PsychedeRx: The Psychedelics Documentary Series - Past, Present and the Future – Details, episodes & analysis

If you’ve listened to the PsychedRx series, or ever contemplated experiencing psychedelics, you’ve probably asked yourself what a trip is really like. Well, I’d very much like to tell you what it’s like, but it’s much like trying to describe an exact shade of purple velvet. It’s deep, rich, bright, dark, it changes as the light shifts. When you touch it, everything changes. It’s different in the morning than it is at night. It’s simultaneously warm and cool, comforting and challenging, but it’s something you can’t fully appreciate or describe without seeing it in person. 

For additional exploration and examination, we’ve engaged a first-rate scientist and psychonaut of sorts to help us understand, as best we can… 

With that, we’d like to thank Juan for sharing his experiences and perspectives with us. We’d also like to thank all of our participants for their time, dedication, talent, and insights. Finally, we’d like to thank each of you for taking this journey with us. 

Hazzah! 

Hello all, 

This is JoJo, your friend and co-host of SKRAPS. 

 I grew up around construction. Tradesmen and experts at the crafts of building and repairing homes were omnipresent in my childhood. From a very young age, I knew more about framing than I did about Barbie dolls. I was comfortable in the world of power tools and knew the importance of “measure twice, cut once” before I knew my multiplication tables. 

Any contractor worth his or her salt will tell you that a sound foundation is the most important thing you need in any structure. A compromised foundation will compromise everything that you build on top. 

People have foundations, too. Our education, our family, our upbringing, our experiences and support systems all contribute to building our own foundations. Even with a solid foundation, it can become cracked when the earth below us shifts or when external forces push us too hard. Theses cracks and shifts are sometimes the cause of immense pain - pain so deep that no amount of paint and putty and window dressings can fix the real problem. Oh, we can try and DIY our way out of it - watch a few episodes of “Flip or Flop”, dress up our homes and ourselves, but the cracks remain. And the cracks eventually get bigger. 

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, we can find the tools to fix the cracks and bring the foundation back to a sound a solid state. But all too often, we lack the proper tools and skills and the pressures are just too much. The foundation finally gives way and our structures come tumbling down. 

Why am I speaking in construction metaphors? To demonstrate to you that our tool kit is inadequate. That the chaos and destruction of unaddressed mental health issues are ruinous and that they need a shopping spree at Home Depot. If we can expand our mental health tool kit to include tools like psychedelic medicines, maybe we can salvage a few more homes.

Thank you Lindsay for sharing your story of your journey with Justin and for inspiring us to support meaningful research that can give us more, better, and different tools.

-JoJo Platt

Drug discovery doesn’t happen in a vacuum. So much of the world’s geopolitical activities affect what happens both inside and outside of the lab. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide was such a curious drug that there were seemingly no limits to how and when it would be tested. Episode three of PsychedeRx kicks off with an LSD-laden military training exercise. Don’t laugh. It really did happen and we have the tapes to prove it. All in the name of science, right?

We bring back Mike Jay from Episode Two to bring some of the highlights from the lab of Albert Hoffman and how his cult-favorite bicycle “trip.” A day now celebrated around the world. But it wasn't a pleasant ride as the world sees it. We got the details on it from Hoffman's personal journal. 

We’ll see how Sandoz, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, passed out LSD to psychiatrists around the world in an attempt to find out just what the heck this chemical could really be used for - including as a possible cure for alcoholism.

As always, we want you to listen in and ask the hard questions. Were these incidents that shaped the reputation and the future of these substances use or misuse? Were they inherently bad, or was it their handling that earned the demonized notoriety? 

Hoffman's Potion Documentary Link:  CLICK HERE

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Peyote crosses the border and causes a riot. Drug companies want their taste, and psychedelics reach the social elite. What could possibly go wrong?

In episode two of PsychedeRx, Peyote comes north to the good old US of A. And it’s not just for religious ceremonies anymore, either. Spanish conquistadors and European explorers, seeking to dominate the indigenous tribes, used Peyote to show force by banning its use and denying the tribes their spiritual practices. And we all know what happens when prohibitions are imposed - the use doesn’t stop, it just gets moved underground. James Mooney, an ethnographer dispatched by the Smithsonian Institute, is one of our best resources for this era. He committed to his diary first-hand accounts of the use of and backlash against peyote in tribal rituals.

As Peyote moved north, albeit underground, it became the catalyst for a series of events that were bloodier than an episode of Dexter. Wovoka and the Ghost Dance were the turning point. The execution of Sitting Bull led to the massacre at Wounded Knee - and it was all over peyote and freedom of religion - ain’t that an ironic twist?

Episode two also sheds light on the earliest interventions of the drug companies like Merck and Parke-Davis and their part in our little psychedelic drama. Arthur Heffter separates the resins from the alkaloids and isolates the first real information on dosing. We get a close-up look at how the psychiatrists and psychologists got involved - where they got it right, and where they got it all wrong. Psychedelics also make their way into the world of the social elites through folks like Aldous Huxley and Ken Kesey. 

We’ll close out this week with our first peek at LSD. So remember to “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

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Where were you on June 18, 1971? Did you know that was when Richard Nixon, the United Nations, and other world leaders changed the course of popular culture, scientific experimentation, and mind exploration for the next five decades? Did you know that substances that have the potential to change the way we treat myriad diseases and conditions - ones that have little or no reliable treatments today - were fated on that day to be imprisoned like Hannibal Lecter?

Join us for the first of a series of Skraps Original episodes as we explore the use, misuse, and history of psychedelics. In this episode, we will cover the most important question of what these substances are, and begin to question why they were lumped in with other addictive substances by exploring the history of how curiosity-induced exploration on one side clashed with religious single-mindedness. This manifested itself in how these plant-based substances were viewed then and for centuries later, in the eyes of the western world. 

