Psyched: Biden Approves Psychedelics Trials, RFK, Australia's First Legal Dedicated Clinic & More

President Biden Approves Psychedelics Clinical Trials For Active Military Members

President Biden signed into law the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), large-scale legislation that also contains a mandate to fund clinical trials with psychedelics for active service members.

The decision was announced on Friday, Dec. 22, a little over a week after receiving the bill’s final version that was designed and approved in a bicameral move in Congress. Keep reading HERE.

Psychedelics Legalization & 2024 Election: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Confirms Support In New Interview

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared his views and standpoint on psychedelics as a mental health treatment during a recent podcast interview. 

The news comes at the same time as President Biden’s imminent call on whether to pass a large-scale defense bill that would fund studies with psychedelics on active duty service members. 

The independent presidential candidate said an ayahuasca experience helped his son process the death of his mother, Kennedy's ex-wife Mary Richardson Kennedy, which influenced his own views on the topic. Read more HERE.

Incannex Healthcare To Open First Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Clinic In Australia

Melbourne will soon open Clarion Clinics’ first exclusively dedicated facility to provide psychedelic-assisted therapies legalized in Australia. 

The subsidiary to biotech Incannex Healthcare IXHL received the required Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) endorsement for the administration of MDMA and psilocybin therapies for PTSD and Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) respectively. 

Reportedly “the only dedicated psychedelic-assisted therapy clinic in Australia” with a team comprised of renowned researchers, psychologists and psychiatrists, Clarion Clinics announced its intentions to open more clinics across the country and internationally. Learn more HERE.

The Milestone Round

• Awakn Life Sciences AWKNF entered into a global licensing agreement for a ketamine sublingual delivery formulation.

• Do psychedelic treatments always require psychotherapy? Well, we need to look 'beyond reductionism'.

• Inebriation remedy and breakthrough MS treatment: Meet FSD Pharma HUGE.

• Mississippi cannabis crisis, PA's decriminalization bill, kratom discussed in Congress and more.

• Santa's secret psychedelic origin: Forget coke, Christmas is all about magic mushrooms.

• Psychedelic cinema: 10 trippy holiday movies that warp reality

See Also: Last Week's Edition Of 'Psyched'

Kaleidoscope Corner

• Filament Health FLHLF terminated its proposed business combination with Jupiter Acquisition.

• Compass Pathways CMPS announced its investigational COMP360 psilocybin treatment was well-tolerated in a Phase 2 study on PTSD.

• UC Berkeley welcomed world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Gül Dölen to its faculty.

• A Shipibo curandero was stabbed six times by a Westerner seeking ayahuasca.

• American heavyweight Deontay Wilder claims to have been reborn after taking ayahuasca.

• Prof. David Nutt’s reflections on ketamine’s involvement in Matthew Perry’s death.

• Oregon: Confluence Retreats launched its psilocybin offer at Buckhorn Springs.

• Canadian free “Get Your Drugs Tested” service site has analyzed as many as 60,000+ samples, says cofounder Dana Larsen. 

• Neuroscience Applied: Knowledge gaps in psychedelic medicalization: Preclinical and neuroimaging mechanisms (read).

• Set and setting predict psychopathology, wellbeing and meaningfulness of psychedelic experiences: a correlational study (read).

• Longitudinal associations between psychedelic use and unusual visual experiences in the United States and the United Kingdom (read).

• On the ambiguity of psychedelic awe in China (read).

• Group psychedelic therapy: empirical estimates of cost-savings and improved access (read).

• Endorsement of metaphysical idealism mediates a link between past use of psychedelics and well-being (read).

• Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center and the University of Lisbon jointly launched an international survey on Health Behavior Change Through Psychedelics (participate). 

• Research project at UC-BCSP: “Multigenerational Perspectives of Psilocybin Mushrooms in Urban Native Communities of the Northwest and Southwest United States” (participate).

• The EU Drugs Agency (EMCDDA) published its latest report on overview of drug consumption rooms in the continent (read).

