Welcome to issue #12 of The Ethical Trip! This fortnight:

• Do you really know what’s in those ‘mushroom’ gummies?

• Why doesn’t anyone want to talk about good stories in psychedelics?

• What are the basics of psychedelic marketing?

For all this, plus an idiosyncratic roundup of recent research 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.

Table of Contents

1. Industry Insights:

   1. Research Round-up

   2. Do you know what’s in those gummies?

2. Philosophical Brief: Can we be inspired?

3. Consultancy Corner: Psychedelic marketing

4. Reminder - Garden States!

5. A word from our sponsor:

Industry Insights:

Research Round-up

Some interesting papers and theses hit the web this past fortnight, though not all were noteworthy for good reasons.

Sapienza et al (2025) gives some informed speculation on whether microdosing could be used to treat schizophrenia by encouraging synaptogenesis.

Dourron (2025) puts forward a thoughtful (and very comprehensive) doctoral thesis looking at both experiential and neurological overlaps between psychedelics and psychotic states in people who’ve experienced both.

Werner (2025) argues that Letheby (2021) neglected the embodied and embedded nature of set and setting and how they influence psychedelic experience and growth.

Masthay et al (2025) gets a (highly) dishonourable mention for reviewing past psychedelic research on primates and suggesting we need more of this, without even once considering anything resembling ethical implications. Seriously, the word “Ethics” only appears in the ethics deceleration, where we learn that one of the authors has advised/consulted for Boehringer Ingelheim, Empyrean Neuroscience, Freedom Biosciences, and Xylo Bio, and received research support from Intra-Cellular Therapies. Ugh.

Lots more good stuff below, but only for subscribers!