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
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!
Do you know what’s in those gummies?
In a complete surprise to everyone not living under a rock, a selection of ‘mushroom gummies’ sold from Oregon retail outlets contain no actual magic mushrooms! (Yes, I know Mycopreneur coincidentally also mentioned this in their newsletter this week, but people will just have to trust I’m not saying the same thing.)
Active Constituents of Psilocybin Mushroom Edibles reports that of 11 gummies & 1 chocolate products they tested, none contained psilocybin. Nor did any of them have active ingredients that matched what was actually in them (if they listed ingredients at all.) What they did contain was, depending on the product, a grab-bag of kavalactones or cannabinoids, 4-HO-DET, 4-AcO-DMT, psilocin, or nothing detectable whatsoever.
Is any of this new? No. When I wrote The Truth About Shroom Chocolates in 2022, the fact that most of those products contained 4-AcO-DMT was the worst-kept secret amongst serious shroom aficionados from California to the east coast of Australia.
Nonetheless, this recent research spawned predictably breathless and sometimes ill-informed commentary about the dangers of research chemicals and unregulated markets. Is it the lack of regulation that leads to mislabelling though? It certainly makes it possible. But only the potential for avoiding legal consequences and turning a bigger profit make it truly attractive.
Due to ongoing prohibition and the weird patchwork of US drug laws, this won’t be the last we’ve seen of such poorly labelled products. But it’s interesting to see vendors like Xüm and Wicked Tablets growing in popularity. Both seem upfront about their products containing 4-HO-MET or 4-Pro-DMT. I’m not saying they’re without ethical issues of their own. Like, these vendors could have a bit more harm-reduction/safer use material on their websites, or maybe even take the comprehensive approach that Chemical Collective uses (and financially support some human writers in the process.) But, if those tablets are what they say they are, that’s a step in the right direction.
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Philosophical Brief: Can we be inspired?
Rather than just tell you all what I think, this fortnight, I want to throw something out there and see if anyone else has explanations for what I’ve observed.
A while back, my friend & EPIC colleague, Sandra Dreisbach, floated an idea around our community ethics work. It was we that could collect positive stories and examples of ethical practice across a range of psychedelic settings, then talk about and (with consent and where legally appropriate) publicly celebrate when an individual or organisation made good choices and did so with skill and integrity.
This wasn’t a signal EPIC was going to stop its behind the scenes work of supporting people who’ve been harmed by the actions of others. Nor would we suddenly declare everything in psychedelics was a festival of rainbow-farting unicorns that understand and respect consent.
We just wanted to show that there were people out there at least trying to do the right thing. That the world of psychedelics isn’t exclusively populated with facilitators, researchers, educators, and clinicians who seem confused about who they shouldn’t try to have sex with. That not every organisation is profiting from prohibition while stealing Indigenous knowledge via aggressive patent strategies and cutting deals with the most morally abject politicians imaginable.
Anyway, we didn’t get a lot of nominations. When you take out people who nominated themselves or their employers, we got very little nothing back. Sure we didn’t promote it very hard. But through our various networks we got our survey link in front of a lot of people in communities across Australia and West Coast USA.
What we did get was interesting, and I’ll definitely be coming back to some of it soon. But in the meantime, I’d be really grateful for any idea on why people seem so resistant to nominate anyone. Is it legality? Stigma? The fact that I never got around to writing a fancy landing page? Or just that no one trusts a Google form?
Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think (or maybe even make a nomination): EPIC Inspire.
Consultancy Corner: Psychedelic marketing
Lots of people in the psychedelic space, including many of you out there reading this, are selling something; a product, service or idea.
Whatever the case, you need to some sort of strategy to reach and convince people.
In conventional marketing, a good place to start is what’s known as the 4 Ps:
Product: What you sell or are offering. It could be physical goods, services, consulting, and so on.
Price: How much do you charge, and how does that impact your customers' view of your brand?
Place: Where do you promote your product or service? Where do your ideal customers go to find information about your industry?
Promotion: How do your customers find out about you? What strategies do you use, and are they effective?
In psychedelics, it’d be remiss to neglect a 5th P, Prohibition, as it plays an outsized role in basically anything you may want to achieve.
I see lots of startups not really knowing the answers to these questions. Heck, I’m guilty of that myself, partially because it took me a while to realise how this applied outside of commercial situations. If you expand ‘product’ to anything you want someone to do and ‘price’ to what it costs them (emotionally and cognitively, not just financially) to do it, this framework becomes very broadly applicable.
For a longer run-down on how this can look in psychedelics, check out: The 5 Ps of Marketing Psychedelics.
Reminder - Garden States!
Tickets for the EGA Garden States conference are limited. So if you want to attend and/or hit that website now to secure your spot: https://www.gardenstates.org/
A word from our sponsor:
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The effect were unexpected, to say the least! Orinoco reports that the secret formula he channelled from cosmic reptilians (and not, as certain defamatory rumours suggest, stole from a disgruntled brujo) not only enhances epidermal masculinity, but is also a violently powerful psychedelic laxative. Synchronicity in action!
Jungian Sperm Energy is, therefore, seeking expressions of interest from major psychedelic pharmaceutical corporations for a licencing agreement, starting at $100 million USD.
Orinoco is having lunch with Christian Angermayer next week. So, if you or your company wants to beat atai Life Sciences to the punch, you need to open your wallets ASAP!
Jungian Sperm Energytm: Monetise the shadow. Honour the load.
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(Author’s note: I tried to explain to Orinoco that it’s not a real testimonial if it’s your own product and you’re still high, to which he responded that this was a ‘low-vibration’ question and the more evolved beings in my readership would understand.)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
I often ask about what bad/stupid things people have witnessed or heard about. But, in line with my section on EPIC Inspire, if anyone has a story of something good or ethical, I’d love too hear it.
As always, all feedback and suggestions are welcome, and I promise* to not sign you up for never-ending emails from the Church of Scientology.
*Unless you’re a member of the QLD LNP government, because fuck those guys. (They know what they did.)
PS:
A psychedelic venture capitalist walks into a bar and buys a $5 beer receipt. It’s not a beer, just the promise of one someday.
Later, a retail investor from r/shroomstocks wanders in. The VC waves the slip at them and says, ‘Hey, want to get in early? I’ll sell you this receipt for $10.’
The retail investor eagerly agrees and hands over the money. The bartender shrugs: ‘Bold strategy, we don’t even have a liquor licence.’
Written on Worimi lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Icon by Freepik from Flaticon
