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Technically Speaking

A New Age of Aquarius

Nothing should surprise us these days.
by Dave Trecker
ven the unlikelihood of psychedelic drugs making a Second, the benefit/risk ratio is low. A reduction in anxiety may
comeback. And they are making a comeback. The mood be offset by whacked-out, can’t-get-off-the-couch hallucinations.
E boosting drugs of the Allen Ginsberg days are close to Third, the psychedelic has to be administered by a psychiatric
becoming downright respectable. professional. You can’t just go to a pharmacy and buy some pills.
Close is the operable word. In spite of these hurdles, research is continuing. There’s a belief
Big Pharma isn’t convinced, and investors are few and far
that, if marijuana can provide medical benefits, its more potent
between. But academic labs and a few startups are pushing ahead.
cousins should be able to as well, while delivering handsome profits
We’re talking about old friends like LSD and psilocybin of
along the way.
“magic mushroom” fame and relative newcomers like MDMA,
The biochemical pathway of psychedelics is well known,
otherwise known as ecstasy, a big party drug.
involving binding to 5-HT2A receptors in the brain. If you could
The history is a colorful one. Some of us oldsters remember
Timothy Leary, a counterculture figure, testing psilocybin on chemically modify the drug to alter that binding and, as a result,
Harvard students in 1960. There is no record of clinical controls. confer the benefit without the side effects, you might have a
Things went local a few years ago when two Florida legislators winner.
sought state funding to evaluate some hallucinogens. That went Delix Therapeutics, a California-based startup, is trying to
nowhere, of course, but the advocacy remained. do just that. It has synthesized thousands of molecules in eight
Today startups financed by billionaire believers are chasing classes of psychedelics and has begun testing the most promising
“interventional psychiatry,” hoping that some mental health candidates.
disorders can be lessened by treatment with the Woodstock drugs. In the meantime, a number of states (though not yet Florida)
Cybin, Compass Pathways and Atai Life Sciences are a few of have cleared the way with legislation decriminalizing the drugs and
the struggling startups. Nonprofits are also in the game. MAPS
in some cases even paying for trials.
Public Benefit Corp. just filed for FDA approval of MDMA to
More good news is coming from academic studies, some of the
reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
best being carried out at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic
Some big companies are also playing. Johnson & Johnson has
and Consciousness Research. Their focus has been on psilocybin,
been touting Spravato, a chemically modified ketamine approved by
the active ingredient in the “fearsome fungus.” In trials over a 10
the FDA in 2019 for treating depression.
Other than that, psychedelics cannot be legally used for medical year period, psilocybin has been shown to
purposes. • Curtail alcohol abuse
“That’s a shame,” says David Nutt, a prominent British • Help addicted smokers kick the habit
neuropsychopharmacologist. “Denying access to psychedelics is like • Provide long-term relief in treatment of depression
denying access to the COVID vaccine.” Real progress is being made.
But providing that access is a tough go. There aren’t many Old timers say some of this was foreseen in the 1967 musical
incentives. “Hair.” How so? Through lyrics promoting “harmony and
First off, patent protection is difficult. The old counterculture understanding” and hope the reborn drugs would lead us to a new
drugs have been around for a long time. Structurally there’s nothing “Age of Aquarius.”
novel about them. Use protection is possible only after costly clinical
Or, better yet, to some new medicines.
testing. And, if you modify them chemically to broaden patent
coverage, you still need lengthy trials. Dr. Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer executive living in Naples.
70 Life in Naples | April 2024