A DEA administrative judge denied the federal agency’s request to block a series of witnesses and evidentiary exhibits in a forthcoming hearing on its plans to ban a pair of psychedelic compounds used for research purposes.

While Judge Paul Soeffing granted DEA’s motion to keep certain proposed evidence out of the 10-day hearing, he denied the agency’s claim that certain witnesses and materials should be precluded on the basis that they were “incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, and/or unduly repetitious.”

With respect to the witnesses, Judge Soeffing said it was inappropriate to block the testimony of experts, including those associated with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and Panacea Plant Sciences (PPS), which have been fighting against DEA to ensure that the psychedelics can continue to be utilized in research. Here’s more: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/dea-judge-denies-agencys-request-to-block-witnesses-in-hearing-challenging-proposed-psychedelics-ban/

PharmAla announced that it has been contracted as a supplier of its GMP LaNeo™ MDMA to a clinical trial at Mt. Sinai Health System. Mt. Sinai has done a fair amount of work with Veterans and boasts a new facility dedicated to MDMA-assisted therapy. 

This news follows recent announcements from PharmAla that it landed a deal to supply MDMA for a proposed clinical trial at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and a deal to supply MDMA for a clinical trial at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, the largest neuroscientific and psychiatric private research hospital in the world.  Check it out: https://pharmala.ca/media/2024/10/pharmala-to-supply-mt-sinai-hospital-with-laneo-mdma

Optimi Health announced that the first group of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Australia has successfully received treatment with its GMP-certified MDMA capsules under the Authorized Prescriber Scheme. 

The Patient Reported Outcomes being gathered through the patient registry at Australian National University will provide data on the effectiveness of MDMA treatments across a diverse range of Australian patients. And according to the company, the data collected from thousands of patients using Optimi’s MDMA will be one of the most comprehensive and valuable data sets in the history of psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Also worth noting, Optimi has also received an additional order for 700 doses after its initial shipment of 160 doses was fully allocated in under eight weeks. Here’s more: https://psychedelicinvest.com/optimi-health-announces-first-ptsd-patients-treated-with-mdma-capsules-in-australia/

Did you know that psilocybin contains an antimicrobial compound? 

According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Microbiology, researchers collected psilocybin mushrooms and extracted and evaluated the psilocybin, which was then assessed for antimicrobial activity against bacterial and fungal strains.  They found that in addition to its psychoactive properties, psilocybin could also be utilized to develop  antimicrobial drugs in future studies with in vivo efficacy and toxicity assays. Check it out: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12088-024-01396-2