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Tag: psychedelic

  • Why Former NFL All-Pros Are Turning to Psychedelics

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    Roam the wide-open halls and cavernous showrooms of the Colorado Convention Center during Psychedelic Science, the world’s largest psychedelics conference, and you’ll see exhibitors hawking everything from mushroom jewelry, to chewable gummies containing extracts of the psychoactive succulent plant kanna, to broad flat-brim baseball caps emblazoned with “MDMA” and “IBOGA.” Booths publicize organizations such as the Ketamine Taskforce and the Psychedelic Parenthood Community, and even The Faerie Rings, a live-action feature film looking to attract investors.

    It’s a motley, multifarious symposium where indigenous-plant-medicine healers mingle with lanyard-clad pharma-bros, legendary underground LSD chemists, and workaday stoners tottering around in massive red and white toadstool hats that make them look like that cute little mushroom guy from Mario. And yet, oddest among such oddities may be the sight of enormously burly NFL tough guys talking candidly about their feelings.

    Among Psychedelic Science 2025’s keynote talks was “Healing Behind the Highlights.” Hosted by the podcaster and nutritional supplement salesman Aubrey Marcus, the panel gathered three NFL stars—Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer, retired Raiders guard Robert Gallery, and San Francisco 49ers guard Jon Feliciano—to discuss how psychedelic drugs have benefited their lives off the turf. They talked about their journeys to retreat centers where they imbibed the heady hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca, and how these drug experiences allowed them to reconcile their gladiatorial ideals of on-field toughness with the fact that they are, at the end of the day, mere mortals.

    The effects of psychedelics like ayahuasca (and its primary psychoactive chemical, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT) are fairly well documented. It’s believed that such powerful hallucinogens can bring significant shifts in self-understanding, via a psychological mechanism sometimes labeled by researchers as the “mystical experience.” But Poyer and other athletes are pushing this idea even further. It’s not only that psychedelics can stimulate a psychological—or mystical, or spiritual, or otherwise metaphysical—change in a person’s mind, but that these drugs can offer physical, neurological benefits to a damaged brain. It’s an idea that is especially appealing to athletes competing in high-contact arenas, like professional football, hockey, and combat sports, where players are routinely exposed to concussions.

    Poyer says he “absolutely” buys into the idea that psychedelics can help heal the effects of repeated head trauma. “I’ve had many concussions,” he admits, with a shrug, speaking with WIRED after the panel. “But I’d like to think I overcame some of those brain injuries.”

    Poyer, second from the right, on stage at Psychedelic Science 2025.

    Courtesy of MAPS

    On January 22, 2023, the Buffalo Bills squared off against the rival Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Divisional matchup of the NFL playoffs. With about 12:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Bills lagging by two scores, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow dropped back and fired a deep pass to wide receiver Tee Higgins. Attempting to stop Higgins, Poyer and Buffalo cornerback Tre’Davious White collided on the edge of the end zone. It was a case of “friendly fire” that produced the loud crack of head-to-head, helmet-to-helmet contact familiar to any football fan. “You could hear that hit up here,” play-by-play announcer Tony Romo said from the broadcast booth, as Buffalo’s medical staff shuffled onto the snow-covered field. “That was as wicked a sound as I’ve heard.”

    Poyer was knocked to the ground, rising to his knees before sinking back down into the turf, and after a head injury evaluation, he was forced to exit the game. But his issues with concussion predate that especially brutal hit. Before that game, he recalls bouts of extreme anger and irritability, and cluster headaches: all symptoms of repeated trauma to the head. While improved safety equipment and key rule changes have decreased the incidence of concussion in the NFL, neurotrauma remains an unavoidable fact—or, for fans, players, owners, and league executives, more of an inconvenient truth—of such a fast, crunchy, extremely physical sport. NFL injury records reported some 692 concussions over a five-season period between 2019 and 2023.

    Concussions are a form of traumatic brain injury—the broad medical term for damage caused to the brain by an external force—that can result in the loss of neurons in the brain as well as other neurological disorders and cognitive deficits. Concussions have been linked to both short- and long-term impairment, the most severe of which is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated head trauma. CTE affects memory, judgment, and executive function, and it occurs at an alarmingly high rate among former NFL players.

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    John Semley

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  • The Uncertain Path Forward for Psychedelic Medicine

    The Uncertain Path Forward for Psychedelic Medicine

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    But psychedelic compounds are tricky to test in this way because their psychedelic effects are so recognizable to those who take them. In the Lykos trials, around 90 percent of the participants were able to correctly guess whether they received MDMA or a placebo, effectively “unblinding” the study.

