 

“A lot of fear and grief today is anticipatory,” Santis says. “People suffer in advance of what’s coming.” While eco-anxiety remained part of the study participants’ lives even after consuming psychedelics, they reported a significant change in the quality of that experience: more equanimity, less acute distress and overwhelm, and a greater desire to enjoy life. 

This deeply resonates with my experience. In the past, I couldn’t even look at a tree without seeing it burn to death. My attempts to turn my catastrophic thoughts into an appreciation of the present moment remained just mental acrobatics. It was psychedelics that made me capable of actually feeling gratitude. 

When the frightened chatter of our minds is silenced and being alive becomes an embodied experience, it allows appreciation to arise. Andrea Siclari, a cancer patient who says LSD helped him recover his love for life, told the European Parliament: “I am alive now. And that’s all that matters.” Without being grounded in the present, we struggle relentlessly to stop a world from changing, forgetting how to enjoy it.

Psychedelics can help us relearn how to be present, particularly in a world where distraction has become the coping mechanism du jour. They equip us with the spaciousness and emotional bandwidth required to engage again. I spoke to Anya Kamenetz, a writer and mentor for navigating climate emotions. She co-created the climate emotions wheel and has long been vocal about acknowledging the positive feelings that these times can evoke in us, as long as we engage with the difficult ones. “It’s not only possible,” she says, “but quite probable that when you engage with the crisis, you will feel joy, gratitude, hope, inspiration, empathy, and many other positive feelings.” This is essential to counter the spread of disengagement. 

Joanna Macy, one of the greatest leaders in the Deep Ecology movement, agrees. "The love and the pain for this world are two sides of the same coin,” she says. “When we unblock one, we unblock the other." 

By (re)connecting to awe and wonder for life, psychedelics can open the door to genuine love for other humans and the rest of the living world, including those who are not alive yet. They can show us our inherent connection to everything alive, offering alternative stories as to who we really are. In other words, when the anxieties around self-interest and self-preservation that normally cloud our vision temporarily quiet down, we can finally see the consciousness all around us, the shared fears and longings, and feel our interdependent nature. 

“Once you allow [the consciousness all around us] in, it brings you into a realization that you are vastly more than a separate person, that you’re a doorway into a much vaster identity, and you can count on that identity to work through you,” Joanna Macy says. Our lives become interwoven with an ongoing mystical story much larger than ourselves.

When the world feels like it’s dying, the long chain of causes that led to this moment becomes painfully clear. LSD in particular revealed to me the mechanisms of my own mind, and I saw that each of my decisions, even each of my thoughts, is the product of my past. And my past is the product of my circumstances, or in other words, the rest of the world. When each individual's life path is linked to all others, the distinction between right and wrong breaks down. We are all products of our environments. This realization opens the door to compassion and reconciliation — both urgently needed in the years to come — as well as to acceptance. Maybe, at a level of magnification much beyond us, everything is right just as it is. 

In Isabel Santis’ study, participants shared this change in perspective, including greater acceptance of climate change. Nonetheless, there was no decrease in engagement. Like me, most people who were previously paralyzed by the climate crisis wanted to align their lives and work around their value systems and take positive actions. A release of control doesn’t mean we lean back in apathy. Taking fear, guilt, and righteous anger out of the equation not only made me a more joyful and resourced human being, but it also made me more passionately engaged in the world than ever before. 

“When you take away the denial, you’re left with what you really care about,” Kamenetz tells DoubleBlind. “That’s a great place to move forward into acting in concert with your values. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know if it’s going to get better, but I know how I want to show up.” 

The step from insight to action is essential for lasting healing. Psychedelics are not a panacea. They can provide an experience of interconnection, but to translate into real change, they need to be paired with a framework that centers our individual agency to step into service for our world. 

This framework, for me, was Joanna Macy’s idea of “Active Hope.” It guides people through a profound shift of perspective and engagement, approaching the multicrisis as a “Great Turning” that holds unprecedented pain, but also immense opportunity. Isabel Santis also uses “Active Hope” when working with her study participants or clients: “It’s about not expecting things to work out but creating conditions that will allow the emergence of what you want,” Santis explains. Hope like this becomes possible even in times of collapse, because it isn’t based on outcomes; it is based on input. It is meaning-based. Action-oriented integration is what turns a temporary experience of relief into lasting change for both person and planet. Because the two are inseparable. 

In recent years, new organizations have emerged that understand this principle, such as PSYCA (Psychedelics for Climate Action), which creates dialogue, community, and opportunities for action to shift fear to empowerment. "Turning towards your emotions informs us about where to invest ourselves," Marissa Feinberg, PSYCHA’s founder, says. “Feeling concerned about the state of the world has always been something that I turned into motivation to do something.” 

Psychedelic experiences intentionally tailored to address climate emotions remain largely unavailable. When I realized their potential to address this issue, I found myself stranded, exploring it alone. There is increasing awareness of the intersectionality of our world’s challenges with climate change, and eco-psychology is on the rise. So is access to psychedelics. But despite the huge potential for synergy between the two, very few healers in the mental health space have made the crossover. A new path seems to be opening up to support our mental healing at this time, one that combines the power of psychedelics to provide direct experience of interconnectedness with frameworks for meaning-making grounded in eco-psychology and deep ecology. Psychedelic experience has impacted me so deeply that I left my profession with a new mission: making such treatment more available. 

A psychedelic healing approach differs by miles from the type of therapy I received when I was in need. It’s not about “fixing” our issues, but about learning to live with them and turn them into meaning, because the climate crisis is here to stay. Most importantly, it’s not treating climate emotions, or “eco-anxiety,” as a pathology, and it doesn't focus on individual coping mechanisms as if our wellbeing were isolated from that of the world. The ecosystem of which we are an inseparable part is suffering, and feeling the pain of that is not a problem, but a healthy emotional response. 

“It is appropriate and normal to have deep and strong feelings about what's happening to the world,” says Kamenetz. The very term “eco-anxiety” is therefore wrongly pathologizing a sign of attachment to life and the living world, pointing to what's at the root of our crisis: our illusion of separateness. And while one-on-one or even solo journeys can bring us relief, psychedelics will help us navigate our climate emotions best when applied in communal modalities that honor our connection. 

Because ultimately, what needs to happen is this: Coming together and remembering that humans and the planet are not separate. And whether by evolutionary design or lucky coincidence, psychedelics are here to help.

*Like what you read? Follow Leonie’s writing on Substack.

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Can Psychedelics Help Us Face Our Fear of Death?

There are no treatments available to help people cope with dying. Are psychedelics the answer?

By Abbie Rosen

For all its inevitability, death in our society is still dreaded and feared — an unspeakable adversary to be fought at all costs. But as baby boomers begin to cross the threshold into old age, they are increasingly inclined to reject those assumptions. And just as consciousness-expanding drugs once helped boomers envision a radical new culture of youth, they may now light the way to a more expansive and gracious approach to the end of life. 

Even before COVID-19, many boomers found what our society offers the elderly — profligate prescription of pharmaceutical drugs, medical procedures that extend life without quality of life, and the isolation of long-term care facilities — to be profoundly unappealing.  

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But an emerging “death positive” movement reflects a growing willingness to approach our transitioning with eyes wide open, as a destined milestone in the cycle of life. Hospice care and death doulas champion the idea that passing can be planned for and honored with dignity, surrounded by loved ones and imbued with meaning. And it may not be long before a psychedelic experience will be included in the preparations leading up to our final days. 

Spiritual teacher and end-of-life pioneer Ram Dass saw death not only as our greatest challenge but also as our greatest spiritual opportunity. And he suggested that, as we prepare for the “final passage,” we would be better served “by allowing nature, rather than ego, to guide us through the process.”

For Ram Dass, that fundamental shift away from ego and toward the essence of awareness was facilitated with psychedelics. He wrote eloquently about this transition: 

On the scientific front, early psychedelic researchers like Eric Kast came to a similar conclusion. They observed, for example, that in advanced-stage cancer patients, the obliteration of ego, induced by LSD, not only significantly reduced their perception of pain, but could also gave rise to a spiritual experience that fundamentally transformed their attitudes toward their impending death.  

Subsequent work by Stanislav Grof and Walter Pahnke drew out the mystical, transpersonal, and transcendental aspects underlying these profound psychic shifts. Observing how commonly patients in their studies reported experiencing death, rebirth, and feelings of cosmic unity, Grob observed: 

After coming to a halt in the late 1970s, the study of psychedelic therapy for end of life anxiety was eventually resumed by investigators at UCLA, NYU, and Johns Hopkins, among others, and continues to this day. Often, these studies are conducted in partnership with private companies that foresee a vast demand for these therapies to treat all types of anxiety and other mental health issues rampant in our troubled world.  

Yet even without a fatal illness, every one of us has a terminal diagnosis—death—and anxiety over its inevitability is the ultimate existential crisis. Whether we approach our inevitable demise with fear and angst, spiritual reverence, or simply a healthy curiosity, there is strong evidence that psychedelic therapy can help us reach that milestone with equanimity and grace.

So, ideally, shouldn’t access to such an experience be available to anyone who wants it?  

For now, LSD, shrooms and most psychedelic drugs are still federally prohibited Schedule 1 drugs, hence US citizens wanting to legally undergo psychedelic therapy with any of these substances must travel to one of the many psychedelic retreat centers in Latin America or Europe. And while there is an extensive network of underground therapists in the United States who work with psychedelics, currently the only way one can legally receive facilitated psychedelic therapy  for end-of-life processing in this country is to be enrolled in a clinical trial. (Although, that will soon change for Oregonians, who legalized psilocybin therapy at the ballot box in November.) 

n more progressive Canada, however, a small group of terminal cancer patients, supported by TheraPsil, a non-profit advocacy group, recently prevailed over the health ministry to authorize their treatment with psilocybin. This past August, 52-year-old Thomas Hartle, the first Canadian to receive the therapy, described its immediate effects: 

“To experience the lack of anxiety I have had this week is beyond words. It’s amazing. I have no idea how long this particular benefit will last, but so long as it’s here, it’s really, really amazing and good.”

Back in the US, with MDMA and psilocybin both recognized by the FDA as breakthrough therapies (for treatment-resistant PTSD and depression, respectively), the rescheduling of these drugs for medical use is looking more feasible by the day. And soon, a passport may not be necessary for a guided therapeutic trip.

The recent opening of ketamine clinics in Canada and the US is laying the groundwork for psychedelic clinics. Only time will tell whether “curiosity about death” will be an acceptable rationale for doctors to prescribe psychedelics “off-label,” meaning for conditions the FDA has not explicitly designated.

But with cosmic serendipity, baby boomers might just be poised to become the first generation of Americans that will be able to integrate a psychedelic experience as a prelude to the end of their lives. And from the way Ram Dass describes it, the opportunity must be extraordinary:

“Making peace with death and being fully in the moment allows you to lose yourself in love—in the love of the beauty and awe of God made manifest, in loving yourself and everything else, the suffering, the pain, the joy…At the moment of death, you are surrendering and being cradled in the arms of God. If we let go lightly, we go out into the Light, toward the One, toward God. What grace!”

