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We're kicking things off today with a story about a consequential shift happening in state legislature is across the country. Four states are moving forward with bills designed to prepare for FDA-approved Psilocybin therapy, but there's a catch: these proposals aren't about legalizing mushrooms. Instead, they focus on a pharmaceutical version of Psilocybin that has already been patented by a major biotech company. We don't do spoilers here, so you'll have to read on below to get the full tea!

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find pieces about a chemist making ayahuasca gummies, ketamine spoon culture, and sooo much more.

Catch ya on the flip side Friends 🌕,
Mary Carreón
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Four states are preparing for regulated psilocybin therapy should the FDA approve it, and the legislation references a crystalline polymorph psilocybin company, which has been patented by a leading psychedelic biotech company.

Psilocybin legislation is no longer living at the political fringe. A number of bills are moving through committee rooms, floor votes, and gubernatorial pipelines in West Virginia, South Dakota, Missouri, and Hawaii. While none of these measures would broadly legalize mushrooms, they are tethered to either federal approval or tightly controlled research. Still, the bills signal strategic progress: Lawmakers are attempting to build a runway ahead of federal approval.

To be clear, when we see “psilocybin legalization” in the headlines, it does not mean that we the people will have free-for-all access to mushrooms or psilocybin products. It also doesn’t mean it will be legal for us to possess them, either. The bills being introduced stop far short of that. Generally, they focus on tightly regulated, therapeutic settings, research programs, or legal frameworks that would take effect if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a psilocybin-based drug. We dug into the bills, from West Virginia to Hawaii, and break down the details below.

In West Virginia, Senate Bill 906 has already cleared the Senate in a 31-2 vote and now sits in the House Health and Human Resources Committee. The bill would not legalize naturally occurring psilocybin. Rather, it would legally permit “crystalline polymorph psilocybin,” a pharma-grade psilocybin compound (which we’ll get into more in a sec), should it be approved by the FDA and then (ideally, according to plan) be reclassified by the DEA. This specific psilocybin formulation could then be prescribed, distributed, and marketed in line with FDA recommendations. In other words, the state is trying to be ready the moment Washington moves to reschedule psilocybin. This is known as a “trigger bill.”

South Dakota’s HB 1099 is further along. The bill passed both chambers, was enrolled, and was delivered to Gov. Larry Rhoden’s desk on March 5. It would move crystalline polymorph psilocybin out of Schedule I and into Schedule IV under state law, should it be approved by the FDA, while leaving naturally occurring psilocybin otherwise illegal. “HB 1099 is a trigger law that accomplishes this process by rescheduling the FDA-approved pharmaceutical composition of crystalline polymorph psilocybin as a schedule IV-controlled substance if, and when, it is approved by the FDA,” Sen. Tom Pischke said to SDPB.

Missouri is taking the messier, more ambitious route. On February 26, the House Emerging Issues Committee advanced a merged set of psychedelic proposals, combining psilocybin and ibogaine bills. The final merged psilocybin text has not yet been released at the time of this writing, but as introduced, HB 1717 would let veterans who are 21 and older use psilocybin for PTSD, major depressive disorder, substance use disorder, and end-of-life care. To meet legal requirements, they would have to enroll in a study, use the drug with a qualified facilitator, and stay under a 150-milligram annual cap — meaning there is a limit on the total amount of psilocybin a patient could legally receive in a year under the proposed program. 

HB 1643, the other Missouri bill that’s been melded together with HB 1717, would create a broader pathway for adults 21 and older with qualifying conditions. The bill also revises Missouri’s right-to-try law so that Schedule I substances could qualify as “investigational” drugs, meaning patients could potentially access psychedelic treatments that are still being studied but have not yet been approved by the FDA. The ibogaine bills included in the package, HB 2817 and HB 2961, take a different approach and would create a state grant program and an Ibogaine Study Fund to support FDA-overseen clinical trials, rather than a therapeutic access program.

Hawaii’s SB 3199 is the softest touch of the bunch, but it may be one of the clearest signs of where the politics around psychedelics are headed. The bill would establish a two-year Mental Health Emerging Therapies Task Force to prepare the state for federally rescheduled breakthrough therapies, including ones that use psilocybin and MDMA. The bill, if passed, would expand pathways for clinical trials and deliver policy recommendations to lawmakers in 2027 and 2028. 

SB 3199 is not an access bill yet. It is a planning bill. But planning bills matter; they are often how a legislature tells you what’s coming down the pipeline, and in this case, it is psychedelic therapy.

OK, so let’s revisit crystalline polymorph psilocybin, a pharmaceutical-grade psilocybin crystal. It’s the same chemical compound as psilocybin, but its molecules are arranged in a different crystal structure than psilocybin found in mushrooms. That crystalline form provides the stability and consistency required for pharmaceutical testing and manufacturing.

However, there are different ways to arrange a crystalline polymorph psilocybin molecule in order to create a psilocybin crystal. And COMPASS Pathways has spent millions of dollars procuring patents on a crystalline polymorph psilocybin compound, called COMP360, to eventually bring to market. COMPASS appears to have also gone state-to-state to engage in lobbying efforts to support the proposed regulation of this psilocybin compound, which, admittedly, is a nightmare to say aloud and an even bigger one to type repeatedly.

While it’s unclear if COMPASS is involved with the proposed bill in West Virginia, it does have its fingerprints on HB 1099 in South Dakota, the South Dakota Searchlight recently reported. “Alexander Root, a lobbyist for drugmaker Compass Pathways, told the committee his company's formulation of psilocybin has shown ‘a highly significant reduction’ in depressive symptoms,” John Hult reported last month. Reporting for KDSJ corroborates these details as well.

COMPASS Pathways is among the leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies developing psychedelic drugs, specifically a crystalline polymorph psilocybin formulation known as COMP360. The company has also engaged in lobbying efforts across the country to advance legislation that would make its compound legal while leaving traditional psilocybin illegal. COMPASS Pathways proposed a bill in Kansas that would have reclassified crystalline polymorph psilocybin as a Schedule IV drug, allowing medical professionals to prescribe it, but it was vetoed in February 2025. (You can see Tess Bettler, COMPASS Pathways’s senior manager of advocacy and state government policy, present at a meeting in front of Kansas’s House Health and Human Services Committee here.) 

COMPASS proposed a similar bill in Virginia that would have directed the state's Board of Pharmacy to reschedule COMP360 upon FDA approval and federal rescheduling. It was ultimately vetoed by the state’s governor, Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

There’s a lot more reporting to be done on how this psychedelic biotech giant stands to benefit from its patented crystalline form of psilocybin. But the pattern is hard to ignore. As more legislatures begin drafting policies around crystalline polymorph psilocybin, one thing is becoming clear: the future of psychedelic policy may be shaped not just by researchers and lawmakers, but by biotech companies developing the drugs themselves. 

A study was recently published touting the benefits of psilocybin as a treatment for Lyme disease, a condition that impacts roughly 476,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC. The findings quickly kicked the hype machine into gear, with many now looking to psilocybin as a possible treatment for the condition.

But what are the risks of that? And what does the study actually show? Can psilocybin really be used to treat Lyme disease? Journalist Peter Holslin digs into the research and speaks with one of the study’s authors for this week’s main feature.

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READ: After a cancer diagnosis led her to a psilocybin trial at Johns Hopkins, one woman began unraveling a lifetime of trauma, family secrets, and the uneasy promises of the psychedelic therapy movement. Get the book here and see the audiobook here.

LAUGH: Watch comedian Shane Mauss’ latest comedy special TRIPS. The first dose is available here. The second dose will be available on Bicycle Day!

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