💧 Big Pharma exec leads MDMA legalization

Happy Monday! Thanks for Dropping In and checking out DoubleBlind’s newsletter, where we’re honored to deliver the freshest psychedelics news, culture, education, and happenings straight to your inbox.

We chose our featured story today because it’s a colossal piece of news: A Big Pharma executive is now steering the movement to legalize MDMA therapy. Yep, it’s all happening. Are we surprised? No. And to be honest, if the goal is to legalize access to MDMA — a lab-made compound that creators Sasha and Ann Shulgin wanted to be a therapy drug — someone with experience bringing a pharmaceutical to market should be the one doing that for Lykos Therapeutics.

Some of you might read that and think I’ve sipped the electric sell-out Kool-Aid. But the truth is, psychedelic pharma is here. It’s been here. And it’s happening whether we want it to or not. Even though I regularly lament about pharma (and for good reason), I will fully admit that ketamine lozenges (and integration!) have helped me deal with burnout in real time and given me a sense of spaciousness I thought died forever when I started my first day at UCLA in February of this year. The safety, consistency, and accessibility to this trippy, anesthetic tool wouldn’t be available without it being ushered through pharmaceutical avenues. As much as that makes me want to throw my computer out the window to admit, I can’t help but consider a similar upside to pharmaceutical MDMA for therapy. Am I still skeptical? Always and forever, lol. But giving credit where it’s due is ethical. So, here we are.

You can read all about this monumental shift of the psychedelic guard immediately below! If you keep scrolling, you’ll find a story about Stargazer mushrooms, how reform has increased interest in microdosing, and how psychedelic exceptionalism is harmful to people who take antidepressants. (Let them live in peace!)

Tap back in with us on Thursday — we have more juicy news and culture stories cooking up to send your way.

Until next time 🖖 ,

Mary Carreón
Senior Editor

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