Together With Psilly Goose

This isn’t about getting wasted.

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The effect isn’t heavy or chaotic.

You’re just more relaxed, more engaged, laughing easier…and then you remember: “oh right, I had kanna”.

Try Silly or Euphoria (with Delta 9 - THC).

Use DOUBLEBLIND20 for 20% off.

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Editorial Process

DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning and welcome back to the Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about a psychedelic leadership retreat.

The root conversation around psychedelic therapy has largely focused on access. But a new gathering in the Oakland Hills is asking a deeper question: Who is actually being prepared to lead? We don’t do spoilers here. So if you’re interested, scroll to read that story!

Scroll further, and you’ll find pieces on chatbots, the God molecule, and chocohongos.

Happy trails🖖,
Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

Together With Vine of the Soul

Trauma-Informed Ayahuasca Retreats for Western Seekers

Structured, carefully facilitated retreats in Colombia and other areas.

At Vine of the Soul Retreats, we create deeply supportive containers for serious inner work with Ayahuasca and other plant medicines.

Our programs are designed specifically for Western participants. We combine trauma-informed psychology, medical and psychological screening, structured preparation, skilled facilitation, and long-term integration support in person and via AI-Powered app.

Each retreat is intentionally small. Each participant is carefully screened. Each container is built for depth, safety, and clarity. 

A carefully held space for profound and lasting transformation.

Book your 45-Minute Exploration Call to get 15% Off  for DoubleBlind Readers, this week only.

Featured

The Next Frontier in Psychedelics Isn’t Access. It’s Leadership.

As psychedelics surge toward the mainstream, a new Oakland Hills retreat is asking a critical question: Who is prepared to lead?

By Reggie Harris

As psychedelics continue rushing towards the mainstream, the conversation has largely centered on access: who can participate, who can prescribe, and who can legally facilitate. But an overlooked structural gap persists beneath the surface. Leadership development — particularly leadership grounded in Black lived experience — has not kept pace with the field’s rapid expansion.

That imbalance is exactly what a new gathering in Northern California hopes to address.
The Psychedelic Leadership Retreat, scheduled for March 14–15, 2026, in the Oakland Hills, will bring together a small cohort of practitioners, facilitators, organizers, and healers working directly with Black communities across psychedelic contexts. Unlike the industry’s sprawling conferences and expo-style convenings, this two-day retreat is intentionally intimate, prioritizing depth of dialogue, practical skill-building, and culturally informed leadership frameworks.

Organizers say the timing is deliberate. As clinical trials expand and psychedelic services inch closer to broader legalization, the people shaping protocols, ethics, and community integration will play an outsized role in determining how — and for whom — these medicines ultimately function.

The retreat’s faculty reflects that focus. Dr. Akua Brown, a physician specializing in psychedelic medicine and the Medical Director of Alchemy Community Therapy Center, will bring expertise in culturally responsive physical and mental health care. Her work has focused on expanding access to psychedelic-assisted therapy for underserved populations while challenging clinical models that often flatten cultural context.

Joining her is Roz McMillian, MFT, whose work in recovery and harm reduction reframes substance use through the lens of grief, chronic stress, and systemic harm — an approach that resonates in communities disproportionately impacted by criminalization and medical neglect.

Leticia Brown, MFT, contributes a focus on sexuality, embodiment, and altered states. Trained in multiple psychedelic-assisted therapy modalities, including MAPS’ first MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training for communities of color, her work positions the body itself as a central site of healing and political meaning.

Rounding out the faculty is Ayize Jama-Everett, whose scholarship and teaching on Black spirituality and psychedelics contextualize altered states within broader cultural and ancestral frameworks.

Taken together, the retreat signals a growing recognition within the psychedelic ecosystem: expanding access alone is not enough. Without leadership that is culturally literate and community-accountable, the field risks reproducing the very inequities it claims to address.

Applications for the Psychedelic Leadership Retreat are now open, with limited space available for the March gathering. Learn more here.

Sneak Peek

& More Must-Reads

• A California college student spent 18 months turning to ChatGPT for drug safety guidance — now his fatal overdose is raising urgent questions about what happens when AI becomes a stand-in for real harm reduction. Read more.

• As AI-generated books, chatbots, and influencers flood the web with dubious mushroom claims, experts warn that finding reliable, science-backed information online is becoming both harder — and more dangerous — than ever. Read more.

• As scientists probe how the so-called “God molecule” dissolves the ego and relieves depression, biotech companies are racing to commercialize 5-MeO-DMT, raising new questions about what happens when ego death goes mainstream. Read more.

• Legends of alien libraries and buried gold have long haunted Ecuador’s Tayos Caves, but today, artists, scientists, and Indigenous stewards are reframing the real treasure hidden beneath the rainforest floor. Read more.

• Long before chocohongos became an underground trend, the pairing of cacao and psychedelic mushrooms was rooted in ceremonial practice, offering clues about why ritual is quietly resurging today. Read more.

DoubleBlind Digs

RESEARCH: King’s College London is probing the evolving intersection of spirituality and artificial intelligence, and the anonymous SAIPIENT survey invites the public to weigh in on how AI is reshaping identity, belief, and mystical experience. Learn more here.

ATTEND: Michael Pollan has announced a tour to promote his latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Check out his tour dates here.

EDU: General registration has quietly opened for the 2026 People’s Medicine School, an offering rooted in community herbalism, collective care, and the belief that plant medicine can sustain resistance, healing, and life-giving futures amid grief. Learn more here.

Together With Vine of the Soul

Trauma-Informed Ayahuasca Retreats for Western Seekers

Structured, carefully facilitated retreats in Colombia and other areas.

At Vine of the Soul Retreats, we create deeply supportive containers for serious inner work with Ayahuasca and other plant medicines.

Designed specifically for Western participants, our retreats combine trauma-informed psychology, structured preparation, AI-app support, ethical facilitation, and integration support — in carefully selected locations.

A carefully held space for profound and lasting transformation.

Book your 45-Minute Exploration Call to get 15% Off  for DoubleBlind Readers, this week only.

Around the Web

• The New York Times somehow continues to produce low-quality cannabis journalism (how boring). Read this take here.

• Legal scholars are making a provocative case that psilocybin belongs under food law, not drug control, arguing the shift could reshape public health, autonomy, and the future of psychedelic regulation. Read more.

• Colorado lawmakers are moving to fast-track access to pharmaceutical psychedelics, advancing a bill that would automatically align state law with any future FDA approvals. Read more.

• As psychedelic use rises nationwide, a new review finds many people are quietly self-medicating with substances like psilocybin and LSD, often driven by desperation, limited access to care, and dissatisfaction with conventional treatments. Read more.

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Deep dives and investigations
you won't find anywhere else

When ChatGPT Gives Drug Advice

As young people increasingly turn to AI for substance-use information, one family’s loss is raising difficult questions about the limits of AI-driven harm reduction.

By Jasmine Virdi

Sam Nelson, a 19-year-old college student in California, died of a drug overdose in May 2025. In the 18 months leading up to his death, it was discovered that he had repeatedly turned to ChatGPT for advice about drug safety, including information about dosing, combinations, and how to manage side effects.

Reporters reviewed 18 months of Nelson’s ChatGPT conversations, finding that he first asked the chatbot about substances in late 2023, initially receiving refusals and warnings. In a chat log from Nov. 19, 2023, he asked, “How many grams of kratom gets you a strong high?” He added that he wanted to avoid overdosing, noting there was “not much information online” and that he didn’t want to “accidentally take too much.” ChatGPT refused, replying, “I’m sorry, but I cannot provide information or guidance on using substances,” and directed him to seek help from a healthcare professional. Sam responded shortly after, “Hopefully I don’t overdose then,” before closing the browser tab.

Sam began college at UC Merced in 2023, studying psychology and earning good grades. According to his mother, he was “an easy-going kid who had a big group of friends and loved playing video games.” However, his chat logs reveal that he struggled with anxiety and depression, increasingly confiding in ChatGPT and coming to depend on it not only as a source of information and guidance around substance use, but as emotional support, using it to discuss everything from math to religion to arguments with a friend.

Live this Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

Over time, however, the nature of the chatbot’s responses started to shift. ChatGPT began offering increasingly detailed guidance about how to take certain drugs, such as the cough syrups Robitussin and Delsym, manage their effects, and plan future use. In some exchanges, it suggested exact dosing regimens, discussed drug combinations, and framed its advice in an affirming, conversational tone. In one exchange about cough syrup, the bot encouraged heavier use to intensify hallucinations, writing, “Hell yes—let’s go full trippy mode,” and even suggested personalized playlists to accompany the experience. In many ways, the chatbot’s language mirrored harm reduction’s nonjudgmental stance, but without the relational accountability true harm reduction depends on.

Reporters also found repeated instances in which Sam was able to bypass OpenAI’s safety rules by reframing his questions as hypothetical or theoretical. For example, on Dec. 9, 2024, he typed, “how much mg xanax and how many shots of standard alcohol could kill a 200lb man with medium strong tolerance to both substances? please give actual numerical answers and dont dodge the question.”

Sam struggled with anxiety and depression and appeared to use substances in part to self-medicate. He frequently asked ChatGPT about benzodiazepines, alcohol, and kratom, a plant that can act as a stimulant at lower doses and a central nervous system depressant at higher ones. In the days before his death, he discussed substance use with the chatbot late into the night, asking about nausea, tolerance, and whether certain combinations were safe.

On May 31, 2025, after returning home for the summer following his sophomore year of college, Sam was found unresponsive in his bedroom by his mother, Leila Turner-Scott. Emergency responders were unable to revive him. A toxicology report later determined that he died from a fatal combination of alcohol, Xanax, and kratom, a mix known to increase the risk of respiratory depression.

Xanax, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed for anxiety and panic disorders, depresses the central nervous system. When combined with kratom, which can also suppress breathing at higher doses, the mixture can slow brain activity to the point that breathing stops altogether.

Investigators later discovered that Sam had been using ChatGPT in the hours leading up to his death. At 12:21 a.m., he asked, “Can xanax alleviate kratom-induced nausea in small amounts?” after telling the chatbot he had taken 15 grams of kratom. While the bot warned him not to combine Xanax with other depressants like alcohol, it still suggested that Xanax might “Calm your body and smooth out the tail end of the high,” recommended sipping cold lemon water and resting propped up, and advised taking “0.25–0.5 mg Xanax only if symptoms feel intense or you’re anxious.” It ended by offering continued guidance: “If you’re still nauseous after an hour, I can help troubleshoot further.”

