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Read our independent data-driven reporting, analysis and commentary on the psychedelics space: from business and drug development through to policy reform and culture.

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The latest

The VA, Psychedelics, and the Future of Mental Health: A Conversation with Shereef Elnahal, Former VA Under Secretary for Health

April 14, 2025

Dr. Shereef Elnahal, former VA Under Secretary for health, discusses how he came to champion psychedelic research within the VA, the promising data in conditions like PTSD and substance use disorders, and the institutional groundwork needed to support the potential roll-out of these therapies at scale. He also shares his opinions on the balancing act between medicalisation and advocacy, and what a coordinated federal approach to psychedelics might, or should, look like.

Pα+ Psychedelic Bulletin #193: VA Secretary on Psychedelics; Preprint Challenges Replicability of Psilocybin’s Persistent Effects in Mice; Market Mayhem and Agency Shake-Ups

April 11, 2025

‘Everything’s On the Table’: VA Secretary Signals Openness to Psychedelics, But Concrete Plans Lacking • Drug Developers Caught Between Tariff Talk, Agency Shake-Ups, and Market Mayhem • Multi-Lab Preprint Study Challenges Replicability of Psilocybin’s Persistent Effects in Mice • Kwan Lab Links 5-HT2A Receptors and Pyramidal Tract to Psilocybin’s Lasting Effects in Mice • FDA Clears Nation’s First Whole-Mushroom Psilocybin Study • Terran vs. Compass Lawsuit Moves Forward as Court Rejects Dismissal • and more…

Psychedelic Policy Update: Medical Access, Industry Influence, and Voter Suppression Shape 2025 Landscape

April 9, 2025

As New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Act Passes, Questions of Access, Provider Risk, and Industry Influence Loom • Arizona’s Oregon-Style Psilocybin Services Bill Gutted and Replaced by Compass Pathways’ Crystalline Polymorph Psilocybin Rescheduling Trigger Law • A Mixed Bag for Compass’ Other Trigger Law Bills • Idaho HJR 4 Passes, Preventing Voters from Legalising Psychoactive Drugs via Ballot Initiatives • Arizona Bill Carving Out $5M for Ibogaine Research Passes House, Working Way through Senate

BREAKING: New Mexico Passes Nation’s First Legislature-Driven Psilocybin Access Act

April 8, 2025

Yesterday, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed SB 219, the Medical Psilocybin Act, which will establish the third state-legal psilocybin access system in the US. In simple terms, the Act creates a framework through which patients with qualifying conditions can access and use non-synthetic psilocybin through consultation with a licensed healthcare provider.

Behind the Bill: Inside a Bipartisan Effort to Bring Psychedelic Therapy to Veterans

April 4, 2025

Psychedelic Alpha’s Josh Hardman speaks with Melissa Lavasani and Amy Rising about a recently-introduced bill, the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act, and the growing momentum behind expanding access to psychedelic therapies for veterans. Backed by lawmakers across the aisle and major veteran organisations, the bill aims to establish Centers of Excellence that would receive funding to research and provide psychedelic-based treatments.

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The Library

Through our years of reporting we have covered many of the topics we believe to be important to the present and future of the psychedelics space, broadly defined. However, much of this commentary is scattered across Bulletins, deep dives, special reports and year-end reviews.

The Library provides digestible explainers on salient topics across psychedelic drug development, policy and business: from basic explainers such as “what is psychedelic-assisted therapy?” through to more complex matters such as REMS programs and bifurcated scheduling.

It’s exclusively available to our Pα+ subscribers, with new content added regularly.

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Pα+ Library: Bifurcated Scheduling

December 6, 2023

Pα+ Library: we introduce some of the key concepts in the matter of bifurcated scheduling; a process by which an approved drug product may be placed in a different schedule to the substance itself. As we discuss in this piece, this could have significant repercussions for psychedelic research, legality, and even taxes.

Pα+ Library: Psychedelic REMS

November 15, 2023

Pα+ Library: we sketch out what a psychedelic REMS might look like, highlighting how these programs could have an outsized impact on the post-approval delivery and accessibility of these treatments.

The Psychedelic News Feed Archives

Archived versions of our Psychedelic News Feed.

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