Awakn Life Sciences announced that it signed its first Licensing Partnership agreement in Europe. The agreement is with a healthcare consortium currently operating in stealth mode ("Portuguese Partner"). The agreement will support the Portuguese Partner's strategy to launch a new chain of medical-psychedelic clinics, with the first location in Lisbon.

Awakn will provide the Portuguese Partner with an exclusive 10-year license for use of its clinical protocols for the treatment of AUD, Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, and PTSD in Portugal. Awakn will train the Portuguese Partner's clinicians in the delivery of these protocols and will provide ongoing strategic, operational, risk management, and marketing support. Here’s more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/awakn-life-sciences-signs-first-125100452.html
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A Hawaii Senate committee approved a bill to promote studies into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin, MDMA, and other alternative treatments for mental health conditions, while also advancing another measure that more narrowly focuses on psilocybin research only.

Both measures cleared the Senate Ways & Means Committee with unanimous votes after receiving supportive testimony from the governor’s office. Those bills are now heading to the Senate. Check it out: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/hawaii-senators-approve-two-psychedelic-research-bills-with-support-from-governors-office/
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The New York Times ran a piece entitled, “Can Psychedelics Heal Ukrainians’ Trauma?”  In it, journalist Antonia Hitchens highlights Yuriy Blockhin, who runs the North American branch of the Ukrainian Psychedelic Research Association, and who is looking to train therapists who will treat Ukrainian refugees with psychedelics. Here’s more: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/can-psychedelics-heal-ukrainians-trauma

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Did you know that hallucinogen use has increased overall since 2015, particularly among adults 26 and older, but decreased in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years?

According to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, this trend could be the result of media coverage showing that an increasing number of adults may be reporting positive effects of ‘micro-dosing’ and expecting therapeutic benefits of hallucinogens without negative effects. Check it out: https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/new-study-estimates-over-55-million-us-adults-use-hallucinogens