QotNews Hacker News, Reddit, Lobsters, and Tildes articles rendered in reader mode.
A century-old pharma company just quietly applied to import LSD and DMT into the US. I found it in a routine government filing nobody reads, and it says a lot about how the psychedelic boom actually happened.
Every weekday the federal government publishes a record of nearly everything it’s doing, in one place, called the Federal Register. Most of it is unreadable on purpose: tariff schedules, zoning notices, procedural filings. But it’s also the closest thing we have to a live feed of what the country is actually doing, and almost nobody reads it.
I went through yesterday’s. Buried in it was a two-page DEA notice that stopped me. A company called CalCog, operating out of a unit in a Bastrop, Texas business park, had applied to become a registered importer of four Schedule I psychedelics: LSD, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and psilocin. For clinical trials only.
My first instinct was that this was some fly-by-night operation. It isn’t. CalCog traces back to a New York pharmacy founded in 1919. A private equity firm bought it in 2016. Today it’s a clinical-supply contractor, the kind of company that handles the unglamorous machinery behind drug trials: sourcing the compounds, labeling them, and “blinding” them. Blinding is the part worth understanding. In a real trial you need the active drug and a placebo to be physically indistinguishable, so neither the patient nor the doctor knows which is which. Someone has to manufacture that deception. In a psychedelic trial, that someone is a company like CalCog, physically prepping the LSD.
So I pulled the numbers on how much of this the government now permits to be produced legally each year. The DEA sets an annual cap on every controlled substance. The trend over five years is striking:
- 5-MeO-DMT went from 35 grams in 2021 to 30,000 grams in 2026.
- Psilocyn roughly doubled in a single year, to 80,000 grams.
- Psilocybin rose from 30,000 to 50,000 grams.
- DMT climbed to 25,000 grams.
- LSD stayed flat at 1,200 grams, the established outlier.
The DEA states plainly that it’s raising these limits so researchers can study treatments for depression and PTSD.
What makes this interesting isn’t any single number. It’s the reversal behind them. In 2022, the DEA tried to ban a set of these same tryptamines. Roughly 600 people filed public comments against it, almost all opposed, and several researchers forced a rare legal hearing to fight the scheduling. Four years later, the same agency is raising production quotas and approving import permits with no objections filed at all.
That’s the real story hiding in a boring filing. The fight over whether these drugs should be legal for research didn’t happen this week, and it won’t show up in a headline. It happened years ago, upstream, in comment periods and administrative hearings most people never saw. What’s left now is logistics, the slow construction of a legal supply chain for substances that were unthinkable in a pharmacy a decade ago.
And the whole thing is public. You can watch it get built, one routine document at a time, if you know where to look. This one is DEA Docket No. DEA-1726.
I share this because it’s a small example of a bigger habit worth having: primary government documents are public, free, and far more revealing than the coverage built on top of them. This single DEA filing told me more about the state of psychedelic medicine, who’s actually moving, how fast the legal supply is scaling, and how quietly the regulatory posture flipped, than most of the trend pieces I’ve read on the subject. Curious whether others here read the Federal Register or similar primary sources regularly, and what you’ve turned up.
If I had to guess we're seeing the same thing that happened to marijuana happen to psychedelics. Once those in power realize that they can sell it, they slowly wind it down from being illegal to restricted to commercialized. Of course, they have all the industry connections to set up and get the permits and first dibs at cornering a new market they create.
Psychidelics don't lend themselves to becoming commodities the way marijuana does. The potential for clinical therapeutic use is still strong though, and the legislative environment has likely softened post marijuana legalization/decriminalization
While you are correct, that doesn’t mean those in power don’t erroneously believe that they will become commodities, and that is what actually matters.
They will absolutely become commodities. There are already companies and massive investments behind legalizing psychedelics. The FDA did not approve psychedelics for medical use. The industry then lobbied Trump and he passed an executive order expanding “research” into it.