PsychedeRx will cover the ancient history of plant-based psychedelics including their religious, ceremonial, tribal uses and the dangers imposed by the European views of those uses. We’ll experience murder, mayhem, executions, displacement, and more. We’ll talk to psychedelic historian Mike Jay to get the full story of the full journey - one that started long before Nixon and other world powers set their limited, short-sighted fear loose upon the world.

Subscribe to SKRAPS on your favourite podcast platform to make sure you don’t miss a minute of this riveting journey.

PsychedeRx is brought to you by kind donations of our listeners. Please donate to our cause to disseminate factual stories of science, scientists and innovations at: https://skrapspodcast.com/donate/

This is PsychedeRx - A SKRAPS original podcast series detailing the journey of an improbable drug class (Psychedelics) and its journey - past, present and future. 

Over the ten episodes in this series, it’s clear that we are enthusiastic about the future of psychedelic medicines. There are so many potential applications for responsible, physician-assisted therapies that it almost seems as though psychedelics are a silver bullet, or a little black dress - perfect for any occasion and applicable to myriad diseases and conditions. 

Not to contradict ourselves, but there are definitely situations in which psychedelic medicines are not only ineffective, but ill-advised or flat out a bad idea. We hope to provide responsible and balanced information to our listeners and believe that we have done so. The PTSD episode, you heard from the leaders of Heroic Hearts and Heroic Hearts UK about their non-negotiable exclusion criteria. But the same way you heard emotional personal stories about their success, we thought it imperative to share with you a story about why not everyone and not everything can be helped with psychedelic medicines and why responsible use is the only possible solution.

We give our special thanks to Dr. Erika Ross for sharing the story that changed her life. This one is for Kreg.

New molecules, new IP, new opportunities. How can investors be induced to support the massive, but necessary funds required to support the important and carefully regulated research necessary to bring psychedelic therapies to market. Not to be crass, but if something isn’t going to bring a profit, it’s unlikely to receive much funding, regardless of how much good it might do, certainly not enough to cover the massive costs of bringing a disruptive therapy to market. Companies like Cybin and Bright Minds Bio are looking at modifications to create new IP, improved efficacy, and new delivery mechanisms. 

With investment validations now taken care of, we need to address issues around delivery of care. Are we prepared to shift to a model of care that moves from weekly one-hour sessions to intensive, multi-hour sessions that require new paradigms that have never been tried? Before you answer, let us ask you another question: with between 11 and 20 out of every 100 US Veterans suffering from PTSD, how can we afford not to try?

Clara Burtenshaw, co-founder of Neo Kuma Ventures created the first European Fund dedicated to psychedelics shared with us her motivations, both professional and personal, for focusing on this space. We visited with Wavepaths CEO Mendel Kaelen about their founding principles and objectives; we explore Kernel’s entre into the psychedelic research space, and we revisit Doug Drysdale, CEO of Cybin. These are the folks to watch for the future of psychedelic medicines and the healthcare revolution that is coming your way.

It has been our pleasure to bring to you this series - this passion project to understand and share the opportunities, challenges, history, and future of psychedelic medicine.

Humbly, 

Arun and JoJo

Mushrooms changed the world in the 20th century, some say.  Others say, psychedelics are older than humankind. But instead of synthesising molecules and providing it people in a clandestine manner, what if, proper systematic drug discovery and development was done to make psychedelics better?

In this penultimate episode of PsychedeRx, we explore a few more stops before we part ways from this extraordinary project. As we all know, drug trials and molecule development require money and vision and fortitude. So, who exactly is driving the commercialization of psychedelics for responsible clinical use? We’ll hear from Doug Drysdale, CEO of Cybin. as well as Ian McDonald and Gideon Shapiro, CEO and VP of Discovery of Bright Minds Bio respectively. This is not just a hot stock tip, but rather a primer on what the future of the financial side of the psychedelic research and clinical studies. When we said we would cover all aspects of psychedelics in research, we meant it.

Zeus gave Sisyphus the eternal punishment of forever rolling a boulder up a hill in the depths of Hades for his crimes of being a trickster and twice cheating death. 

“Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet he pushed the boulder uphill to the top. But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down. So once more he had to wrestle with the thing and push it up, while the sweat poured from his limbs and the dust rose high above his head. (Odyssey, Book 11:593)”

His tale sounds woefully close to the trials of addiction and depression. Just when you see the light, just when the journey appears as though it will end in success and the completion of a herculean task, life turns that boulder right around and sends you back to the foot of the mountain - only to start the task all over again with nothing more than your corporeal toolkit. 

But what if Sisyphus had real tools? Not just his hands and brute strength, but genuine tools like levers and pulleys? What if he had a partner to help him brace the boulder while he lassoed it with the rope that could be manipulated to make the work of one man equal to two? and to mitigate the back-roll? 

Depression and addiction, much like PTSD from episode seven, have benefitted little from new discoveries. The tool kits haven’t changed much lately while the rates of incidence climb without check. Is there a way that psychedelics can offer a good old fashioned Craftsman-style revolution? We talk with Celia Morgan (https://psychology.exeter.ac.uk/staff/profile/index.php?web_id=Celia_Morgan), Laurie Higbed (https://theorg.com/org/awakn-life-sciences/org-chart/laurie-higbed ) and others about where the research stands. We’ll walk through the history of psychedlics in addiction and depression, and we’ll hear from people like Mary Ann Dimond with a poignant reminder that these are not problems, not boulders, not numbers, but people who are struggling, people who are loved, and all to often, people who are gone.