    If participants knew they received MDMA, they could have been more receptive to the psychotherapy and felt more positive about the trial experience. And if they knew they hadn’t, they might have been predisposed to think that the psychotherapy they received was less effective. Both scenarios could have influenced how they reported their PTSD symptoms after the MDMA sessions.

    “Once you have an unblinded trial, you potentially have all kinds of questions about efficacy,” says David Rind, chief medical officer of the Boston-based nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which published a report in May raising concerns about the validity of the Lykos trial data.

    Blinded trials with a placebo group are often considered the gold standard in medical research, but Rind says there are other ways to ensure reliable results. For instance, instead of giving participants in the control arm an inert placebo, Lykos could administer a safe but active drug that is known to produce some physiological effects. This would at least leave patients in doubt about what they received, Rind says.

    Another issue Lykos will have to address is the therapy part of its treatment. The company says its treatment manual allows for a “personalized experience,” but FDA advisers had concerns about the variability of psychotherapy offered in the trials. Rind says because Lykos was testing its own psychotherapy protocol in both the drug and placebo groups, rather than an established trauma-focused therapy, it’s hard to know how effective the therapy component was.

    One way to address this would be to study an established trauma therapy in combination with MDMA, or test different psychotherapy approaches head-to-head.

    Sandhya Prashad, president of the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists, and Practitioners, says the therapy component likely complicated Lykos case to the FDA. “I don’t think the FDA knew what to do with that,” she says.

    She thinks the psychedelics field can learn from the 2019 approval of Spravato. Johnson & Johnson asked the FDA to approve just the drug, rather than the drug alongside psychotherapy.

    Because Spravato can induce disassociation and hallucinogenic effects, the FDA has special requirements around how it is prescribed. It must be administered in a certified medical office where a health care provider can monitor the patient. A patient doesn’t get therapy during the session.

    However, Prashad says she understands why Lykos was seeking approval for MDMA combined with psychotherapy. Compare Spravato to generic ketamine, which was approved as an anesthetic in 1970 and is often given off-label as a depression treatment. Giving ketamine off-label doesn’t come with the same FDA requirements. It’s unregulated as a depression treatment, says Prashad. “You see a lot of subpar quality of care. I think Lykos was trying to prevent that and roll this out in a responsible way.”

    Other companies are pursuing psychedelics solely as a drug rather than combining it with psychotherapy. Biotech company Compass Pathways is testing psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, in Phase 3 trials for treatment-resistant depression. A licensed medical professional prepares participants for the psilocybin session, observes and is present with them during their session, and provides follow-up support after. Sessions can last six to eight hours. The company notes that this type of psychological support is not psychotherapy.

    Similarly, Beckley Psytech is studying a derivative of DMT given intranasally, as well as an IV version of psilocybin, as potential treatments for depression. Both are designed to have short-acting effects, with the peak experience lasting just 10 to 15 minutes. In the Lykos trials, MDMA sessions lasted eight hours.

    “What we offer during the therapeutic session is support, there’s no psychotherapy,” says Rob Conley, Beckley Psytech’s chief scientific and medical officer. “From a safety standpoint, we think short is good.”

    Whether Lykos will stick with its plans to pursue MDMA-assisted therapy, or pursue approval or just MDMA, remains to be seen. Either way, the company said it remains “deeply dedicated” to bringing MDMA to those suffering from PTSD.

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    Emily Mullin

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  • The FDA Just Rejected a Bid for MDMA’s Approval to Treat PTSD

    The FDA Just Rejected a Bid for MDMA’s Approval to Treat PTSD

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    The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected a first-of-its-kind proposal to use the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy or Molly, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Drugmaker Lykos Therapeutics had asked the FDA to approve the drug in combination with talk therapy. The company said Friday that the regulatory agency has requested an additional Phase 3 trial so that the safety and efficacy of the therapy can be further studied. The decision comes after an FDA advisory panel in June concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to recommend its approval.

    Lykos said it plans to request a meeting with the FDA to ask for reconsideration of the decision and to further discuss the agency’s recommendations. “The FDA request for another study is deeply disappointing, not just for all those who dedicated their lives to this pioneering effort, but principally for the millions of Americans with PTSD, along with their loved ones, who have not seen any new treatment options in over two decades,” said Lykos CEO Amy Emerson in a company statement. She added that conducting another Phase 3 trial would take several years.

