While 2021 brought its own share of new and challenging experiences, it also offered a lot of victories for the Psychedelic Revolution. As a collective, we roll into 2022 and wonder what joys and woes await us in the psychedelic arena. So, let's hone in on what are the most important psychedelic trends in 2021. And just for fun, let's take a look at what might emerge as the hot psychedelic trends in 2022 and beyond!
TOP PSYCHEDELIC MOMENTS 2021
Psychedelic’s Rick Doblin Makes the Front Page of the New York Times!
The founder and CEO of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies makes waves with an article titled “The Psychedelic Revolution Is Coming. Psychiatry May Never Be the Same”. This article digs into how psychedelic science is progressing and offering unprecedented new tools for the mental health world. Doblin notes, “Psilocybin and MDMA are poised to be the hottest new therapeutics since Prozac. Universities want in, and so does Wall Street. Some worry a push to loosen access could bring unintended consequences.” Read more here.
California State Senator Authored Legislation (SB519) That Would Decriminalize Psychedelics In All of California.
This legislation was paused in the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 25, 2021. However, Senator Wiener says that the bill is not dead and will be eligible to move forward in 2022. He notes that SB519 moved significantly further than expected - passing through the full California state senate before being paused in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. “The so-called war on drugs was a racist, anti-science failure. But policymakers can change that, and states like mine can lead the way…It’s long past time to move beyond our outdated and racist war on drugs-era laws, and embrace humane and science-based drug policy.” Read more here.
World’s First Psychedelic Support Hotline!
Fireside project successfully launched in April of 2021. It is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has created the world’s first psychedelic peer-support line. Anyone having a difficult psychedelic experience can call the hotline and be connected with a trained support personnel. Fireside’s mission is to “help all people minimize the risks and fulfill the potential of their psychedelic experiences”. Read more here.
Decriminalize Nature Movement Grows Like A Weed
The Decriminalize Nature movement picked up speed in 2021 adding cities like Seattle, Port Townsend, and Arcata City to the list of places nature has been decriminalized putting the power of plants and fungi back in our personal medicine cabinets. This brings the total cities that have decriminalized psychedelics up to 15! Read more here:
Psychedelic Stocks Are Here To Play
2021 was a huge year for psychedelic stocks. The most important moment happened early last year with the creation of the world's first psychedelic ETF or Exchange Traded Fund. An ETF is simply a grouping of stocks that are gathered into a single, tradable stock. The price of an ETF is determined by how valuable everything inside of it is. 2021 saw the launch of the first-ever psychedelic ETF, the Horizons Psychedelic Stock Index. This fund trades under the symbol of PSYK. PSYK finished the year lower than it started. Read more here.
Naropa University Announces Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies Certificate Naropa University, a university located in Boulder, Colorado, announced that it will add a Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies Certificate program to the schools offerings. This certificate program will be a 200-hour non-degree program that will offer post-graduate level training in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, offer an overview of trauma-informed treatment, and will incorporate a course in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy that launched in 2020 and add additional psychedelic therapies, such as ketamine and psilocybin. Read more here.
The USA House of Representatives Voted Against a Bill That Would Have Accelerated Psychedelic Research Moments before the vote, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that “the United States has and continues to uphold an obsolete provision from the war on drugs. This provision specifically has for a very long period of time presented and acted as a barricade to federal research on certain substances— psilocybin, MDMA and marijuana—and allowing us to research the potential therapeutic applications of these drugs in the treatment of diseases such as PTSD, addiction and depression. We are long overdue.” Unfortunately, her poignant words didn’t inspire a passing vote. Read more here.
Online Symposiums Become the New Date Night
Last year, unsurprisingly, started off with dozens of online psychedelic conferences and ended with a short window of in-person gathering before the Omicron variant started sweeping the nation. Throughout 2021, movie theater nights were replaced with zoom conferences and events. In the spring, we were super honored to be a part of the Mt. Tam Psychedelic Integration Jamboree and presented Neurohacking Healing with Psychedelics. Because of the global push into the virtual spaces, we saw more than a few of your grandmas attend Altered States Integration’s webinars and online integration circles. We have a hunch, this convenient trend is not going away. Check out our virtual events here.
TOP PSYCHEDELIC TRENDS 2022!
You get a psychedelic, and you get a psychedelic… psychedelic for everyone! Every year since 2016 has been marked by more interest and research into psychedelics. As we enter a new year, 2022 is looking to be no different and set to be the biggest year in psychedelics yet. We are awaiting results from surprise uses treating anything from diabetes to bulimia. While we are not fortune tellers, we wanted to give our best, informed guesses as to what is in store for the psychedelic world in 2022.
Many More Psychedelic Trials Funded By the FDA
The proof is in the science and 2022 is looking to be the biggest year yet for psychedelic science and research. The DEA set the stage by announcing an unprecedented increase to the limits of psychedelics and cannabis allowed for researchers. Before this announcement, the DEA limit for psilocybin production was 50 grams. It’s since been updated to a whopping 1,500 grams! The DEA has also stated their desire to increase the manufacturing of psilocin for research. This marks a shift in regulatory bodies to allow much needed research of these substances. Read more here.