There is a massive grey market of selling drugs that haven’t been approved by the FDA through declaring them as for research only. Peptides and variants of newer variants of glp-1 are sold online saying it’s for research.
I might not be understanding what you mean about them becoming commodities and if so I apologize. That said, if you mean weed's transition from the devil's lettuce to something sold in stores alongside nicotine cartridges, I wouldn't be so sure.
Don't we hear often about silicon valley techbros microdosing shrooms and LSD on a daily basis, somehow channeling the effects into supposedly magically becoming these incredible tech visionaries? I'm not sure we commodified weed to cure cancer patients. The social atmosphere was finally at a place where it was acceptable enough to monetize a formerly illegal drug and I think we're seeing history repeat itself with these drugs as well. Before you know it there might even be little tablets of tiny doses being sold in a few years, not strong enough for you to meet god, but just another thing we can buy to amuse ourselves or alleviate problems.
They mean the monetization of psychedelic abuse isn't as lucrative as it is for weed and alcohol. It's not non-existent, but when people over indulge in psychedelics, typically there is a natural inclination to put it down or stay away. Not always, but usually.
Microdosing is a different discussion, there's plenty of opportunity to sell imperceptible doses of LSD at high costs. And sometimes tech bros do too much DMT, but it also stops working after a while
> Once those in power realize that they can sell it, they slowly wind it down from being illegal to restricted to commercialized.
I'm not sure you understand drug criminalization originally happened on (religious) moral grounds, and now it still keeps being dragged on if you hate poor people.
Cannabis legalization in the US has also largely comes from citizen referendums after decades of the government failing to make any real movement on reform. Often with the state governments pushing back or outright refusing to cooperate.
It seems a bit of a fantasy that the flood gates have opened for weed here when we have companies worth 9 figures who are ready to be publicly traded as soon as they're legally allowed, and still have to jump through hoops to avoid the federal ban. Both our neighbors legalized before us, even as we drag our feet on simply rescheduling to match the overwhelming state support for medical cannabis.
After some mumbling, I feel like the biggest error was obama bipartisaning by appointing a bush-certified DEA administrator
> and still have to jump through hoops to avoid the federal ban.
It's actually pretty easy to understand, if you think that your parliament is FUCKED because the senate effectively requires 60 votes to pass major legislation, and that's pretty much impossible since even with 60% of actual votes democrats can maybe reach 51 out of 100..
Absolutely! We're actually in the process of a review by the DEA currently (started under Biden, no matter how much Trump tried to take credit with his useless EO), but it's a long road where the DEA doesn't have to agree to change anything. This has actually been done before, I forget the specifics, but the DEA basically drug their feet for over a decade until Bush2 was in office and then they released a report that said the amount of people using cannabis was evidence it is addictive and shouldn't be rescheduled.
It’s actually 1.2 billion doses, which is an insane amount. Idk what they need that much for. That’s assuming they’re getting pure LSD, if they’re getting 1200 grams of it already in liquid form or already on paper that’s different. But that would be weird if they were getting in that form, I assume they’re sourcing it in pure crystal form.
On top of what the other commenter said, it's also pretty easy to produce large amounts of LSD. 1200 grams is probably just the batch amount the lab makes available.
>I share this because it’s a small example of a bigger habit worth having: primary government documents are public, free, and far more revealing than the coverage built on top of them.
Pretty much the only people I know of who read the register on the daily are professional journalists. Most people don’t even know it exists. Interesting catch.
My therapist is working on studies that use DMT and MDMA for mental health reasons. I don’t know all the details other than she was a leading research on ketamine treatments, too.
Germany has the same -Bundesdrucksachen- and almost nobody reads it.
A big part of conspiracy-theoretic debates could have been prevented. But the texts are long and have few pictures. So they went to twitter for their information.
Well I mean why would a government conspiracy person trust a government made document? That wouldn't prevent anything, they'd just assume it's a cover/lies.