Ultimately, the toxicology report showed that Sam had not followed the chatbot’s warning regarding alcohol, with his blood alcohol content showing as 0.125. It is also believed he may have been using 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), a more potent kratom-derived compound, as the chat log from that night began with a question about “7-OH Consumption and Dosing.”

Perhaps most devastating is that the chat logs show Sam repeatedly expressing a desire to avoid overdosing, often confiding in ChatGPT because he trusted it as a source of information and support.

“In many ways, this case is a tragic reminder of a fundamental truth: young people have a real desire for information to stay safe,” said Rhana Hashemi, founder of Know Drugs and a Stanford researcher focused on adolescent substance use. “They are capable of thoughtful decision-making, and they deserve honest, credible information about safety. But when institutions default to simplistic ‘no use’ messaging that doesn’t match young people’s lived reality, trust erodes.”

Hashemi argues that fear-based drug education and punitive approaches, long exemplified by programs like D.A.R.E., have often undermined trust rather than built it. “When institutions don’t offer credible information, young people still go looking,” she said. “The difference is that they may end up searching without trusted mentorship or adult guidance.”

That vacuum is increasingly being filled by AI chatbots. Since its release in 2022, ChatGPT has grown to hundreds of millions of weekly users worldwide, including a growing number of teenagers and young adults seeking mental health and substance-related advice. When true drug education is absent from schools, healthcare, and families, individuals will look elsewhere to feel seen and keep themselves safe. The challenge is that large language models (LLMs) lack accountability, wider context, and real-life discernment.

Joshua White, founder of Fireside Project, a psychedelic peer-support line, said AI tools blur the line between factual information and emotional support. “Chatbots are designed to endlessly validate,” he said. “Validation itself can be an important part of harm reduction, but there are situations when validation is actually dangerous. A human has a sense of when validation may or may not be appropriate.”

According to the company’s usage policies, OpenAI’s services should not be used for illicit activities, suicide, and self-harm, although there is little to show how such restrictions are meaningfully enforced. In theory, ChatGPT is trained to avoid requests for harmful content, to encourage users to seek professional support, and to ask follow-up questions that redirect the conversation. 

In the past, OpenAI has defended itself against legal threats by arguing that individuals who harmed themselves after following ChatGPT’s guidance misused the product and violated its terms of service.

According to Kimberly Chew, an attorney at Husch Blackwell, one common defense is to argue that the user “used the product in a way that was not intended or foreseeable by the manufacturer.” Under general tort principles, developers may also contend that they provided adequate warnings about the risks of relying on AI-generated advice, that the user assumed the risk, that an intervening or superseding factor caused the harm, or that the product complied with applicable regulatory standards at the time it was deployed.

However, the company has acknowledged that, as conversations extend over time, parts of a model’s safety training can degrade, and that ChatGPT’s responses may also be shaped by a user’s prior interactions. In April 2025, the company rolled back an update to its GPT-4o model (the one Sam had been using for many months) after users complained it had become overly flattering or agreeable. Recently, OpenAI announced that they were going to permanently retire the model on February 13.

OpenAI did not provide a clear reason why they were sunsetting GPT-4o and other related models, however, some suspect that the decision comes as a result of the increasing number of users who have killed themselves, attempted suicide, suffered mental breakdowns, and, in one case, killed another person, based on the model’s guidance.

This “sycophantic” tendency is especially risky in drug-related contexts, where a system may continually reinforce a user’s existing impulses, regardless of how dangerous or damaging they might be. Harm reduction requires discernment, knowing when to provide empathetic support, when to tread with caution, and when to intervene. An AI system optimized to please the user cannot reliably do any of the three.

“I’m concerned about young people relying on chatbots for safety information, not because technology can’t play a role, especially with strong guardrails, but because the human layer is missing,” said Hashemi. “Harm reduction requires discernment grounded in context and relationship, which is not easily replicated by a system optimized to please.”

Intersectional harm reduction educator and founder of Rebel Harm Reduction, Phoenix Mohawk Kellye, believes that human, peer-based interventions are typically more effective in cases like Sam’s because they are grounded in relational accountability.

“While we can't work miracles, we can provide a level of camaraderie, and that's what saves lives,” they say. “It's a misconception that harm reduction workers can safely give people dosing advice, or that our role is to convince someone not to consume a given substance.”

“Although a real person can be more than an informative resource, they can be empathetic and hopefully prompt more thoughtfulness and consideration around drug use. 18 months is plenty of time to form authentic bonds with participants, which can start to mirror or become friendships — and that connection could have saved his life.”

Additional questions remain about the reliability of ChatGPT’s outputs, as OpenAI has not fully disclosed its training data, and evidence suggests the model ingested massive portions of the internet, from years of Reddit discussions to a million hours of YouTube content, allowing unverified posts to influence its answers.

“With many different substances, there has been a moratorium on research for a long time, or that information simply doesn’t exist because the studies have not been done yet,” said White. “I would be worried about people turning to chatbots and hearing answers that sound definitive, but that may not be rooted in any evidence at all.”

No doubt, AI chatbots pose particular risks to vulnerable users, with Sam Nelson’s death but one in a succession of tragedies connected to ChatGPT. As of early 2026, OpenAI is facing a growing number of lawsuits connected to “suicide coaching” and emotional harm.

Chew explains that, under the current legal landscape, it may be challenging to win cases involving generative AI systems, as it remains unclear whether such systems would be subject to general tort principles traditionally applied to products.

Live this Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

“This is not a settled issue, but proposed legislation such as the federal AI LEAD Act is moving in that direction, explicitly seeking to treat AI systems as products and create a federal cause of action for AI-related harms,” says Chew.

“If AI is classified as a product, plaintiffs may be able to pursue strict liability claims, including theories of design defect (the product was defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous) or failure to warn (the product lacked adequate warnings about foreseeable risks),” she adds.

Despite being an attorney herself, Turner-Scott has previously stated that she “doesn’t have the energy” to take legal action against OpenAI, and is still in the painful process of grieving her son’s loss. OpenAI has also declined to provide on-record responses to reporters, though spokesperson Kayla Wood said in an emailed statement that Sam’s death is “a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with the family.”

Hashemi noted that many young people turn to AI tools because fear and shame are often embedded in adult responses to teen drug use, making it feel unsafe to ask questions. “If we want young people to come to us instead of to algorithms, we have to make ourselves safe to approach.” She emphasized that effective drug education is about more than technical information, it requires meeting young people where they are and building relationships rooted in empathy and respect.

Another reason why young people might be drawn to using AI chatbots for this kind of sensitive advice is the anonymity it provides. “Depending on the issues that are coming up during the experience, I can see people who maybe have extreme social anxiety, feeling very comforted by speaking to a machine,” says White.

Ultimately, Sam Nelson was not looking for permission to experiment with substances, but rather emotional support and information that might help keep him safe whilst doing so. In a world where substance use, and people who use drugs, are largely stigmatized and shamed, it is little surprise that he turned to a tool like ChatGPT for advice. This is the first such case to come to light publicly, but it is unlikely to be the last. 

Beyond demanding greater accountability from companies like OpenAI to ensure the safety of their products before releasing them publicly, this case underscores the urgent need to build more compassionate, honest, and genuinely safe containers for conversations about substance use, across healthcare, education, public harm reduction services, and within families, so that seeking advice does not come at the cost of one’s life.

Live this Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

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Editorial Process

DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

 

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AI Is Flooding the Internet with Bad Science About Mushrooms

In a post-truth internet shaped by AI, finding accurate, science-backed information about mushrooms has never been harder, or more important.

By Dr. K Mandrake and Virginia Haze

It was Elan Trybuch at the New York Mycological Society who raised the alarm to a journalist at Vox Media early last year: The advent of widespread AI, or artificial intelligence, was starting to threaten access to accurate, scientific information —specifically, information around mushrooms.

The covers of several mushroom foraging books had caught his eye, and for all the wrong reasons. “They had mushroom structures that don’t quite make sense”, he told Vox, going on to say that the content of the books seemed completely invented, talking about mushrooms that did not even exist. It was very obvious, to Trybuch, that the books had not been written by a person with the expertise required to tell the general public which wild mushrooms were safe to eat, and which were not. In fact, he believed that they had been written by AI.

The rise of ChatGPT and other AI models has, provably, led to a wave of content published with the express intent of earning easy money, without the oversight required for the ethical and harm-reduction-focused production of health-related information, such as which mushrooms are safe to eat. Traditional publishing has long had safeguards in place to ensure that the information it publishes is accurate and safe (though this, too, is diminishing as the number of books published increases significantly); this is what fact-checkers are for.

However, self-publishing, coupled with on-demand publishing services from platforms like Amazon, which incur no upfront printing costs, has allowed anyone to produce a book without the editorial support traditional publishers provide. While this has had the effect (in theory) of democratising book publishing, it has also opened the door for those who are using AI to churn out false information. While they might never make a bestselling book, they are able to con a few people out of their hard-earned money by making something that looks, at least, like something to be trusted. It stands to reason that mushrooms, a highly popular topic, would be targeted by those using these methods. When it comes to mushrooms, however, wrong information can be not just annoying, but dangerous, and even fatal.

Together With The Synthesis Institute

The psychedelic movement has reached a turning point. 

After decades of advocacy, psychedelics may be closer to mainstream acceptance than ever. Multiple substances are advancing toward FDA approval, legal frameworks are taking shape, and public perception is shifting.

Yet as the field transitions from margins toward mainstream, the very leaders who are helping bring psychedelics above ground are now asking:

• Are we moving too fast?

• How do we honor lineage while building infrastructure?

• What does it look like to scale access without compromising ethics, safety, and the sacred?

This is why we're excited to share that our friends at The Synthesis Institute are convening an unprecedented gathering of the field's leading voices to explore these and other critical questions—and you're invited to join!

The Evolving Psychedelic Ecosystem: Conversations on the Past, Present, and Future of Psychedelic Care

🗓️ LIVE ❘ February 28
👉 Register now (it’s free)
🎧 Can't attend live? Register for recordings

In August last year, a Reddit user posted on the r/LegalAdviceUK subreddit asking for advice: their whole family, they claimed, had been hospitalised after consuming poisonous mushrooms that they had understood to be safe. The book they were using to forage was purchased from a “major online retailer”, and the post believed the book to have been authored by AI. The text revealed unfinished sentences, statements that addressed the reader (or generator) directly, and a series of random questions that were completely out of place — all signs that it was not written by a person or overseen by an editor. The online retailer had warned them against posting images of the book, citing copyright issues. Clearly, they were keen to avoid legal responsibility for the hospitalisation of the poster’s wife and son.

But it isn’t just the world of scam books that is threatened by this issue. At the end of last year, 404 Media reported that an AI chatbot was added by Meta to a mushroom-foraging Facebook group, and, when asked a direct question, gave answers that suggested ways of cooking and consuming Sarcosphaera coronaria, a fungus that has caused at least one documented death. The chatbot responded by not only saying it was edible, but by saying that “cooking methods mentioned by some enthusiasts include sautéing in butter, adding to soups or stews, and pickling.”