Psychedelic Benefits Become Part of Insurance
Unfortunately, psychedelic therapy is not going to be cheap. It’s a labor of love with many hours involved from a variety of medical professionals. Enthea is a psychedelic startup trying to create a solution to this problem by creating the world's first psychedelic insurance network! They are currently recruiting providers whose goal is to create a network of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and (future) psilocybin-assisted therapy clinicians. Clinics that opt into the Enthea network will offer patients access to multiple funding sources, while streamlining the reimbursement process for providers of these medicines. Read more here.
More Decriminalization of Nature!
In 2021, nine cities and municipalities decriminalized and/or supported decriminalizing entheogenic plants and fungi. As of the new year, there are 30-40 cities that are actively in the process of engaging with their city council and proposing decriminalization. Now, with a tried and true pathway to decriminalizing entheogens, I predict that we will see another 10+ city councils voting to end the drug war in 2022. It is also likely that we will see another 1-2 states successfully decriminalizing psychedelics continuing on from the Oregon Measure-110 that decriminalized all drugs in 2020!
Want to get involved and decriminalize psychedelics in your city? Decriminalize Nature offers resources to anyone trying to organize their own movement. Read more here.
Psychedelic Co-ops Emphasis Community Over Corporations
Championed by the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, the psychedelic Co-Op model aims to take the nonprofit model further by keeping members engaged in the direction of the organization. This member driven approach hopes to keep psychedelic healing accessible and equitable at a community level. The Co-Op model recognizes that healing happens within connection that can’t be fully provided by faceless corporations. The ultimate goal per visionary, Colin Pugh, is to create psychedelic cooperative health centers that supplement and complement medical healing modalities. As always, the biggest challenge in creating a community outside the corporate model is securing initial funding. Do you like the idea of community based psychedelic healing - support your local psychedelic club or society.
Join, Connect, Heal.
Scientifically Created New Psychedelics!
Hamilton Morris joins COMPASS Pathways to focus on researching new and novel psychedelic compounds. Compass Pathways has put together a rockstar team, including Jason Wallac, is working to investigate undiscovered serotonergic compounds. Known serotonergic substances include psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, ibogaine and LSD. Jason Wallach and his team working out of a USciences lab have already produced 100 novel compounds! Imagine what unheard of psychedelics they will discover in 2022? Read more here.
Custom Psychedelic Integration and Therapy Packages
The future of psychedelic therapy is customized treatment protocols for different entheogenic substances. The needs of someone undergoing a ketamine infusion treatment are very different from that of someone who is interested in exploring microdosing to combat depression. As the custom medicine trend merges with psychedelic therapy expect to see holistic treatments that include nutrigenetics, functional micronutrient testing, and EMDR. Your health is complex and your practitioner needs complimentary tools to help support your healing journey. Look for packages like these from interdisciplinary coaches and healers.
In-Person Psychedelics Events & Conferences Return with a Passion
Last year saw a few in person psychedelic events including two large scale psychedelic conferences in the same week: MeetDelic and Wonderland. We were able to attend Meetdelic’s hybrid indoor-outdoor event and managed to catch old and new friends (but no Covid!). With the new advancements in medicine, 2022 is sure to bring more conferences for psychonauts to gather in person. After two years of mostly virtual connection and community, we at Altered States Integration can’t wait for more opportunities for in-person connection and collaboration. Catch up with us at the in-person events starting in March at the Rising Consciousness Conference where Tobey will be talking about psychedelic activism and community building. Read more here.
Ecological Entheogens Activism
Issues around plants and ecology are hardly new, but 2022 promises to bring ecological issues around entheogens into focus. Prepare to see increased activism around the ethical sourcing of plant materials in order to protect endangered species such as peyote and iboga. We predict there will be a push to ensure the humane treatment of entheogen farmers in non-eurocentric countries. Wouldn’t it be great to buy ethically harvested, fairtrade iboga! It also begs the question, how can the psychedelic revolution affect climate action and help affect thinking around the climate crisis.
Death, Dying, and Psychedelics
Discussion around how psychedelic can help ease the grieving and dying process, had long been a topic of conversation. Did you know that Aldous Huxley had his wife give him an intramuscular dose of LSD on his deathbed? Now that we’ve watched death tallies from our phones since Covid started and secondary trauma around the pandemic continues, this conversation will gain a lot more traction in 2022. Look for topics around compassion fatigue and death positivity paired with psychedelics. These are certainly topics that fascinate us.
Parenting Issues & Psychedelics
As the DARE model of talking to kids about substance falls out of fashion, parents are left with many questions around talking about substances with kids: what is the right age to do psychedelics with offspring? What does family culture look like for parents who are psychedelic professionals? Without a clear cultural context, what is a parent to do? Perhaps looking at indigonous traditions around rites of passage as well as modern psychology may give guidance to parenting children in this psychedelic age. We’d love to hear from you if you're a psychedelic parent in 2022. Email us here.
Will we see California pass a sweeping decriminalization movement in 2022? Can psychedelics change peoples minds about the climate crisis? We really don’t know anymore than you do, but if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s to be ready for anything. So, here at Altered States Integration, we will keep toiling away to bring education and access to the psychedelic community through 2022 and beyond.
Do you have a psychedelic prediction of 2022? Drop us a comment or send an email to AlteredStatesIntegration.com
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