>And the whole thing is public. You can watch it get built, one routine document at a time, if you know where to look. This one is DEA Docket No. DEA-1726.
Hopefully somebody at r/dataisbeautiful - or at least someone competent over at r/charts - does just that.
This is probably a response to the April 2026 Executive Order telling federal agencies to speed up research into using psychedelics for mental health disorders. Glad there's some movement on it.
It’s worth watching John Oliver’s episode on psychedelics for medical use. While there could be real potential for using them to help people with PTSD, it looks like the market will be monopolized by one or two corporations who will, I assume, overcharge the government for veterans who desperately need help. Otherwise, it sounds like the treatment would only be available for people whose insurance would approve exorbitant rates or the ultra wealthy.
I also think it’s worth reading up on the controversy surrounding Amy Griffin’s The Tell. The author, an early venture capitalist who is vested heavily in psychedelics, supposedly based a memoir about her rape on her psychedelic therapy sessions. Recently, however, a school classmate has sued her, claiming the rape happened to her. Journalists have looked into the classmate’s claim and they seem credible. There are questions as to whether Griffin was unwittingly encouraged into false memories during her sessions. It’s worth noting that both she and her husband have invested significantly into psychedelic treatments. Amy Griffin is also the venture capitalist for Reese Witherspoon’s company as well as being connected to many celebrities. I wonder how many of these connections have aligned to help pass that executive order.
This is one EO I was happy about (though an EO in this case doesn't actually make things happen, it's just a directive). There's very good evidence for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, but actually accessing either is very difficult, and maybe if NIH and FDA are encouraged, the "drugs are bad, m'kay" stigma that's holding them back.
It’s not about whether the treatment works or not. It’s that the companies will control the treatment and charge exorbitant amounts for it. I highly recommend watching the John Oliver episode on it. Every single part of the treatment has been patented by companies. This will be yet another way to ramp up healthcare costs.
You can't patent chemicals like LSD. That's why companies are twisting themselves in knots to make more expensive, though less effective, drugs like Spravato and that new 5HT2a agonist in phase 2.
MindMed has patented the tartrate salt form of LSD (what Sandoz and most underground chemists produced) and is delivering it via a patented “orally-dissolving tablet” called MM120 ODT.
But patients can’t legally take drugs that are straight up LSD and nor would that even be sold on the gray market. So bringing up LSd is irrelevant to this discussion.
ETA: I am not going to bother discussing further. I am not interested in wasting time on straw men arguments.
Don't get too excited. Sooner or later we will have a "psychedelic epidemic" and imports will be reduced back down and people told to "tough it out" like is happening with pain medication now.
Anything happening because of an EO can be undone via EO.
[OP] Altruistic-Dirt-2791 | 10 days ago
Every weekday the federal government publishes a record of nearly everything it’s doing, in one place, called the Federal Register. Most of it is unreadable on purpose: tariff schedules, zoning notices, procedural filings. But it’s also the closest thing we have to a live feed of what the country is actually doing, and almost nobody reads it.
I went through yesterday’s. Buried in it was a two-page DEA notice that stopped me. A company called CalCog, operating out of a unit in a Bastrop, Texas business park, had applied to become a registered importer of four Schedule I psychedelics: LSD, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and psilocin. For clinical trials only.
My first instinct was that this was some fly-by-night operation. It isn’t. CalCog traces back to a New York pharmacy founded in 1919. A private equity firm bought it in 2016. Today it’s a clinical-supply contractor, the kind of company that handles the unglamorous machinery behind drug trials: sourcing the compounds, labeling them, and “blinding” them. Blinding is the part worth understanding. In a real trial you need the active drug and a placebo to be physically indistinguishable, so neither the patient nor the doctor knows which is which. Someone has to manufacture that deception. In a psychedelic trial, that someone is a company like CalCog, physically prepping the LSD.
So I pulled the numbers on how much of this the government now permits to be produced legally each year. The DEA sets an annual cap on every controlled substance. The trend over five years is striking:
- 5-MeO-DMT went from 35 grams in 2021 to 30,000 grams in 2026.