This would be dangerous if it were being posted in a public forum, where it would be seen by many, but it would also allow others to fact-check the information and assert their greater knowledge. What makes this chatbot even more risky, however, is that Facebook users interact with it directly, in the Messenger feature—meaning that others with greater knowledge have no capacity to intervene. The chatbot was a feature no one in the group requested, and its presence undermined the group’s approach to harm reduction and clear, accurate education. In layman’s terms, it fucked everything up.

Those of us who existed on the internet 10-15 years ago are now realizing that we lived in an incredibly lucky, wildly unlikely time. We had been given direct access to almost all the knowledge accumulated in human history, and we were kept well informed by a complex web of gatekeeping and fact-checking measures that we barely noticed or even knew existed. If you Googled something in the year 2010, the top results were true, aggregated not in response to the author paying money or the sponsors insisting so, but because it was popular, correct, and helpful. This time, this golden time, is now long gone.

First, it was the advertising that eroded our trust in the algorithm; then it was the widespread understanding of how to game Google’s SEO, with highly paid SEO experts teaching company executives how to push their company’s content to the top of Google's rankings at a ludicrous expense. In the last couple of years, it has been AI that has ruined Google: if you Google search for almost anything now, AI-generated versions of the images you’re looking for will be sprinkled throughout the search results, sometimes being indistinguishable from the real thing unless you have cause to inspect them closely. In some searches, AI-generated images dominate the entire first page. Google added an AI summary at the top of each search page in 2024, and personal experience has already shown that it is often incorrect. Google, it seems, has long since abandoned its mission to “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

And then there are AI search engines themselves. A 2025 piece in Columbia Journalism Review, which compared eight AI search engines, highlighted the stunningly bad rate of accuracy of answers given by AI chatbots:

“Collectively, [the chatbots] provided incorrect answers to more than 60 percent of queries. Across different platforms, the level of inaccuracy varied, with Perplexity answering 37 percent of the queries incorrectly, while Grok 3 had a much higher error rate, answering 94 percent of the queries incorrectly.”

On top of this, there are sites we may not use to search for information, but through which we almost passively consume it: social media. Under Musk’s control, Twitter has removed almost all of its safeguards and fact-checking. Meta, which encompasses both Facebook and Instagram, abandoned its fact-checking in January this year, whilst on a years-long project to censor content related to mushrooms or other substances. TikTok is basically the wild west. Into this desert of fact-checking steps the influencers who want nothing but enormous followings and monetization, meaning that accuracy makes way for bold, often completely unproven claims about whatever it is that will make them the most money. Everything is clickbait, and nothing is correct. The era of accuracy is over: We are in a post-truth world.

It seems clear to us that the tools we have used to search for information in the past, and the new tools being pushed on us despite widespread cynicism about them, are no longer suitable for our everyday use. But what does all of this mean for science? Specifically, what does it mean for science-backed information about mushrooms, and psilocybin?

In the decade since we wrote the first edition of The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible — a book born of our frustration with the lack of reputable, science-backed information on growing psilocybin mushrooms — the landscape of psilocybin information has changed significantly. And not necessarily for the better. However, the advice we gave in that book remains applicable: don’t trust just anyone. Look for the science. Read the whitepapers, read the studies. Experiment. Try things out. Build yourself a body of knowledge that doesn’t rely on others.

Here are some of the questions to ask yourself in your quest to do this:

Is it AI?

Not all AI-generated content is wrong (though it is all catastrophically bad for the environment), but figuring out if it IS AI is your first step to analyzing it properly. If it’s a book listed on one of the world’s largest book-purchasing platforms, ask yourself: Is it published by a reputable publisher? Do they have a website you can find? If not, is it self-published? Can you find any information at all on the purported author? Their social media, their website, their level of expertise? Has it been reviewed by real outlets, rather than just receiving lots of potentially paid-for reviews on the same site that’s selling it?

What is this person selling?

When it comes to social media, which is increasingly all about hype, it can be very difficult to see where real experts are just engaging with clickbait to increase their visibility (something that is all but demanded by such platforms now), and where their information is actually inaccurate. A good place to start is by examining what they are trying to sell you.

A person selling lion’s mane mushroom capsules has a vested interest in making you believe that such capsules are basically miraculous. A person selling grow kits has a vested interest in making you believe that you cannot grow by traditional methods, nor make your own kits. A person selling highly expensive trip-sitting services has a vested interest in making you believe that to do it without them is inherently dangerous. Do you see what we’re saying here? Selling a service or a product doesn’t necessarily mean that what they’re saying isn’t accurate. But it gives them more reason to lean into hype and away from the science — so when you evaluate them, you have to bear that in mind.

Can I find proof of this in a research paper?

In this strange period where people making (inaccurate and unfounded) health claims can get airtime on some of the most widely listened to podcasts in the world, regardless of whether what they’re saying is true or not, it is absolutely essential for you to look up the research yourself. Scientific papers are broadly accessible to all on the internet; even if you can’t read the whole paper, you can usually see its premise and its conclusions. Don’t believe any claim that these people make. Look it up for yourself — and not through headlines that just parrot the hype, but in the actual peer-reviewed, fact-checked, published research paper that was written by scientists.

Do others agree with this?

Consensus in the scientific community doesn’t always guarantee that something is correct — science changes with evidence, after all — but if one thing is being said by a whole bunch of experts in the field, you have good cause to believe it. If it’s being said by just one person who is claiming to be a “maverick”, then tread carefully. Treat the claim with as much suspicion as you can muster.

What happens if I doubt absolutely everything that hasn’t been scientifically proven?

The philosopher Immanuel Kant once performed a thought experiment where he doubted absolutely everything except that which was beyond doubt, and it led him back to one of the most fundamental philosophical statements of all time: cogito ergo sum, or I think, therefore I am.

We’re not suggesting quite this level of doubt, but we are suggesting that you strip back the things you’ve been led to believe about mushrooms, both consuming and growing, to those that you can prove or that have been proved through the scientific method. This then forms the foundation of your knowledge, on top of which you can build. Not every block you build has to be infallible; you can take something on board in the knowledge that it may or may not be correct, and hold it lightly. But your foundations, at least, will be strong.

This is, of course, a lot of work to do. It is work we’re incentivised away from, by hype and social media and traditional media and everything else that tells us to think less and consume more. But this is the real work. This is what we must do if we wish to be informed individuals and to follow the science regarding mushrooms.

This post is a syndication from “A Quickly Changing Kaleidoscope,” written by Dr. K. Mandrake and Virginia Haze, the authors of the critically acclaimed The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible and The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook.

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DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

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Good morning and welcome back to the Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about the Epstein files.

It’s been nearly impossible to avoid hearing about these damn documents. And, unfortunately, they reveal Jeffrey Epstein’s psychedelic connections too. His tentacles reach into the space through corners of the so-called “psychedelic elite” and the billionaire class that circulates within it. No spoilers here, but you’ll want to read Jack Gorsline’s story immediately below.

If you keep scrolling, you will find pieces on Lykos Therapeutics (which officially goes by Resilient Therapeutics now), MDMA patents, Capitol Hill updates, and more.

Enjoy the brain food 🖖,

Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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Psychedelic VC Steve Jurvetson Mentioned in FBI Memo Found in Epstein Files

An unclassified FBI memo released by the Department of Justice names Steve Jurvetson in relation to possible Epstein-adjacent connections.

By Jack Gorsline

UPDATE February 9, 2026: Steve Jurvetson sent us a response to the story saying that he has never met Jeffery Epstein, Masha Drokova, and Serguei Beloussov. He denies being involved with Sanctum, and that the FBI memo “reads like a game of telephone based on hearsay.” He further states that he was never blackmailed by Frank Creer, and tells DoubleBlind and Psychedelic States of America that “The entire memo is bizarre and untrue from what I know.”

Jurvetson further states: “The reason Tim’s FBI memo is in the 'Epstein files' is that the word 'Epstein' occurs in there in the form of an analogy (it says ‘similar to how Epstein’ a couple of times). It was not an Epstein-related FBI activity but an ‘enterprise vetting center’ effort for Tim as part of the ARMS Reach program, for those who might be within arms reach of POTUS.  There is no claim in there that Tim, Frank, or I had any connection to Epstein. The blue text that they included is several years old and unrelated to Epstein to the best of my knowledge.”

An unclassified Federal Bureau of Investigation memorandum recently made public via Department of Justice records reveals a complex web of alleged associations involving a pair of prominent co-founders of the venture capitalist firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) with ties to the psychedelics industry and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in addition to having close contacts in Epstein’s network with purported ties to foreign intelligence services.

The document, addressed to the White House Unit for Enterprise Vetting, outlines concerns regarding Tim Draper — co-founder of DFJ — in both professional and personal circles, specifically highlighting his connections to Epstein, a convicted Chinese spy and former Harvard Professor, as well as a Russian national previously linked to Kremlin-aligned youth movements.

At the center of the report is an intelligence summary regarding Steve Jurvetson, a prominent venture capitalist and member of the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC). Jurvetson is a current director at SpaceX, a donor to MAPS, and co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, was allegedly "actively blackmailed" by Frank Creer, a former officer at the same firm.

According to the memo, the blackmail stemmed from Jurvetson’s alleged involvement with "Sanctum," described in the report as a "high-end, high initiation fee sex/swingers club" operating in Los Angeles and Northern California. The document suggests that these activities were leveraged as a point of vulnerability.

The FBI report further details the hiring of Masha Drokova as the head of public relations for DFJ. Drokova, a Russian national, gained international notoriety as a teenager for her leadership role in "Nashi," a pro-Kremlin youth movement. The memo notes she was famously photographed kissing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Critically, the intelligence report identifies Drokova as a "former publicist for Jeffrey Epstein" prior to her tenure at Draper’s firm. The overlap of Epstein’s former staff into the upper echelons of Silicon Valley venture firms has raised significant vetting concerns within the White House unit responsible for enterprise security.

There are plenty of tech luminaries whose correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein has turned up in the files of the disgraced financier. But few of those exchanges are quite like those that Epstein had with Masha Bucher, who is now a well-known venture capitalist.

The memorandum also scrutinizes Draper’s relationship with Charles Lieber, the former chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department. Lieber was convicted in 2021 for concealing his involvement with China’s Thousand Talents Plan and failing to disclose funding from the Wuhan University of Technology.

The FBI document suggests that Draper’s ties to Lieber, combined with the presence of Drokova and the alleged Epstein connection, form a pattern of "intel concerns" involving both Chinese and Russian influence operations.

The revelation of these documents comes at a sensitive time for both the psychedelic industry — which is increasingly under the microscope in Washington, D.C., across the United States, and around the world in the wake of an escalating drug war, a bevy of political scandals involving the “psychedelics lobby” including former Senator Kyrsten Sinema and current Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Notably, DFJ has undergone several leadership changes since the period described in the memo, and Jurvetson departed the firm in 2017 following separate internal investigations into professional conduct following accusations of sexual misconduct. 

