After "decades of demonization," the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia surprisingly announced it will allow psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin beginning in July.

Though the drugs will only be allowed to be used in limited ways and remain otherwise prohibited, the move is a “very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization,” according to Dr. David Caldicott, a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Australian National University. Here’s more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/03/australia-to-allow-prescription-of-mdma-and-psilocybin-for-treatment-resistant-mental-illnesses?CMP=share_btn_tw

In recent weeks, more than a dozen psychedelics bills have been filed in legislatures throughout the U.S. The proposed legislation ranges in scope from modest proposals to establish advisory boards that would study the issue, to broader ones that would legalize substances like psilocybin for therapeutic use. From New Hampshire to Hawaii, legislators across the aisle are making their interest in the issue clear this year. Check it out: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/psychedelics-bills-filed-in-four-more-states-as-2023-reform-efforts-heat-up/

Revive Therapeutics announced that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with PharmaTher for the development of an MDMA transdermal patch.

PharmaTher has already completed a non-clinical research study evaluating the delivery of its MDMA patch. The results from that study will be available in early Q2. Check it out: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/revive-therapeutics-enters-research-collaboration-110000491.html

Did you know that in parts of South America tobacco is used alongside ayahuasca as a sacred medicine?

Tobacco has been grown in South America for more than a millennium. Whereas Nicotiana tabacum is the variety we’re most familiar with in the West, others exist, including Nicotiana rustica. Also known as “mapacho” or “sacred tobacco,” it contains a lot more nicotine—2 to 20 times as much—and, along with ayahuasca, it is an important part of traditional medicine. According to Double Blind magazine, “Mapacho is a powerful healing spirit for several Amazonian cultures,” and “tabaqueros,” healers who work with mapacho, can be found in the Amazon to this day.
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You can read more about sacred tobacco here.