- Psilocyn roughly doubled in a single year, to 80,000 grams.
- Psilocybin rose from 30,000 to 50,000 grams.
- DMT climbed to 25,000 grams.
- LSD stayed flat at 1,200 grams, the established outlier.
The DEA states plainly that it’s raising these limits so researchers can study treatments for depression and PTSD.
What makes this interesting isn’t any single number. It’s the reversal behind them. In 2022, the DEA tried to ban a set of these same tryptamines. Roughly 600 people filed public comments against it, almost all opposed, and several researchers forced a rare legal hearing to fight the scheduling. Four years later, the same agency is raising production quotas and approving import permits with no objections filed at all.
That’s the real story hiding in a boring filing. The fight over whether these drugs should be legal for research didn’t happen this week, and it won’t show up in a headline. It happened years ago, upstream, in comment periods and administrative hearings most people never saw. What’s left now is logistics, the slow construction of a legal supply chain for substances that were unthinkable in a pharmacy a decade ago.
And the whole thing is public. You can watch it get built, one routine document at a time, if you know where to look. This one is DEA Docket No. DEA-1726.
I share this because it’s a small example of a bigger habit worth having: primary government documents are public, free, and far more revealing than the coverage built on top of them. This single DEA filing told me more about the state of psychedelic medicine, who’s actually moving, how fast the legal supply is scaling, and how quietly the regulatory posture flipped, than most of the trend pieces I’ve read on the subject. Curious whether others here read the Federal Register or similar primary sources regularly, and what you’ve turned up.
sn34kypete | 10 days ago
If I had to guess we're seeing the same thing that happened to marijuana happen to psychedelics. Once those in power realize that they can sell it, they slowly wind it down from being illegal to restricted to commercialized. Of course, they have all the industry connections to set up and get the permits and first dibs at cornering a new market they create.
weather_watchman | 10 days ago
Psychidelics don't lend themselves to becoming commodities the way marijuana does. The potential for clinical therapeutic use is still strong though, and the legislative environment has likely softened post marijuana legalization/decriminalization
johnny_mcd | 10 days ago
While you are correct, that doesn’t mean those in power don’t erroneously believe that they will become commodities, and that is what actually matters.
Easy-Concentrate2636 | 10 days ago
They will absolutely become commodities. There are already companies and massive investments behind legalizing psychedelics. The FDA did not approve psychedelics for medical use. The industry then lobbied Trump and he passed an executive order expanding “research” into it.
There is a massive grey market of selling drugs that haven’t been approved by the FDA through declaring them as for research only. Peptides and variants of newer variants of glp-1 are sold online saying it’s for research.
sn34kypete | 10 days ago
I might not be understanding what you mean about them becoming commodities and if so I apologize. That said, if you mean weed's transition from the devil's lettuce to something sold in stores alongside nicotine cartridges, I wouldn't be so sure.
Don't we hear often about silicon valley techbros microdosing shrooms and LSD on a daily basis, somehow channeling the effects into supposedly magically becoming these incredible tech visionaries? I'm not sure we commodified weed to cure cancer patients. The social atmosphere was finally at a place where it was acceptable enough to monetize a formerly illegal drug and I think we're seeing history repeat itself with these drugs as well. Before you know it there might even be little tablets of tiny doses being sold in a few years, not strong enough for you to meet god, but just another thing we can buy to amuse ourselves or alleviate problems.
BuzzkillMcGillicuddy | 10 days ago
They mean the monetization of psychedelic abuse isn't as lucrative as it is for weed and alcohol. It's not non-existent, but when people over indulge in psychedelics, typically there is a natural inclination to put it down or stay away. Not always, but usually.
Microdosing is a different discussion, there's plenty of opportunity to sell imperceptible doses of LSD at high costs. And sometimes tech bros do too much DMT, but it also stops working after a while
mirh | 10 days ago
> Once those in power realize that they can sell it, they slowly wind it down from being illegal to restricted to commercialized.