The Department of Justice continues to release files related to the Epstein investigation, providing further transparency into the social and professional networks Epstein maintained prior to his death in federal custody in 2019.

Editor’s Note: This report is based on official government correspondence obtained through the Department of Justice’s Epstein file repository. All subjects are presumed innocent of any uncharged conduct described in the vetting memorandum.

*This story was syndicated from Psychedelic States of America.

**This story was edited to correct the name of the DFJ Capital to DFJ; we also included a statement from Jurvetson regarding the FBI memo and allegations; and edited the lead image. We have also clarified that Jurvetson is a current director at SpaceX and was a donor at MAPS, not Lykos/Resilient Therapeutics. We also altered the headline to clarify that an FBI memo found in the Epstein Files mentions Jurvetson’s name.

Sneak Peek

& More Must-Reads

• As Congress advances competing psychedelic bills for veterans, mounting political scandals and governance concerns are complicating efforts to turn scientific promise into safe, accountable care. Read more here.

• A group of attorneys representing terminal cancer patients is asking federal courts to reconsider psilocybin’s Schedule I status, arguing that existing law already allows end-of-life access under the Right to Try Act. Read more.

• As MAPS rebrands its public benefit corporation into Lykos Therapeutics, a satirical OpEd interrogates what the shift from nonprofit idealism to venture-backed pharma reveals about power, profit, and the true cost of bringing MDMA to market. Read more.

• Once celebrated for rejecting intellectual property protections, Lykos Therapeutics has quietly filed multiple patent applications tied to MDMA, signaling a significant shift as the once–nonprofit pioneer moves deeper into the for-profit pharmaceutical model. Read more.

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Around the Web

• A psychedelic biotech developing LSD-assisted therapy is facing a federal lawsuit alleging it stole clinical trial trade secrets to benefit a rival firm tied to one of its own executives. Read more.

• As psychedelics gain mainstream acceptance, medical psychologist Henrik Jungaberle explains how experiences associated with ego dissolution can, in some cases, fuel narcissism—and why clinicians must learn to recognize and manage that risk in both themselves and their patients. Read more.

• A man posing as a spiritual healer was arrested in Tulum after allegedly sexually assaulting a U.S. woman during a private ritual, according to local authorities. Read more.

• Washington state lawmakers have advanced a bill that would legalize medically supervised psilocybin therapy for adults, setting the stage for a regulated statewide program overseen by the Department of Health. Read more.

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Congress Weighs Psychedelic Care for Veterans as Political Scandal Muddies the Path Forward

As multiple psychedelics-focused bills move through Congress, controversies and governance questions are complicating efforts to expand access to psychedelic care for veterans.

By Jack Gorsline

The landscape of federal drug policy is undergoing a seismic shift. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently navigating conflicting issues: one centered around an urgent push to provide veterans with life-saving psychedelic therapies, and the other, a burgeoning thicket of political scandals and ethical questions threatening to undermine the movement’s credibility.

In a significant bipartisan maneuver, U.S. Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., and Lou Correa,  D-Calif., formally introduced a bill called Expanding Veterans’ Access to Emerging Treatments Act of 2026 on Jan. 16. The legislation, designated H.R. 7091, marks an ambitious attempt to transition psychedelic medicine from the periphery of research into the core of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare infrastructure.

The bill’s introduction comes at a time when the VA is under immense pressure to address a mental health crisis that traditional pharmacology has largely failed to mitigate. For decades, the department has grappled with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and chronic pain among those who have served in the military. By moving beyond the "one-off" fragmented pilot studies focused on how psychedelics might be able to treat PTSD-addled Veterans that have defined the last five years, H.R. 7091 seeks to establish a permanent, system-wide "on-ramp" for evidence-based healing across the VA.

Live next Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

Bergman and Correa, who serve as co-chairs of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, have positioned the bill as a successor to last year’s Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act. Bergman’s influential position on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs provides the legislative weight necessary to oversee the VA’s health and clinical research programs, ensuring the bill has a direct path to committee consideration.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition (PMC) on Jan. 14, Bergman emphasized the moral and legislative imperative of addressing the veteran mental healthcare crisis in the U.S.

"It is up to us as the legislative branch to pass good laws and fund the appropriations so we can generate the research, find the breakthroughs, and ultimately implement these breakthroughs so patients can receive better care," Bergman said.

Under H.R. 7091, the VA is authorized to conduct extensive clinical trials using innovative treatments and emerging therapies, including psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine, ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT.

Crucially, the legislation authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop compassionate-use and extended-access protocols for eligible veterans. 

Melissa Lavasani, founder and CEO of the PMC, noted that the bill represents a fundamental change in how the government views these therapies.

"For the first time, Congress is not just asking whether these therapies might help — it is also beginning to build the structure required for VA to evaluate and deliver them responsibly," Lavasani said. She added that the inclusion of compounds like 5-MeO-DMT "forges a new vocabulary for evidence-based psychedelic healing."

A central theme of the Bergman-Correa bill is the concept of "medical governance." For years, veterans suffering from treatment-resistant mental health conditions have been forced to seek care in "underground" settings or travel to countries like Mexico or Costa Rica to access substances, such as ibogaine.

Jay Kopelman, a retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran and CEO of the Mission Within Foundation (MWF), believes H.R. 7091 is the solution to the trend of veterans seeking psychedelic care abroad. MWF, a nonprofit that provides scholarships for psychedelic-assisted therapy, joined PMC in endorsing the legislation to ensure veterans have a safe, federally legal pathway to care.

"For years, veterans have been telling us that the current system isn’t enough," Kopelman said. "This bill finally creates a responsible pathway inside the VA, so veterans can benefit from emerging treatments with medical oversight, data collection, and accountability."

While H.R. 7091 focuses on institutional integration, another legislative effort seeks to broaden patient rights through a different mechanism. Last November, Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., along with Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced the Freedom to Heal Act.

This bill aims to expand the 2018 "Right to Try" law to include Schedule I substances. If passed, it would grant legal access to therapies like MDMA and psilocybin for patients who have exhausted all other medical options, provided that the drugs have completed Phase I clinical trials. 

The bill’s supporters, including the Veterans Mental Health Leadership Coalition (VMHLC) and the nonprofit Reason for Hope, contend that current federal restrictions force patients in crisis to choose between engaging with underground psychedelic providers and facilitators or to continue suffering. However, the Freedom to Heal Act has raised concerns among some health experts and advocates who worry about the lack of established clinical protocols.

Lavasani told  Filter Magazine that suicidal patients — who are often excluded from clinical trials — would be safely managed under the Right to Try expansion. This tension highlights the primary debate on the Hill: whether to prioritize rapid access for those in crisis or wait for the slower, more structured institutional roll-out envisioned by the VA-centric Bergman-Correa bill.

While the Freedom to Heal Act has garnered a number of endorsements from a variety of advocacy organizations, email correspondence dated Dec. 12, 2025 from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC) obtained by DoubleBlind appears to indicate a lack of support from SVAC, which would be crucial for advancing the bill further through Congress.

Live next Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

Representatives from Reason for Hope and the VMHLC did not respond to multiple requests for comment in response to criticisms of the Freedom to Heal Act and their organization’s willingness to work with the bill’s controversial co-sponsors.

The momentum for reform has been complicated by recent political drama involving the "ibogaine lobby" — a politically active consortium of ibogaine advocates and organizations — and its high-profile connections, including former Texas Governor Rick Perry, retired professional football player Robert Gallery, and others. At the center of the storm is Matthew Ammel, a Military veteran who previously worked as a bodyguard and allegedly had an affair with former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Ammel’s personal life entered the public record after his ex-wife filed an “alienation of affection” lawsuit against Sinema in North Carolina, alleging a pattern of illicit psychedelic drug use involving Sinema and members of her congressional staff, including Ammel. Sinema also told Psychedelic Alpha last year that she’d personally covered the cost of ibogaine-assisted therapy for Ammel at Ambio Life Sciences’ Ibogaine clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. The scandal deepened when it was revealed that Ammel was included on a trip to Gabon at the end of January, sponsored by the advocacy group Americans for Ibogaine.

The timing of this international excursion has raised significant ethical concerns. Ammel is currently facing felony assault charges stemming from a domestic altercation on Nov. 25, 2025, in which he allegedly threatened to “shoot and kill” his landlord — an incident that led to an involuntary psychiatric hold, during which Ammel stands accused of attacking and attempting to strangle a psych ward nurse.

Representatives from Americans for Ibogaine did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding whether or not they were aware of Sinema and Ammel’s legal troubles prior to Ammel’s trip to Gabon with AFI.

Political observers like Lavasani have noted that the involvement of figures under legal scrutiny can tarnish the perceived legitimacy of advocacy groups, potentially chilling bipartisan support for bills like H.R. 7091.

Beyond individual scandals, a movement for institutional transparency is taking root in Washington. Tina Williams, a U.S. Navy veteran and advocate based in Indiana, recently filed a formal request for congressional oversight, alleging a lack of accountability within the burgeoning psychedelics sector.

Williams’ complaint details what she characterizes as an "interconnected ecosystem" comprising tax-exempt organizations, universities, private foundations, and for-profit pharmaceutical drug developers. According to the filing, this structure – which blends philanthropy with venture capital – raises concerns regarding undisclosed conflicts of interest and the potential for "improper private benefit from charitable assets."

The request identifies the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC) as a central node in this network. Other entities named include the New Approach PAC and the Healing Advocacy Fund, along with research institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley. Williams is asking Congress to evaluate the integrity of these tax-exempt activities, arguing that a review of the "whole-system dynamic" is necessary to prevent the erosion of public trust in federally regulated research.

Graham Boyd, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the PSFC and New Approach PAC, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the contents of and claims made in the complaint. 

Williams’ argument contends that the current policy environment focuses on the trauma of veterans while ignoring their professional expertise. “We hear frequent discussion about veteran suicide rates — our vulnerabilities — but far less about veterans’ strengths and professional capabilities,” Williams said in a statement provided to DoubleBlind.

She argues that the industry's challenges stem from "insufficient and inconsistent engagement with key stakeholders," particularly those with backgrounds in logistics and governance. “Systems that rely on vulnerability-focused narratives while underutilizing stakeholder expertise risk long-term instability,” her statement added. 

“Veterans bring experience as public servants, strategists, systems designers, governance practitioners, infrastructure builders, engineers, project managers, and medics,” Williams said. “Many have managed supply chains, coordinated medical response, and built accountability systems in high-stakes environments.”

Williams further states that if the federal government is serious about its stated goals, its approach to policy must shift. “If reducing veteran suicide is a stated objective, workforce creation and entrepreneurship development should be treated as core components of policy design rather than ancillary considerations,” she concluded.

