Set, Setting, Shenanigans

👋 Welcome

It's a trippy day in the neighborhood…. won't you be our psychedelic friends? 

Clinics are closing, psilocybin home use is inching forward in Oregon, and Toronto’s shroom scene just turned into a low-budget heist movie.

Meanwhile, the surgeon general hopeful is giving mushrooms the gentlest nod since Mr. Rogers if he had ever met mescaline (can you imagine what his medicine circle would have been like?). 

It’s a little strange, a little wonderful and just the sort of curious neighborhood we love exploring together with the Global Psychedelic Community.

🔝 Weekly Highlights

• 🍄 Oregon’s Psychedelic System Trips on Itself
  Psychedelic service centers in Oregon are shuttering fast, hit by high costs and stricter-than-a-nun regulations. Here’s the breakdown
  

• 🎭 Toronto’s Mushroom Heists Go Full Psy-Op
  Eight shops, three nights, zero chill. Toronto’s magic mushroom break-ins blur the line between protest, prank, and psychedelic smash-and-grab.Dive into the spree
  

• 👁️ “Psychedelics Are Maybe Okay, M’Kay?”
  Dr. Makary, future surgeon general contender, goes public on psychedelic healing—and yes, the title is a South Park reference. Catch the op-ed
  

🧬 Quick Hits

RESEARCH 🔬

• 🧪 Motivation Molecule
  A lesser-known psychedelic shows promise for boosting drive in folks with depression. Study here

• 🧬 International Study Calls for Consistency
  Global researchers want standardized protocols in psychedelic trials. Details here
  

• 🔬 IBS Gets Psychedelic Rx — Tufts researchers are testing psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant IBS, using fMRI to explore how tripping might tune the gut-brain connection.

POLICY 🏛️

• 🚫 Florida Criminalizes Spores
  DeSantis signs a bill making psilocybin mushroom spores illegal. More here
  

• ⚖️ Lawsuit Over Psilocybin Access Advances in Oregon
  Disabled Oregonians are suing for their right to access psilocybin therapy. Read the case
  

• 🗳️ Maine Legalizes by One Vote
  Maine passed its psilocybin decrim bill by a single vote. Close call
  

• 🇨🇿 Czech Republic Goes Pro-Plant
  Lawmakers approve home cannabis cultivation and medical psilocybin. Read more

BUSINESS 📈

• 💸 Medical Psychedelic Capitalism Under Fire
  Critics warn that medical-only models enrich elites while criminalizing everyone else. Op-ed here
  

• 🤝 Johns Hopkins Strikes Licensing Deal
  Rose Hill Life Sciences gets exclusive rights to develop a psychedelic therapy for motor recovery. Big collab

• 💰 Cacao Ceremony Just Got Pricier
  Ivory Coast’s cocoa crop is struggling, which means your next heart-opening cacao circle might cost a little extra. Global commodity update

CULTURE 🎭

• 🎮 Minecraft Cacao Ceremony?
  Gamers are using cacao in virtual gardens. How-to
  

• 💞 Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Found Love on Shrooms
  Psychedelics helped her find emotional healing—and a partner. Profile here

• 👀 Elon Musk’s Weird Clip Sparks Speculation
  Internet loses it over Musk’s “third eye moment.” Watch the clip
  

• 🎤 Country Star Credits Ketamine for Beating Depression
  Old Dominion’s lead singer finds healing and new highs through ketamine. Full story
  

• 🎧 DJ-Turned-Therapist Drops Guide to Healing Sounds
  Matt Xavier blends rave roots with clinical depth in this new music therapy manual. Get the book
  

• 🕊️ Farewell to a Psychedelic Pioneer
  James Lowe of The Electric Prunes has passed. Tribute here

🌈 Main Features

The fungus Hofmann dreamed of…

🔍 Picture this: you're a college student on a routine soil sample run, just trying to pass a mycology class—and boom, you stumble upon what some call the psychedelic equivalent of the Holy Grail.

🏫 That’s exactly what happened at West Virginia University, where a student unearthed a long-lost fungal species that LSD inventor Albert Hofmann once believed might exist—but could never find.

