Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms Shoes, announced that he has committed to giving $100 million to support psychedelic research and access. The money will help fund academic institutions investigating psychedelics’ potential to treat anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health issues, as well as nonprofits helping to connect patients in need with psychedelic treatments.  Here’s more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/toms-shoes-founder-is-pledging-100-million-for-psychedelic-research-heres-why-hes-doing-it-cdbf0b0e

Mycoskie joins other celebrity millionaires and billionaires that have donated millions to psychedelics, including GoDaddy Founder Bob Parsons and author, podcaster and entrepreneur, Tim Ferris.

A new study was released that sought to expand existing research into how psilocybin may enhance treatment outcomes, with specific attention to grief following the death of a loved one. The study investigated the subjective experiences of participants who ingested psilocybin to process grief. Results indicated psilocybin can have a positive impact on grief trajectories through increases in acceptance, comfort with mortality, and ability to resolve internal conflicts relating to their bereavement. Check it out: https://www.proquest.com/openview/b854ddd010974973bf9562d00fd7058a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Gul Dolen, a brilliant neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, was interviewed on the Psychoactive podcast with Ethan Nadelmann where the discussions ranged from why Dolen has administered psychedelics not just to humans but also mice and octopuses, to her research suggesting certain psychedelics are so valuable therapeutically because they reopen critical periods in brain development, in effect making an old brain young again, and allow one to go back to that state where you’re receptive to the world like a child. You can listen to the entire podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7swel1MOgxSFpxCpzQkAi4?si=mvNnn9cgQQ6fkHq29yYWQw&nd=1

Did you know that prior to the Controlled Substances Act, the United States conducted massive amounts of research on psychedelic drugs supported by pharmaceutical companies, the National Institute of Mental Health, and other government agencies? Moreover, from about 1950 to 1965, research on LSD and hallucinogens generated over 1000 scientific papers, several dozen books, and 6 international conferences, and LSD was prescribed as treatment to over 40,000 patients. Check it out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592308/