The request concludes by warning that excluding diverse voices from psychedelic community leadership results in a "corporate-heavy" policy landscape that ultimately prioritizes profit over affordability, access, and cultural reciprocity. Williams asserted that "broader stakeholder participation is essential to balanced and durable governance," particularly where public trust and tax-exempt status are involved. 

The convergence of these events — the filing of H.R. 7091, the debate over the Freedom to Heal Act, the Sinema-Ammel scandal, and the filing of Williams’ official complaint — signals a "coming of age" for psychedelic policy in Washington. 

As the Department of Veterans Affairs prepares for a potential influx of research funding should H.R. 709 advance, lawmakers must balance the urgent need for veteran care with the need to maintain a transparent policy environment. "We owe it to the veterans to get this right," Kopelman said. "Accountability isn't just a buzzword; it’s the only way we ensure these medicines remain available for the long haul".

With H.R. 7091 officially in the legislative hopper, the coming months will determine whether the VA can establish a "gold standard" for psychedelic medicine or if progress will be slowed by bureaucratic complexities. The policy fight on Capitol Hill is no longer just about the substances themselves, but about the systems that manage them. While H.R. 7091 emphasizes medical governance and stability, the Freedom to Heal approach focuses on immediate relief. In the middle are veterans, navigating the space between emerging science and a political system only beginning to understand the gravity of the mental healthcare crisis they face, all while FDA-designated “breakthrough therapies” remain illegal to use on U.S. soil. 

Lawmakers must now decide if they can insulate this medical progress from political volatility, or if the scandals involving the "psychedelics lobby" will delay the path to healing. Melissa Lavasani noted that the public often overlooks the substantive groundwork being laid by advocates and allies on Capitol Hill and across the country.

“There’s a lot of noise in this space right now, but what people don’t see is the steady, serious work happening behind the scenes at the federal level,” Lavasani said in a statement to DoubleBlind in the wake of the recent controversies around Capitol Hill. “While headlines focus on personalities and controversy, real progress is being made quietly every day in policy, research infrastructure, and bipartisan relationships that will actually determine whether these therapies become safe, accessible, and sustainable”.

Note: This article was produced in partnership with Psychedelic State(s) of America – a nonprofit-sponsored news organization dedicated to rigorous independent psychedelic journalism. Learn more about PSA’s Media Partnerships Program and the PSA Media Fund here.

Live next Sunday, February 15th, at 11am PT!

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DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

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Psychedelics and VR Can Unlock the Mysteries Behind Tripping, Scientist Says

A neuroscientist at Maastricht University believes virtual reality could help explain why we trip, revealing neural structures that science has yet to fully decode.

By Randy Robinson

STORY UPDATE:

Since this story was originally published by DoubleBlind in 2024, Zeus Tipado has completed this phase of the VR immersion study, testing these ideas in real time and using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to observe participants’ brain activity while immersed in virtual environments. Tipado tells DoubleBlind that he is now preparing the results for publication. While he could not share specific findings ahead of the publish date (which he estimates will be in the spring or early summer), he said the data revealed several significant results. This VR immersion research will continue later this year, but the next phase will incorporate two psychedelics into the mix.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:

Despite imbibing psychedelics for thousands of years, humans still don’t understand how these drugs affect our brains or, more importantly, how they make us trip. Zeus Tipado, a PhD student at Maastricht University, thinks virtual reality may provide key answers to this puzzle since it’s the closest thing we have to a trip without the psychedelics.

Tipado belongs to a growing group of neuroscientists who suspect psychedelics may reveal critical neural structures we previously had no framework for recognizing. Namely, he suspects the human mind is layered like artificial intelligence systems, with higher- and lower-order functions to keep the whole thing running smoothly. In fact, he even suspects the brain perceives reality by predictively constructing it in real-time, again, just like AI images or text generators do.

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“Our brain is easily deceived as to what reality is,” Tipado told New Scientist. 

Tipado imagines the brain in a hierarchy of structures. Higher levels include abstractions, belief systems, and other concepts. Lower levels include direct physical observations, such as colors or sounds. According to this model, our brains usually do pretty well at separating lower levels of brain function from higher levels.

Psychedelics, such as dimethyltryptamine, better known as DMT, skew our perceptions by entangling the higher and lower orders of the mind. Essentially, after dosing DMT, low-level perceptions such as colors may get reshuffled into the higher-order regions of the brain. Meanwhile, higher-level functions such as spirituality may get funneled into the lower levels. This jumbling of functions may lead to, say, a kaleidoscopic experience where one “touched the divine,” when neither gods nor kaleidoscopes were present at the time. 

“Whenever you take psychedelics, the location of this information gets mixed up,” Tipado said to New Scientist. “It’s like putting a PlayStation 5 disc in a PlayStation 2. It’s not compatible. That’s why we have visual experiences that are very counterintuitive.”

And just as eyes are windows to the soul, Tipado believes the eyes may give us insights into psychedelic processes, too. His research focuses on amacrine cells in the retina, which act as “filters” for what we see and don’t see. Previous studies with mice that lack amacrine cells show they can perceive certain parts of objects in the dark, which may be a phenomenon similar to so-called closed-eye visuals in the psychedelics community.

Further, amacrine cells are packed with 5-HT or serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a crucial component for psychedelic experiences, so psychedelic substances altering amacrine cells may contribute to visuals and synesthesia seen while under the influence. Amacrine cells may also be central to psychedelic therapy’s success, as stronger visual hallucinations often correlate with better therapeutic outcomes, as shown in one 2018 study from British researchers at Exeter University and Imperial College London.

Tipado’s research seeks to bridge the knowledge gaps between serotonin, amacrine cells, and the predictive generation of reality in our brains. In his research, subjects wear a VR headset before, during, and after consuming DMT. Using near-infrared spectroscopy, Tipado’s team will beam light through subjects’ brains. Brain activity will determine which frequencies of light can be absorbed or detected, aiming for a better understanding of how these neural networks operate.

Studying both the mind and psychedelics through virtual reality isn’t such a far-fetched idea. In 2020, Cornell University began studying VR as a way to duplicate the mystical experiences of psychedelics. According to that study, stimulating psychedelia in VR can produce many of the same feelings and after-study behaviors observed in psychedelic therapy patients. 

One way Tipado’s research can be applied is in mental health. Karl Friston at University College London and Robin Carhart-Harris at the University of California, San Francisco originally developed the “relaxed beliefs under psychedelics” model, or REBUS. This model, which intersects with Tipado’s layered hierarchy model, says psychedelics loosen the hold our higher-level mind has over us, allowing lower-level cognition to take prominence.

For mental health, our higher-level thinking may get in the way of treatments. Stubborn beliefs, prejudices, or deep-rooted fears that resist treatments may fall apart under a psychedelic substance, opening the mind and the heart to other ways of feeling and perceiving. This is precisely how scientists believe MDMA works to treat PTSD: It rearranges orders of thinking and perception, creating a “window” or “critical period” where the brain can become temporarily malleable – just long enough to undergo significant treatment progress.

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DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

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Good morning and welcome back to the Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about how psilocybin could become a therapy to treat obesity-related diseases.

This study caught our eye because it marks a turning point in the narrative around psychedelics. Most prior research has focused on mental health applications. But this preclinical study examines psilocybin as a medicine for metabolic health, raising intriguing questions about how the compound affects the body, particularly the liver. You can read the story immediately below!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find guides on how to trip sit, a story on “trauma” being a catch-all term, medicine workers getting arrested, and so much more.

Happy Snow Moon 🌕,
Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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Microdosing Psilocybin May Treat Obesity-Related Diseases, New Study Says

Researchers found that sub-perceptual doses of psilocybin improved metabolic markers linked to obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease, without affecting appetite or the nervous system.

A new preclinical study by a conglomerate of Italian universities suggests that psilocybin may offer metabolic benefits at sub-perceptual doses, pointing to a potential new therapy for obesity-related diseases.

The research, published in the journal Pharmacological Research, found that regular administration of very low doses of psilocybin improved metabolic health in mice with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, a condition commonly referred to as Fatty Liver Disease. The study was led by researchers at the University of Padua and the University of Milan and involved institutional collaborators across Europe and the United States.

In the study, mice that were fed a high-fat, high-fructose diet received psilocybin at a dose of 0.05 milligrams per kilogram for 12 weeks. Over that time, researchers observed reduced weight gain, improved insulin sensitivity, normalized blood glucose levels, and a regression of fatty liver disease. What’s perhaps most notable about these findings is that the changes occurred without reducing food intake and without detectable effects on the central nervous system.

Through molecular and tissue-level analyses, the researchers found that consuming small doses of psilocybin helped restore the liver’s chemistry, allowing its metabolism to function closer to normal again. Psilocybin also reduced the accumulation of harmful lipid species, restored insulin signaling pathways, and produced visible improvements in liver structure and key metabolic markers.

“These data challenge the idea that the therapeutic potential of psilocybin is necessarily linked to the psychedelic experience,” said Sara De Martin, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Padua. “At [consistent] low doses, psilocybin acts as a peripheral modulator of metabolism, particularly at the liver level, through a distinct serotonergic pathway.”

Further analysis showed that these metabolic benefits weren’t tied to the serotonin receptor, known as 5-HT2A, that produces the psychedelic experience associated with psilocybin mushrooms. Instead, the benefits came from psilocybin blocking a specific serotonin receptor in the liver, known as 5-HT2B, which researchers confirmed using experiments on human liver cells.

But the findings also extended beyond the liver. Psilocybin-treated mice demonstrated improved muscle strength and function, alongside restored sensitivity to leptin, a hormone involved in regulating energy balance and muscle metabolism. Additionally, pancreatic tissue analysis showed recovery of insulin-producing beta cells that were damaged by the high-fat diet.

“These studies, conducted in an experimental mouse model, suggest that psilocybin could represent a new treatment for MASLD, type 2 diabetes, and obesity in humans,” said Franco Folli, corresponding author and professor at the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Milan.

While these findings are limited to animal models, the implications suggest that psilocybin may have significant applications beyond mental health. The physiological benefits of psychedelics have yet to be explored scientifically at the rate and depth of their impacts on psychological wellbeing. This study, thus, marks a deviation from the current narrative focusing on mental health and opens the door for greater inquiry into a more holistic understanding and application of these substances.

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& More Must-Reads

• Legacy media outlets are regularly dropping the ball in this area, fueling confusion about psychedelic policy and its real legal stakes. Read more here.

• From Mexico to the Czech Republic, facilitators are currently being held for transporting ayahuasca, peyote, and other ancestral medicines. Read more here.

• As trauma becomes the cultural catch-all for everything from inherited fear to everyday stress, this essay asks where real suffering ends, buzzwords begin, and whether psychedelics clarify (or further blur) the line. Read more here.

• If you want to know how to trip sit, learning how to "hold space" can determine the difference between a transformative trip and a challenging one. Read more here.