I'm not sure you understand drug criminalization originally happened on (religious) moral grounds, and now it still keeps being dragged on if you hate poor people.
NativeMasshole | 10 days ago
Cannabis legalization in the US has also largely comes from citizen referendums after decades of the government failing to make any real movement on reform. Often with the state governments pushing back or outright refusing to cooperate.
It seems a bit of a fantasy that the flood gates have opened for weed here when we have companies worth 9 figures who are ready to be publicly traded as soon as they're legally allowed, and still have to jump through hoops to avoid the federal ban. Both our neighbors legalized before us, even as we drag our feet on simply rescheduling to match the overwhelming state support for medical cannabis.
mirh | 10 days ago
> after decades of the government failing to make any real movement on reform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_cannabis_from_Schedule_I_of_the_Controlled_Substances_Act#History
After some mumbling, I feel like the biggest error was obama bipartisaning by appointing a bush-certified DEA administrator
> and still have to jump through hoops to avoid the federal ban.
It's actually pretty easy to understand, if you think that your parliament is FUCKED because the senate effectively requires 60 votes to pass major legislation, and that's pretty much impossible since even with 60% of actual votes democrats can maybe reach 51 out of 100..
NativeMasshole | 10 days ago
Absolutely! We're actually in the process of a review by the DEA currently (started under Biden, no matter how much Trump tried to take credit with his useless EO), but it's a long road where the DEA doesn't have to agree to change anything. This has actually been done before, I forget the specifics, but the DEA basically drug their feet for over a decade until Bush2 was in office and then they released a report that said the amount of people using cannabis was evidence it is addictive and shouldn't be rescheduled.
munoodle | 10 days ago
That’s the only reason a PE backed pharma company is getting in on this
LouQuacious | 10 days ago
1200 grams is about 12 million doses of lsd fyi.
Mackey_Corp | 10 days ago
It’s actually 1.2 billion doses, which is an insane amount. Idk what they need that much for. That’s assuming they’re getting pure LSD, if they’re getting 1200 grams of it already in liquid form or already on paper that’s different. But that would be weird if they were getting in that form, I assume they’re sourcing it in pure crystal form.
LouQuacious | 10 days ago
That’s not right there’s a million micrograms in a gram and at 100mcg per dose that’s 10,000 “full” doses a gram.
Source: I’ve been to hundreds of phish shows and festivals and grew weed in CA and VT for over 20 years.
NativeMasshole | 10 days ago
On top of what the other commenter said, it's also pretty easy to produce large amounts of LSD. 1200 grams is probably just the batch amount the lab makes available.
baycenters | 10 days ago
>I share this because it’s a small example of a bigger habit worth having: primary government documents are public, free, and far more revealing than the coverage built on top of them.
I admire your way with words.
M0BBER | 10 days ago
Bastrop Texas? Right where Elon musk built Tesla?
https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2024/09/20/elon-musk-x-headquarters-bastrop-texas-twitter-tesla-space-x/75299492007/
horseradishstalker | 10 days ago
Pretty much the only people I know of who read the register on the daily are professional journalists. Most people don’t even know it exists. Interesting catch.
mustardhamsters | 10 days ago
Great find! And a clear, informative writeup. Thanks for sharing.
blissfully_happy | 10 days ago
My therapist is working on studies that use DMT and MDMA for mental health reasons. I don’t know all the details other than she was a leading research on ketamine treatments, too.
Mackey_Corp | 10 days ago
1200 grams of LSD is 1.2 billion doses. That’s kind of a lot.
del_rio | 10 days ago
It's almost certainly including the weight of the vials.
Der_Schubkarrenwaise | 10 days ago
Germany has the same -Bundesdrucksachen- and almost nobody reads it.
A big part of conspiracy-theoretic debates could have been prevented. But the texts are long and have few pictures. So they went to twitter for their information.
