Welcome to issue #19 of The Ethical Trip! This fortnight:

For all this, plus an idiosyncratic roundup of recent research, a new player in psychedelic phama, and alleged humour, read on!

Huge thanks to everyone supporting this work. Whether it’s feedback, sharing, or contributing a few dollars a month via buy me a coffee cactus, it all makes a big difference to me and I’m deeply grateful.

Shiju et al (2026) gives a scoping review and narrative synthesis of review-level evidence of self-medication using psychedelics, primarily for pain. Most of the evidence (that met the requirements for the review at least) was around using either LSD or psilocybin, predominately for cluster headaches and chronic pain. Reported effectiveness varied, but was very positive overall.

VanderZwaag et al (2026) use data from the Global Psychedelic Survey to explore self-treatment in people suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI). It seems that most respondents reported improvements to their TBI-related symptoms, that psilocybin was rated as the most effective substance in managing their symptoms, and that relief was stronger for mood-related symptoms than for cognitive or somatic symptoms.

Kerr-Gaffney et al (2026) found that experiences of oceanic boundlessness mediated changes in values around appreciation for life, concern for others, meaning/sense of purpose, and self-acceptance.

Lots more good stuff below, but only for subscribers!

News (or, rumour at least) has filtered through to r/shoomstocks that GH Research has had it’s application for the use of 5-MeO-DMT for treatment resistant depression rejected (h/t to u/ijuspostlinx for sharing this.) Likewise, the Australian patent office criticised this last year on the grounds that key claims simply weren’t novel enough, rather snippily pointing out:

“As discussed in the previous examination report, 5-MeO-DMT suitable for this use is known from the art.”

Ouch! I should send the listed inventor, Theis Terwey, some aloe for that burn.

But seriously, this:

…is basically just “Get a doctor to give a person diagnosed with MDD enough 5-MeO-DMT to feel better.” All subsequent claims in that particular patent then refer to this. If that claim doesn’t fly, then very little of what comes after will pass muster. I know I’ve criticised other companies for their patent strategies before, but this seems both lazy and more of an attempt to lock up commercial use of the molecule than anything else.

When you’re making AtaiBeckley look good, that’s really a sign you need to try harder.

Finally, a pharmaceutical company in the space is being honest about its approach to the aims of therapy and how it selects participants. In their promotional participant briefing video they openly admit that they’re aiming to produce a “safe, productive, and compliant” (my emphasis) experience. Ick!

I get that no one in power wants a mental health treatment that makes people worse at participating in capitalism, either as consumers or workers. But in light of so many ultra-wealthy people going full mask-off against democracy lately, I’m not sure this is commendable.

And categorising experiencing a ‘sense of unity’ as ‘not actionable’ comes across as diabolically corporate if not outright ghoulish and soulless.

Still, wiser (i.e., richer) people than me say that compromising with this sort of thing is the price we have to pay to make psychedelic healing profitable, sorry, scalable. I mean, it’ll be worth it, right?

Right?

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I read Liana Sananda Gillooly’s piece in the MAPS Bulletin, Tending the Living Laboratory: How the True North Guild Is Cultivating an Ecology of Ethics, with great interest when it came out. I’ve seen a lot of discussion around ethics lately that’s very much about the vibe of the situation. This is inevitably paired with a lack of ability to say that some things are just wrong. I was hoping this piece wouldn’t fall into this. Disappointingly, it did.

For all of their talk about the problems of business as usual, which, in the time since the publication of We Will Call it Pala and the North Star Ethics Pledge, have largely come to pass, North Star’s tools don’t seem up to the task of enabling or driving change. Quite the opposite, in my opinion.

I figured the best, or most entertaining, at least, way to test this was by imagining someone with a fictitious but reprehensible set of beliefs, and seeing if running them through the North Star approach to ethics made them any better.

(Spoilers, it does not.)

Get the whole story in Ecology of Ethics or Garden of Bypass?

I know that what I wrote in this might make some people uncomfortable or angry. If you want to tell me where you think I went wrong, you’re welcome to leave a comment or reply via [email protected]

Are you thinking of starting yet another psychedelic pharmaceutical company, non-profit, or podcast, but don’t know what to call it?

Only turbo-nerds and socialist losers worry about minor details like whether or not you can ever sell any product.

And the fact that most people would rather suffer permanent industrial deafness than listen to you whine about how everything is woke now is immaterial next to picking the perfect name. Your interminable dialogs with your friend who 100% isn’t a Nazi but is in a telegram group that he ‘can’t talk about’ deserve the best.

Fear not, intrepid entrepreneurs, your salvation is at hand! The whole world can be yours if you just follow my 10 Criteria for a Successful Psychedelic Brand Name*.

*The Ethical Trip is not responsible for any commercial or reputational loss that may occur from using this guide.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

As always, all feedback and suggestions are welcome, and I promise* to not construct an elaborate prank that culminates in you being tricked into seeing the Melania movie.

*Unless you’re a Palantir shareholder.

PS:

A DMT clinical trial participant was talking to his integration therapist about his last peak experience: “I was in a giant canvas marquee, like a circus big top and every time the ring-master entity told me to leave I just found myself back in the same place, over and over.”

The therapist said, “Wow, that’s in tents.”

Written on Worimi lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.

Icon by Freepik from Flaticon