• Official report on drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales at highest level in 30 years.

• Drug Science launched a new podcast on neuroplasticity and its link with the treatment of anorexia nervosa (listen). 

• Dr. Nolan Williams on New Approaches to Treating Major Depressive Disorder (listen).

• Tadeusz Hawrot at Awareness Lectures on Psychedelics in Switzerland (ALPS) conference this 2023 on building and expanding access to psychedelic therapies (watch).

• Science Vs released a podcast session on Imperial College London’s Center for Psychedelic Research DMT work (listen).

EVENTS & COURSES

• Therapists’ training platform Fluence and MAPS PBC have launched an MDMA-Assisted Therapy Education program; plus Fluence’s new certificate in Psychedelic Therapy & Integration.

• Jules Evans’ next Psychedelic Safety Seminar, “Should we ditch the term 'challenging psychedelic experience'?”, with Rick Strassman and Abigail Calder will be on Jan. 16 online (mark).

• Mycologyst Paul Stamets is coming to the Psychedelics in the Beehive meeting next Jan. 19 in Salt Lake City, Utah (mark).

• How To Academy’s “Change Your Life 2024” onsite festival will bring together Ruby Wax, Prof. David Nutt, Tim Spector, Viv Groskop & others next Jan. 20 (mark).

• The International Society for Research on Psychedelics (ISRP) is meeting in New Orleans February 16-18, submissions still open (mark).

• MIND Foundation’s next Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT) course (English) will kick off next March (mark).

• Mount Sinai's Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma is launching a new course on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, March 31-April 5 (mark). 

• The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will hold a multi-stakeholder workshop on psychedelics, “Towards an EU regulatory framework” in April 2024 (mark).

• Vancouver Island University has launched Canada's “first” Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Grad Certificate, starting next fall (mark).

Psychedelics ETF’s Weekly Performance

AdvisorShares Psychedelics ETF PSIL opened Tuesday, Dec. 26 at $1.42, following prior openings at $1.34, $1.31 and $1.37 (Dec. 18, 11 and 4, respectively.)

On Friday, Dec. 22 it closed at $1.42, following prior closings at $1.38 and $1.33 (twice) (Dec. 15, 8 and 1, respectively.) 

Week’s highest was $1.43 (on Tuesday 19), vs. prior weeks’ highest at $1.41 (twice) and $1.43.

Week’s lowest was $1.32 on Wednesday 20, vs. prior weeks’ lowest at $1.29, $1.28 and $1.27.

Highest Trading Psychedelics Stocks Friday, Dec. 22 At Close

• COMPASS Pathways CMPS closed at $8.75, still jumping from prior closings at $7.95, $6.47 and $6.10. 

• GH Research GHRS closed at $5.49, still dropping as of prior closings at $5.71, $5.98 and $6.40.

• Incannex Healthcare IXHL closed at $3.92, similar to the immediate previous closing at $3.84, still behind the two following astoundingly high closings at $5.53 and $5.23.

• Mind Medicine (MindMed) MNMD closed at $3.57, slightly up from all three prior closings at $3.40, $3.21 and $3.52.

• Clearmind Medicine CMND closed at $2.95, an uptake as of the prior closing at $2.77, yet still not recovering from the prior two weeks at $3.30 and $4.14.

• Silo Pharma SILO closed at $1.60, slight uptake as of prior closings at $1.47, $1.50 and $1.45. 

• Seelos Therapeutics SEEL closed at $1.56, continuing the trend as of prior closings at $1.59, $1.66 and $1.38.

• Bright Minds Biosciences DRUG closed at $1.50, also maintaining the closing trend as of prior weeks at $1.49, $1.56 and $1.42.

• Atai Life Sciences ATAI closed at $1.40, still uptaking considering prior closings at $1.27, $1.21 and $1.12. 

• Enveric Biosciences ENVB closed at $1.32, falling from all prior closings at $1.36, $1.52 and $1.68.

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