This week's Elixir of the Week: Patent Race, Abuse Treatment, Psilocybin in the UK, Ketamine Music, and More

Jane HuOctober 29, 2021

welcome! Thank you for joining us on Microdosing. This is the first of our weekly Friday Elixir Newsletter, designed to keep you updated on what's happening in the Elixir world this week. let's start!

The patent race continues. According to Psilocybin Alpha's patent tracker , the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted dozens of patents on miraculous drugs, and has more than three dozen patent applications -- as far as we know now. (Patent filings don't go public for 18 months, though some companies announce publicly before then.) Compass Pathways, a Nasdaq-listed mental health company, is conducting clinical trials using psychic drugs to treat depression. Trials, recently obtained a fourth patent for a synthetic psilocybin "Hydrate A" . In an interview with STAT , Mason Marks of Harvard Law School broke down the company's strategy from his perspective: "Just like landlords want to expand and buy more properties, they try to lock up as much intellectual property as possible to consolidate their position in the market". Compass Pathways' corporate president responded that he was "confident in its intellectual property strategy" and that the company's patented inventions were "novel and inventive."

An open letter on abuse treatment. Over the past few weeks, a number of people have come forward alleging abuse they suffered during psychedelic treatment. The abuse allegedly occurred during the sessions of practitioners who provided "underground" therapy - that is, treatment with a limited number of people outside of clinical trials at a high-profile research facility. While abuse can occur in any type of therapy, patients treated with psychedelic drugs are particularly vulnerable because they are being treated in an abnormal state of consciousness—experiencing trance, unlike non-psychedelic treatment victims. Patients abused by phantom therapy are not always able to report these underground practitioners to state licensing boards. Practitioners, researchers , and other members of the miraculous medicine community are grappling with this issue and attempting to establish ethical standards for the field.

An open letter published on Medium this week, signed by dozens of people in the elixirs community, reiterates the importance of addressing abuse in therapy. (The letter was originally published by the Chacruna Institute .) The letter stresses the importance of acknowledging allegations and taking them seriously, and proposes four steps that can serve as a guide for "preventing and addressing incidents of harm and abuse in our communities in principle".

Will the UK reclassify psilocybin? In the UK, psilocybin is listed as a "Schedule A" or Schedule I drug with no medical use. Classification of psilocybin and other miraculous drugs poses a roadblock to research, according to a new study published in the journal Pharmaceutical Science, Policy and Law. Through interviews with researchers who conduct research on opioids and other controlled substances, the authors find that despite recent evidence that miracle drugs can help treat mental health disorders, "real, fiscal, bureaucratic barriers" prevent large-scale of clinical trials. The authors say their results suggest that the UK government should conduct an "urgent review" of the challenges facing scientists and consider relaxing the rules to remove barriers to research.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported that , according to MP Crispin Blunt, Prime Minister Boris Johnson "privately promised [Blount] in May this year that he would work to re-open clinical research on psilocybin. Reclassification." The timetable for the change is unclear - but if it does take effect, it could mark a new chapter in UK bioscience and elixir research.

Provide music for your trip. In traditional rituals, music is often part of the psychedelic experience. Now that these experiences are being conducted in the lab and in the clinic, researchers are carefully considering what participants listen to during the therapy session. The right music, as one DJ puts it, can create a "safe vessel" for therapy. A recent Guardian article highlights the companies and musicians working to create soothing sounds for psychedelic experiences. Jon Hopkins is one such musician whose upcoming new album is timed to coincide with a typical ketamine trip. Listen to "Sit Around the Fire," a song co-written and sung by Hopkins, psychedelic artist East Forest , and late spiritual leader and 60s psychedelic icon Ram Dass .

in addition:

• Next week, voters in Detroit will weigh in on a proposal that would decriminalize the personal possession and therapeutic use of psychedelic plants.

• Medications and Me just launched their new website with resources on harm reduction and health-enhancing medicines.

• To get you in the Halloween spirit: Some historical evidence suggests that witches who "fly" on broomsticks are actually taking hallucinogenic ointments made from hemlock, tuberose, millet and datura .

That's it for this week, have a great weekend! Stay tuned for our Monday update, "5 Questions," our first weekly Q&A with leading minds in the field of elixirs.

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