Psychedelic Stocks: Substitution Survey, Frank Herbert’s Magic Mushrooms, Heavenly Planes, and News Roundup – ATAI Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI), BetterLife Pharma (OTC:BETRF)

Welcome to Benzinga’s roundup of psychedelic stocks. This is our selection of must-read news covering the first two weeks of March 2024.

See previous edition Psychedelic Headlines: Predicting Preparedness, Fixing the Hype, Good and Bad Drugs, Training Programs, and More.

Research

• Therapeutic alliance between study participants and intervention facilitators is associated with acute effects and clinical outcomes in a study of psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depressive disorder (original reading).
• Review: Making sense of psychedelics in the central nervous system (original reading).
• The effect of psilocybin on empathy and prosocial behavior: a proposed mechanism for lasting antidepressant effects (original reading.)
• Perceived attachment history predicts psychedelic experiences: A naturalistic study (original reading.)
• Psychiatric Risks for Worsening Mental Health After Psychedelic Use (Original reading.)
• Psychedelic substitution: Altered substance use patterns following psychedelic use in a global survey (original reading).
• Diminished psychedelic returns on distress: Marital status and family size (original reading).

Tune in, get smart

• Mushroom Extract Outperforms Synthetic Psilocybin in Psychiatric Therapy, by Neuroscience News (read.)
• UN body reaffirms marijuana legalization violates international treaties as it tackles German cannabis reform and US psychedelic movement, by Marijuana Moment (read.)
• Bioethics, abuse of psychedelic therapies and the risk of ethical washing, from the Petrie Flom Center at Harvard (read.)
• Psychedelic lobbying and regulatory capture, by Vincent Joralemon for Petrie Flom (read.)
• Frank Herbert’s magic mushrooms and the psychedelic science behind Dune, by The Telegraph (read.)
• AA Founder Bill Wilson Didn’t Use Psychedelics to Get Sober, by Chemical Collective (read.)
• Psychedelic Legacies of American Religion: A Review of Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches by Mike Marinacci, from Psychedelic Press (read.)
• New Mexico is a psychedelic hologram of ancient origins and peoples, by DoubleBlind Mag (read.)
• Psychedelic therapy: Empowering people on Ukraine’s mental health frontline, by The Dales Report (read.)
• Ketamine clinics diverge from APA recommendations, Medpage Today (read.)
• China’s emerging psychedelic scene looks a lot like Silicon Valley, by Vox (read.)
• Navigating legal clarity on Ayahuasca in Portugal, by the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS) (read.)
• Cocaine use doubles in New Zealand: ‘Big change in a short space of time’, by RNZ (read.)
• “In some ways, stigma is the leading cause of death”: The Guardian’s radical plan to tackle British Columbia’s overdose epidemic (read.)
• “The Tao of the Wisdom Warrior” – The McKenna Academy podcast with Tom Pinkson (listen.)
• The new Plantscendence podcast hosted by director Jon Reiss is out, with James Fadiman present in the first episodes (listen).
• Johns Hopkins Medicine and Maryland Opioid Research opioid scientist Kelly Dunn will speak at nonprofit Innovations for substance use disorders next webinar on March 21st (register)
• The UC Berkeley Center for Psychedelic Science (UC-BCSP) will host an online event on contemporary psychedelic research on March 27 (register.)
• Music for Psychedelic Integration with Jon Hopkins, Dr. Rosalind Watts and the Acer community will take place online on April 4 (register).
• MAPS celebrates its 38th anniversary on April 8 with a total solar eclipse at Texas Eclipse 2024 (details.)
• The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is launching a course on the role of psychoanalysis in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, starting April 9 (details).
• Drug Science UK’s Women in Psychedelics online webinar will take place on 11 April (register).
• Tickets are available for the 2024 Breaking Convention livestream taking place on April 20 (details).
• The Chacruna Institute’s annual spring conference on plant medicines and psychedelic sciences will take place at the Brava Theater in San Francisco on April 27 and 28 (details).
• Registration is now open for the Harvard Law School Center’s three-day Psychedelics Bootcamp 2024 on Legal, Ethical, and Policy Issues Concerning Psychedelics in Medicine and Society through March 31 (details).
• Applications are open for the 2024-2025 Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) through April 22, scholarships available (details).
• Leeds Beckett University in the United Kingdom is conducting a survey of profound personal transformation experienced/profound change in worldview as a result of engaging in self-development through meditation, psychedelics, or other transpersonal practices (contact.)

Panoramic pulse

• Clear mind medicine identity card has obtained authorization for its psychedelic-based alcoholism clinical trial in Israel and has received approval for the voluntary delisting of its common shares from the CSE.
• atai Life Sciences ATAI announced that the first participant was dosed with VLS-01 in its Phase 1b study.
• BetterLife’s BETRF 2-Bromo-LSD for treating depression was highlighted by Carleton University in a recent article.
• Numino Wellbeing NUMIF provided a business update.
• Enverico Biosciences ENVB announced new patent issues that protect multiple assets covered by non-binding terms.
• FSD Pharma HUGE submitted a Phase 1b clinical trial application to the Ethics Committee for its proprietary beverage unbuzzd and presented positive results on its first clinical trial of Lucid-21-302 (Lucid-MS) at the ACTRIMS forum.
• Canadian biotech Apex Labs has filed a US patent to protect its psychedelic drug delivery system.
• Beckley Waves celebrates a year of milestones including $3.3 million in new funding, 200 retreat participants, inaugural therapist training cohort and acquisition of ketamine therapy provider Nue Life.
• Psilocybin producer Rose Hill is leading the way with innovative geothermal cultivation improvements in Jamaica.
• Optimi Health OPTHF Psilocybin cultivation and analytical laboratory were introduced at Growing Exposed (Season 4, Ep. 4).