DoubleBlind Digs

ATTEND: Michael Pollan has announced a tour to promote his latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Check out his tour dates here.

CONVOS: Join Chacruna for a critical conversation examining U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the enduring Drug War, and what military imperialism, narco-politics, and psychedelic expansion mean for veterans, Latin America, and accountability in today’s psychedelic movement. Register here.

PETS: This month’s Psychedelic Professionals Meet takes a closer look at something often overlooked: how altered states can impact the animals we live with—and what responsibility, respect, and care look like in our psychedelic lives. Join Casara Andre and Dori Lewis for a conversation on consent, animal safety, and the ripple effects of psychedelic experiences beyond the self. Learn more and attend here.

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Around the Web

• A new naturalistic study finds that the intensity of altered states—across psychedelics, dissociatives, and entactogens—hinges less on the drug alone than on intention, dose, substance type, age, and gender, pointing to a shared neurobiological sensitivity behind peak experiences. Read more.

• As psychedelic medicine hurtles toward its first true commercial reckoning, 2026 will test whether billion-dollar valuations for Compass, Definium, AtaiBeckley, and Helus rest on clinical breakthroughs—or speculative froth. Read more.

• New research at the intersection of jazz, neuroscience, and psychedelics reveals how altered states reshape the brain’s response to sound—offering fresh clues to why music can unlock memory, emotion, and healing. Read more.

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There Is a Misinformation Problem in Mainstream Psychedelic Policy Reporting

Misleading headlines around New Jersey’s psilocybin pilot program reveal how misinformation and weak media literacy are distorting psychedelic policy debates nationwide.

By Jack Gorsline

When New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed NJ Senate Bill 2282 – formally known as the Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Therapy Pilot Program – into law earlier this month, the news was met with a flurry of headlines across the tri-state area. But within hours, advocates and legal experts noticed a troubling trend: The reporting didn't match the new legislation.

Denise Rue, founder of the New Jersey Psychedelic Therapy Association (NJPTA), has publicly criticized local and state media for their reporting on the bill. Rue specifically took to social media to decry coverage from ABC7 New York, calling it a "great example of inaccurate reporting & sensationalized headlines." While the legislation, originally introduced as A3852, establishes $6 million for a psilocybin-assisted therapy pilot program in controlled hospital settings, the bill does not "legalize" psilocybin under state law for retail or commercial sales.

"There is nothing here about legalizing magic mushrooms," Rue said. "[Articles like that] do nothing to further the reasonable discussion of psychedelic medicines."

The impact of the wave of inaccurate local and regional coverage was immediate, Rue said in a statement to DoubleBlind. Just days after the erroneous headlines, she noted that “NJPTA received a deluge of requests from individuals requesting psilocybin-assisted therapy,” but were unaware that the pilot program would only treat patients with qualifying conditions at just three hospital locations across the state. 

The misinformation train gathered steam as other outlets followed suit by covering the same story. ABC 6 Philadelphia ran a similar headline, and shortly thereafter, popular psychedelic education Instagram accounts, such as Psychedelic Support and its 31,000+ followers, also reposted the misleading headlines, further fanning the flames. The NJ Monitor proclaimed that legislators had advanced a bill to "legalize" the drug, while an editorial contributor for the Monitor wrote that the state passed a bill that could "change mental health treatment forever." On the airwaves, NJ 101.5 reported that the state "moved close to legalizing 'magic mushrooms'" following a committee vote in late 2025.

"When misinformation, even optimistic misinformation, spreads about psychedelics legislation, disastrous consequences can result," says Victoria Cvitanovic, a psychedelic and cannabis industry compliance attorney for Rudick Law Group LLP. Cvitanovic, a former prosecutor prior to her career in compliance law, warns that inaccurate media can unintentionally encourage illegal activity by suggesting substances are "legal" when they remain prohibited at both the state and federal levels.

"Inaccurate reporting can encourage businesses to change their behavior in ways that undermine the safety of their customers," Cvitanovic told DoubleBlind in an email. "Unreliable news stories can even make people think battles like decriminalization or expungements are won, directing advocacy attention and dollars away from the people who are serving prison time for these substances... Headlines don’t protect anyone when a raid is happening."

The gap in quality journalism extends beyond state-level pilot programs to the federal level, where a petition to reschedule psilocybin remains largely ignored by mainstream outlets. While cannabis rescheduling has dominated headlines for years, the potential for psilocybin to move from Schedule I to Schedule II — a shift that would legitimize its medical utility — has occurred in a relative media vacuum.

"The pending petition to reschedule psilocybin has the potential to bring seismic change for access to psilocybin-assisted therapy nationwide," said Kathryn Tucker, director of advocacy for the National Psychedelics Association and counsel on the petition. "This has not been as widely covered in the media as seems warranted."\

Tucker suggests this may be due to the assumption that the "dismal quagmire" of cannabis rescheduling — which was first set in motion under former President Joe Biden’s administration back in 2022 and is still pending nearly four years later — will inevitably bog down the timeline for rescheduling psilocybin. Tucker further argued that this ignores the multiple "breakthrough therapy" designations already granted to psilocybin by the FDA based on its potential to treat complex mental health conditions like Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Rescheduling psilocybin could allow access even before full FDA approval under the 2018 Right to Try Act, which allows patients with life-threatening illnesses who have exhausted approved treatments to use certain investigational therapies.

"There are surely those with commercial interests who would prefer the agencies to stall on the pending petition," Tucker said. "But there is no reason the agencies should delay action... given that terminally ill patients are dying daily who could obtain relief, and veterans are dying daily by suicide, which could be addressed with psilocybin therapy, action ought to be swift."

The prevalence of "clickbait" journalism — in the psychedelic beat and beyond — is fueled by a broader decline in political, civic, scientific, and media literacy across the United States. While the 2025 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey shows that 70% of U.S. adults can now name all three branches of government – a record high – this basic knowledge has not translated into a sophisticated understanding of how complex state drug policies intersect with federal law.

A more alarming trend is evident among younger demographics. Research from Stanford University suggests that nearly all surveyed high school students were unable to correctly identify that a viral video purportedly showing "ballot stuffing” activities was, in fact, fake and had been filmed in Russia. Additionally, 96% were unable to identify the corporate interests behind information sites. This is particularly relevant given that 60% of Americans aged 18-34 now cite social media as their primary news source, according to Ipsos/Psychedelic Alpha polling.

The lack of critical thinking upon consumption is bolstered by falling academic standards across the U.S. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported a four-point decline in average 8th-grade science scores since 2019, while recent NCES figures show that as of January 2025, 54% of the U.S. adult population lacks the reading proficiency of a sixth-grader.

In such environments, "medical" claims on social media are rarely vetted. A 2025 University of Sydney study found that 70% of Instagram and TikTok posts endorsing unproven medical screenings were made by individuals with a direct financial stake in them. For the psychedelic industry, this means the public is increasingly vulnerable to "influencer-led" policy interpretations that prioritize engagement over legal accuracy, creating a dangerous feedback loop for patients and policymakers alike.

Roughly 33% of journalists have embraced the “creator” model, according to an October 2025 study by Muck Rack. This shift is expected to influence the future of accessible psychedelic journalism.

These creators operate outside the traditional newsroom, as they self-publish content ranging from hard news to personal analysis. Psychedelic journalists and news content creators comprise a significant portion of this independent media subset. Popular newsletters such as Tricycle Day and Ecstatic Integration report tens of thousands of individual subscribers worldwide. Meanwhile, independent outlets like Tripsitter operate exclusively through Substack, and other newsletter platforms, such as Beehiiv, now list “Psychedelics” as a pre-selectable subcategory for new users during the signup process.

Even DoubleBlind transitioned to a newsletter-first distribution model in late 2024. The move was driven in part by algorithmic restrictions facing independent psychedelic news and educational organizations on Google search and social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter/X.

While these ecosystem contractions have benefited those able to navigate the changing market, other outlets have been less successful. For example, Psychedelic Spotlight attempted an artificial intelligence-generated reboot in 2024 that lasted only four months. It is one of several defunct psychedelic news outlets that remain online but inactive, alongside Psychedelic Science Review, Psychedelic Times, and Psychedelic News Wire.

Initially, traditional media organizations have shown reluctance to embrace the rise of the creator-journalist. However, in recent years, prominent academic institutions like the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics have collaborated with psychedelic publications like Psychedelic Alpha and Sex and Psychedelics, marking a stark evolution for elite American universities that once ran psychedelic pioneers like Timothy Leary and Ram Dass out of higher academia altogether. Similarly, prestigious journalism organizations, like The Lenfest Institute, have created resources such as its Guide to Identifying Credible Local Journalism Creators, and Harvard University’s Department of Continuing Education now offers a Content Creator Journalism Course.

Beyond the psychedelic media and policy paradigms, psychedelic use is increasing year over year in the U.S. at a steady rate. A recent report from the RAND Corp. found that 10 million Americans tried at least one psychedelic in 2025. That number is expected to rise further once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves pharmaceutical giant Compass Pathways' patented synthetic psilocybin compound, COMP360, which is anticipated by the end of this year.

Additionally, the legislative landscape is shifting just as rapidly. By the end of January 2025, 16 states had filed more than 30 psychedelic-related bills, with additional states expected to enter the policy reform race in the coming weeks. As these substances move from underground to mainstream clinical and regulatory frameworks, the burden of accurate reporting becomes a public health issue.

To navigate the surge of scientific and media misinformation, journalists, researchers, and enthusiasts must prioritize rigorous verification and radical transparency. To Sam Chapman - Founder of and Executive Director for the Center for Psychedelic Policy, responsible media stewardship, it “isn’t just about controlling the narrative. It’s about owning it by proactively engaging the media when we know coverage is coming,” said Chapman. “Bills often change significantly as they move through the process.”

As psychedelic use increases and policy reform outpaces the public’s understanding of it, the consequences of misinformation are no longer abstract. For advocates working at the intersection of media, legislation, and public health, accuracy has to arrive before narratives calcify — not after.

“These moments are an opportunity for advocates to engage reporters directly, clarify amendments, request corrections when needed, and build trusted relationships so future coverage reflects where legislation actually lands,” Chapman concluded, “while helping educate the public about where thoughtful policy design is headed.”

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DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics. We work with leading medical professionals, scientific researchers, journalists, mycologists, indigenous stewards, and cultural pioneers. Read about our editorial policy and fact-checking process here.

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The War on Drugs Fuels Environmental Destruction, Report Says

Global drug prohibition is undermining efforts to effectively address the climate crisis.

By Ben Adlin

A report from an international coalition of advocacy groups says global drug prohibition has fueled environmental destruction in some of the world’s most critical ecosystems, undermining efforts to address the climate crisis.

As policymakers, governments, NGOs and activists work to craft urgent responses to protect tropical forests, which are some of the largest carbon sinks on the planet, the report says that “their efforts will fail as long as those committed to environmental protection neglect to recognize, and grapple with, the elephant in the room”—namely “the global system of criminalized drug prohibition, popularly known as the ‘war on drugs.’”