TeamRedundancyTeam | 10 days ago
Well I mean why would a government conspiracy person trust a government made document? That wouldn't prevent anything, they'd just assume it's a cover/lies.
Der_Schubkarrenwaise | 10 days ago
Fair point but the whole pandemic playbook has been there. The "Secrets".
jxj24 | 10 days ago
Thank you for the discovery and the explanation.
nonnonplussed73 | 10 days ago
>And the whole thing is public. You can watch it get built, one routine document at a time, if you know where to look. This one is DEA Docket No. DEA-1726.
Hopefully somebody at r/dataisbeautiful - or at least someone competent over at r/charts - does just that.
Lazarus89 | 10 days ago
Who is supplying them?
iamthe0ther0ne | 10 days ago
This is probably a response to the April 2026 Executive Order telling federal agencies to speed up research into using psychedelics for mental health disorders. Glad there's some movement on it.
Easy-Concentrate2636 | 10 days ago
It’s worth watching John Oliver’s episode on psychedelics for medical use. While there could be real potential for using them to help people with PTSD, it looks like the market will be monopolized by one or two corporations who will, I assume, overcharge the government for veterans who desperately need help. Otherwise, it sounds like the treatment would only be available for people whose insurance would approve exorbitant rates or the ultra wealthy.
I also think it’s worth reading up on the controversy surrounding Amy Griffin’s The Tell. The author, an early venture capitalist who is vested heavily in psychedelics, supposedly based a memoir about her rape on her psychedelic therapy sessions. Recently, however, a school classmate has sued her, claiming the rape happened to her. Journalists have looked into the classmate’s claim and they seem credible. There are questions as to whether Griffin was unwittingly encouraged into false memories during her sessions. It’s worth noting that both she and her husband have invested significantly into psychedelic treatments. Amy Griffin is also the venture capitalist for Reese Witherspoon’s company as well as being connected to many celebrities. I wonder how many of these connections have aligned to help pass that executive order.
iamthe0ther0ne | 10 days ago
This is one EO I was happy about (though an EO in this case doesn't actually make things happen, it's just a directive). There's very good evidence for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, but actually accessing either is very difficult, and maybe if NIH and FDA are encouraged, the "drugs are bad, m'kay" stigma that's holding them back.
Easy-Concentrate2636 | 10 days ago
It’s not about whether the treatment works or not. It’s that the companies will control the treatment and charge exorbitant amounts for it. I highly recommend watching the John Oliver episode on it. Every single part of the treatment has been patented by companies. This will be yet another way to ramp up healthcare costs.
iamthe0ther0ne | 9 days ago
You can't patent chemicals like LSD. That's why companies are twisting themselves in knots to make more expensive, though less effective, drugs like Spravato and that new 5HT2a agonist in phase 2.
DrugLibrary | 9 days ago
MindMed has patented the tartrate salt form of LSD (what Sandoz and most underground chemists produced) and is delivering it via a patented “orally-dissolving tablet” called MM120 ODT.
https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_8a156edc4f17843de2a83cc8759bf5c8/mindmed/news/2024-12-16_MindMed_Announces_First_Patient_Dosed_in_Phase_3_169.pdf
Easy-Concentrate2636 | 9 days ago
But patients can’t legally take drugs that are straight up LSD and nor would that even be sold on the gray market. So bringing up LSd is irrelevant to this discussion.
ETA: I am not going to bother discussing further. I am not interested in wasting time on straw men arguments.
jameson71 | 10 days ago
Don't get too excited. Sooner or later we will have a "psychedelic epidemic" and imports will be reduced back down and people told to "tough it out" like is happening with pain medication now.
Anything happening because of an EO can be undone via EO.
Easy-Concentrate2636 | 10 days ago
I feel like you are one of those people who thought that opioids weren’t an issue.
Lilczey | 10 days ago
Amazing feed pull!!! This is the type of content I like to see on reddit!!