    As many as 13 million Americans suffer from PTSD in any given year, according to the National Center for PTSD. Just two drugs have been specifically approved to treat the disorder, with the latest being greenlit by the FDA in 2000. The lack of options has turned combat veterans into unlikely advocates for MDMA-assisted therapy. In the days leading up to the FDA decision, veterans groups and members of Congress from both parties pressed for its approval.

    In a letter to President Biden, more than 300 veterans and representatives of veterans service organizations wrote that MDMA-assisted therapy “offers desperately needed hope for veterans and their families, with the potential to save and drastically improve countless lives over the coming years.”

    A bipartisan group of more than 60 members of the House of Representatives and 19 senators also voiced their support for the therapy this week. “Given the substantial burden of PTSD and the current treatment limitations, the possibility of new, more effective therapies is particularly meaningful,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to FDA commissioner Robert Califf.

    There has been increasing interest in recent years in using MDMA and other psychedelics to treat severe mental illness. But with the FDA decision, MDMA will remain a federally prohibited substance listed as Schedule I drug, defined as those that have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

    During a nine-hour meeting on June 4, Lykos representatives made their case to an independent panel of FDA advisers. The company’s clinical trial data showed that more than 86 percent of study participants who underwent MDMA-assisted therapy experienced a measurable reduction in the severity of their PTSD symptoms, and 71 percent improved enough that they no longer met the criteria for a diagnosis. In a placebo group, 69 percent improved and nearly 48 percent no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis.

    Despite the positive results, advisory committee members cited concerns about the reliability of the clinical trial data, the long-term efficacy of the treatment, and the standardization of the talk therapy given during the MDMA sessions. One major question raised by the advisory committee was the extent to which the talk therapy contributes to the treatment benefit.

    The panel overwhelmingly voted that there wasn’t enough evidence to recommend approval. Just two of the 11 committee members agreed that MDMA-assisted therapy is effective based on the evidence Lykos presented, and only one thought its benefits outweighed the risks. The FDA usually follows the recommendations of advisory committees but is not obligated to do so.

    Lykos said it will “work diligently in the coming months to address FDA’s concerns and to take advantage of agency processes to resolve scientific disagreements.”

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    Emily Mullin

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  • Does Diplo Smoke Weed

    Does Diplo Smoke Weed

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    Creating music, running triathlons and being a dad to three sons, Diplo is news. To show off his street cred, he hotfooted Burning Man by slogging through 6 miles of mud, hitchhiking, and walking barefoot to a jet which flew him to DC for a 3-hour set where he rocked it with the crowd.  Born in Tupelo, Mississippi (the birthplace of Elvis), he parlayed hard work, talent, a cheeky personality and good looks into a $50 million fortune. Now we want to know, does Diplo smoke weed.

    The influence of home-grown rap played a key role in helping shape Diplo’s production style. When attending the University of Central Florida he started DJing. Moving to Philadelphia he starting drawing attention. By 20, Diplo moved to India. Returning he met up with fellow DJ Low Budget. The two began throwing parties under the “Hooked on Hollertronix” Philadelphia.The success of these parties allowed the two to release mixtapes, which brought him national fame.

    RELATED: Marijuana And The Creative/Programmer Set

    He is an American DJ, songwriter, and record producer based in Los Angeles, California. He is the co-founder and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer and a member of the supergroup LSD. And he is entering the cannabis industry.

    When sharing he ran the Los Angeles Marathon in under four hours, he revealed he had more than water, he had a bit of LSD in his water bottle.

    “Yeah, I did acid. I didn’t trip out while I was running. I put it in my water bottle,” Diplo shared “I’ll put it like this: I take acid a lot when I’m working, and when I’m waking up. I don’t want to do too much caffeine, and I don’t want to drink alcohol, so I put a little bit, a little drop sometimes.”

    Diplo is a fan of psychedelic and marijuana. Living unabashedly, he shares his drug use with no judgement and no shame. He is a fame of the cannabis to the point he started a new company to add to his various business interests.

    “I dig the low-dose weed drinks, it’s something new and different,” says says Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known for his artistic name, Diplo, talking about his new THC-infused selzers. “I can drink a few and just chill.”

    RELATED: People Who Use Weed Also Do More Of Another Fun Thing

    Demonstrating he marching to his own beat, Diplo revealed that he has had sexual encounters with men before, but that he doesn’t categorize these experiences as automatically making him gay.

    “I’m sure I’ve gotten a blowjob from a guy before… For sure,” he said to actress and model Emily Ratajkowski on her podcast High Low. “I don’t know if it’s gay unless you like may eye contact while there’s the blowjob happening.”

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    Anthony Washington

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