🚲 Hofmann, who famously synthesized LSD in 1938 and accidentally rode a cosmic bicycle into history, had speculated for decades about a naturally occurring fungus capable of producing lysergic compounds. His scribbled notes hinted at a molecular mystery waiting in the dirt.

🧫 Enter the WVU student, who told campus news: “I thought I screwed up the cultures.” Spoiler: They cracked open a psychedelic time capsule.

🧬 Early analysis suggests this fungus can biosynthesize lysergic acid derivatives on its own—a discovery that could reshape how we grow, study, and treat with psychedelics.

📜 It’s more than a scientific curiosity. It’s a fungal love letter from Hofmann’s generation to ours.

🌱 With this tiny organism, we may not just rewrite psychedelic history—we might cultivate its future.

Two hikers, one batch of shrooms, and a mountain meltdown.

This one reads like National Lampoon's Psychedelic Vacation…

🌲 According to the BBC, a pair of mushroom-munching adventurers called 911 from the summit of Cascade Mountain in upstate New York to report that their hiking buddy... was dead.

🧠 Spoiler: He wasn’t. He was just up the trail vibing.

🌳 Enter the forest ranger, who hikes up expecting a corpse—and instead finds two giggling adults claiming they’re lost in both time and space.

📞 Meanwhile, the “dead” friend—who was neither tripping nor deceased—also called 911, politely explaining he was alive and continuing the hike.

🚔 Authorities “escorted” the hallucinating duo back to reality. No arrests were reported.

💡 Moral of the story? If you’re gonna go looking for God in the Adirondacks... bring extra water—and a trip sitter.

💡 This Month in Psychedelic History

June 12, 1943 – Susi Ramstein’s First Ride
Hofmann’s lab assistant, Susi Ramstein, became the first woman to intentionally take LSD—starting with 100μg and a bike ride into chemical legend.

June 29, 1955 – The Mushrooms Meet America
R. Gordon Wasson and Allan Richardson became the first Americans to participate in a traditional mushroom ritual with María Sabina. Wasson later published Mushrooms, Russia and History—and the West never looked at fungi the same again.

June 25, 1975 – Shulgin’s 2C-B Revelation
Alexander Shulgin tried 2C-B for the first time and called it “beautifully active.” He would go on to synthesize hundreds more compounds, all logged with poetic precision—and the occasional dinner-party anecdote.

🎁 Psychedelic Utility Belt

• 🧖 Treat Yourself: Psychedelic Science 2025
  It’s not too late to join the biggest psychedelic gathering on this planet (or any other). Psychedelic Science 2025 lands in Denver June 18–20. Use your discount code and grab a ticket now.

• 🎟️ Don’t Miss: Sasha Shulgin’s 100th Birthday Bash
  Join The Shulgin Foundation on June 17 at The Kirk in Denver for a once-in-a-century tribute to Sasha. Expect storytelling from Stamets, Doblin, Pickard, and the Greys. Honor the chemist who cracked open consciousness, and support the future of Sasha’s Lab. Reserve your spot.

• 📚 Resource Drop: Watch the Tribute Video
  Before you go, check out this beautiful video tribute to the Shulgins. It’s a heartfelt reminder of why we trip—and who made it possible.

🌬️ Trip Tips: Befriend the Fear

Instead of pushing fear away mid-journey, try this: bow to it. Treat fear like an anxious friend who's just trying to protect you—awkward, maybe, but well-meaning.

When you view fear as a compassionate ally, not a saboteur, you stop the inner war. This helps you stay grounded, curious, and connected to your body—even when shit gets weird.

A mantra: “Thanks for showing up. I’ve got this.”

👋 Signoff

That’s all for now, Global Psychedelic Community. 

Whether you're planting seeds in the world or tending the garden of your own mind, remember—growth takes time, and wonder makes it bloom.

It’s a gift to spend this little patch of time with you. You make this corner of the psychedelic neighborhood brighter just by being exactly who you are.

We’ll be back next time. And until then, we like you just the way you are.

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