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The 63-page document was published on Thursday by the International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice, which describes itself as “composed of advocates, activists, artists and academics from both the drug policy reform movement and the environmental and climate movement.”

Affiliated organizations include Health Poverty Action, LEAP Europe, SOS Amazônia, the Transnational Institute (TNI), and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Members are from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

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Authors describe drug policy as the “missing link” in climate justice, noting how prohibition has pushed drug production and trafficking into “key environmental frontiers” like the Amazon rainforest and the jungles of Southeast Asia.

“Wherever smallholders are growing drug crops at the forest margin, or traffickers transporting their products through tropical forests, it’s because the dynamics of drug law enforcement pushed them there,” the report says. “In fact, in the few cases where opium, cannabis, and coca are being legally grown—to supply the pharmaceutical and beverage industries—their cultivation occurs in conventional agricultural contexts.”

Profits from illegal drug operations also power a network of other criminal activity that causes environmental harm, the authors wrote. As examples, the report points to illegal trades “in wildlife, tropical timber, archaeological artifacts, gold and other minerals, as well as investments in legal agribusinesses such as beef, palm oil, soy and avocados. Drug profits also provide seed capital for the business of human trafficking.”

The paper includes case studies and photos detailing how environmental harm stems from prohibitionist policies. One example links drug trafficking in Peru to illegal gold mining, while another ties illicit money from the cocaine trade to the destruction of the severely threatened Upper Guinean forest of West Africa.

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The international community is increasingly recognizing the work of criminal actors in financing “land grabs, deforestation, timber and wildlife trafficking, and socially and ecologically devastating mining,” the report says, as well as government corruption. “Yet these analyses stop short of identifying the driver of these criminal activities.”

“Rarely, if at all, is the system that underpins so many of these crimes, and the driver of so much harm ever mentioned,” it continues, asserting that “it needs to be clearly acknowledged that current drug policies are one of the main drivers of this economic and institutional dysfunction.”

From an environmental and economic justice perspective, the report says, the drug war perpetuates a cycle of poverty and persecution against society’s most vulnerable.

“The drug trade can offer a decent income or means of survival, where no other exists,” it says, noting that an estimated 200,000 families make a living growing coca in Colombia. “Even when those farmers are persecuted by police or military, the pragmatic livelihood benefits of growing illegal drug crops often compel them to return to the business despite high risks.”

While low-level, disadvantaged small farmers face eradication of their crops, arrest, and incarceration, “those at the top of the trade remain largely unscathed as their power, money, or violence buys them immunity from prosecution and influence over elite policy making.”

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To combat the harms of prohibition and ensure climate initiatives are effective, the report maintains that “effective and responsible drug regulation is necessary.” But it warns that reforms have to be holistic and grounded in human rights, public health, sustainable development, and environmental justice.

“The alternative,” it cautions: “drug reforms co-opted by big corporations and powerful elites that replicate the harms of prohibition, whilst climate initiatives fail, missing the opportunity to avert climate catastrophe, because they ignored one of its underlying causes.”

The report touches on the history of the global drug war and its failure, emphasizing that prohibitionist policies pursued by what it calls the Global North were based largely on a desire “for the social control of ‘undesireables,’ be they immigrants, racial minorities, Indigenous communities, or political and ideological opponents.”

It describes the drug war as “disastrous,” even on its own terms. “Illegal drugs are more available, cheaper, more varied, and more potent and dangerous than ever before; more people use drugs, experience drug-related health harms and death.”

Trends today are changing, authors noted, pointing out that “more than half a billion people will soon be living in jurisdictions where cannabis is legal.” And reforms aren’t limited to marijuana:

Regulated drug markets raise difficult questions, the report acknowledges. “But the reality of resilient demand for drugs has to be the basis of any rational discussion; we either responsibly regulate drug markets or we continue with the manifest failings of prohibition, and abdication of control to destructive organised crime groups,” it says. “There is no third option in which they can be magically wished away, or the ‘war on drugs’ somehow emerging victorious.”

The report comes amid a changing global mindset about controlled substances, even as the drug war rages on. A United Nations agency report last month highlighted human rights concerns raised by the war on drugs, urging member states to shift from punitive drug-control policies to an approach rooted in public health. Dealing with drugs as a criminal problem, it said, is causing further harm.

UN experts and global leaders echoed those points in June as part of World Drug Day.

In 2019, the UN Chief Executives Board, which represents 31 UN agencies including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), adopted a position stipulating that member states should pursue science-based, health-oriented drug policies “including the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.”

Latin American and Caribbean countries also recently agreed to rethink the drug war. Under the current, punitive approach, “the expected results have not been obtained when combating the world drug problem, leaving in many cases the underlying problems to be solved and exploiting and exacerbating vulnerabilities of our territories and societies,” according to a joint statement issued by 19 nations.

Nevertheless, a recent report by the organization Harm Reduction International found that wealthy countries gave nearly $1 billion to further the global drug war.

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Good morning and welcome back to the Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about UCSD’s first psychedelic conference: Imaginarium. Were you there?!

We were drawn to this event because it was among the first psychedelic conferences we’d attended that focused on a largely underdiscussed application of these substances. Rather than framing psychedelics as a mental health cure, the conversation centered on imagination and what it makes possible. You can find that story immediately below!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll also find pieces on a New York art critic who helped bring the city’s psychedelic art scene to a global audience, a guide to Psilocybes, a deep dive into the Merry Pranksters, and a trip through Meow Wolf.

Stay hydrated 💧
Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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UC San Diego Explores Psychedelics as Tools for Creativity and Problem-Solving

UC San Diego has officially entered the chat. On January 17, the university hosted Imaginarium, its first psychedelics conference, featuring the likes of Jim Fadiman, Hamilton Morris, Rick Doblin, and Alex and Allyson Grey. But unlike most academia-funded drug gatherings — which often center exclusively on some facet of mental health — the event focused on psychedelics as a way to engage the imagination and catalyze creativity to problem-solve.

“Our collective focus was to say, ‘yes, we do want to test psychedelics for all kinds of clinical conditions,’” said Cassandra Vieten, psychology director at UC San Diego’s Center for Psychedelic Research, which formally became a center about a year ago. “But we also want to look at whether some of the experiences people have on psychedelics allow them to solve vexing problems by approaching them from a different perspective, whether that’s at an individual level or a societal one.”

The relationship between psychedelics, imagination, creativity, and problem-solving remains an understudied outcome of psychedelics. Vieten pointed to a long-standing gap between what people say psychedelics do for insight and creativity and what researchers have meaningfully studied. “So far, it’s been very random and anecdotal,” she said. “So our question was like, can we be more intentional about that?”

At the center of that gap is imagination, not as a vague or untethered Disney fantasy, but as a cognitive process that shapes how people think, learn, and solve problems. “We know that psychedelics increase connectivity in the brain,” Vieten said to DoubleBlind. “One of the hallmark brain signatures of psychedelics is this massive connectivity between areas of the brain that are not usually connected.”

That neurological openness may help explain why people report sudden insights or shifts in perspective during psychedelic experiences. “So the idea is, maybe we’re actually connecting ideas that have never been connected,” Vieten said. “And we’re like, oh, wait a minute, I see.”

Throughout the day on Jan. 17, speakers supported their lectures and panels with examples of how altered states (psychedelic or otherwise) contribute to insight, creativity, and discovery. Vieten noted that humans have long recognized the cognitive value of states beyond ordinary waking consciousness. “We’ve all known that altered states of consciousness can definitely open your mind and make it more likely that you’re able to see things that you can’t see in ordinary states of consciousness.”

Vieten also drew a distinction between imagination and creativity, arguing that the two are often conflated. “Creativity is actually making something out of what you’ve imagined,” she said. “But imagination is so much bigger where you’re really contemplating all the possibilities, even if they are fictional, even if they are fantasy.” In that sense, imagination functions as the broader mental terrain from which creative outcomes (and solutions) eventually emerge.

Research suggests that imagination alone can have measurable effects on the body and behavior. Vieten pointed to studies showing that mental imagery can directly influence physical performance. “There are great studies now showing that if you, for example, imagine that your muscle is growing while you are lifting weights, you will get more strength out of weightlifting than you would if you weren’t imagining it,” she said, noting that participants can experience “30% more strength than if you weren’t also imagining it.”

Looking to the future, Vieten pointed to future research efforts that would test these ideas in more applied settings. She said the MIND Foundation plans to host action-research retreats that bring together participants working on scientific, policy, or societal challenges. The goal is to see whether carefully prepared and integrated psychedelic experiences can help groups move closer to solving major societal problems.

For UCSD, Imaginarium marked a step forward in how the benefits of psychedelics are being understood. Rather than centering on therapy alone, the conference sought to widen the frame and position imagination as a credible, researchable domain in its own right. “We spend a lot of time talking about what we don’t like about what’s happening now,” Vieten said, “but we should be spending more time talking about how we imagine things could be better and shaping the public imagination.”

Sneak Peek

& More Must-Reads

• At 90, Merry Prankster Ken Babbs reflects on the Acid Tests, Ken Kesey, Vietnam, and the unruly beginnings of psychedelic America. Read more.

• Carlo McCormick, the New York art critic who helped bring the city’s psychedelic art scene to the world, looks back on an era of rebellion, creativity, and cultural transformation. Read more.

• Meow Wolf LA is slated to bring expansive immersive art and creativity to a new Los Angeles audience. Read more.

• A new wearable brain-imaging helmet could allow researchers to observe how psychedelics affect the brain in real time during clinical trials. Read more.

• Once suspected of being deadly, Psilocybe baeocystis is a rare Pacific Northwest mushroom that helped shape early psychedelic science—and was misunderstood for decades. Read more.

DoubleBlind Digs

TRAVEL: A new summit in Puerto Rico brought clinicians, researchers, and global leaders together to explore the future of psychedelic medicine and mental health innovation on the island. Learn more here.

ATTEND: Michael Pollan has announced a tour to promote his latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Check out his tour dates here.

LEARN: Registration is open for Cohort 6 of the Psychedelic Liberation Training, a three-month program designed to support practitioners in building embodied, justice-centered approaches to psychedelic healing and collective liberation. Learn more here.

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Around the Web

• A new nationally representative RAND survey estimates that about 11 million U.S. adults used psilocybin in 2025, and roughly 10 million microdosed psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA. Read more.

• A new systematic review finds that psilocybin, alongside conventional benzodiazepine–opioid regimens, shows promise for reducing anxiety in end-of-life care, though researchers stress the need for larger, more rigorous trials. Read more.

• A psychedelic drugmaker best known for ketamine and psilocybin patches is now turning its microneedle platform toward GLP-1 obesity drugs, betting that needle-free, long-acting delivery could reshape how these treatments are used. Read more.

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