Kozikowski and his company, Bright Minds Biosciences, have picked up Hoffman’s discarded thread, dusting off 50-year-old pharmacology shunted aside by the drug war. A retired professor in medicinal chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Kozikowksi has patented several compounds that are similar to psychedelic mushrooms, but don’t activate the 5-HT2B receptor, as mushroom-derived psilocybin will do.

Put simply, “We’re trying to reinvent psilocybin,” he said.

But exactly how, and which of the other receptors to target, and in what volume, presents a research question. The research question.

Some patients might want the feelings of empathy, euphoria, and reflection without the physical and cognitive sensations of a “trip.” There are ways to increase the body’s metabolism so that the “trip” time is shortened. But eliminating that altogether activity means the resulting drug may not be an effective treatment. Otherwise, there would be no therapeutic effect.

“What’s important about 2A activity is that it allows one to reset the brain,” Kozikowski said. “It’s a way to rewire the brain. We want 2A activity.”

For this reason, most—if not all—psilocybin-based treatments might require the “guided” therapy seen in experimental mushroom treatments in Canada. Unless, possibly, a therapy just hit the 5-HT2C receptor. Activity at that receptor “can make you feel full, it quiets you down,” he added. “It has all kinds of wonderful effects.”