Founder’s Note: On Taking a Burnout-Induced Mini-Hiatus

By Jack Gorsline

When I first drummed up the idea to create Psychedelic State(s) of America back in March of 2024, the concept was a lot simpler than what PSA has flourished into today. The basic premise was to highlight lesser known and underrepresented voices from across the undeniably diverse “psychedelic renaissance” (a term I’ve grown to both love and loathe as a label for this sociopolitical movement of few if any comparisons).

I’d been on the psychedelic beat for all of six months or so by then — having gotten my start as a reporter with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) in late September 2023. At the time, I was a 28-year-old college student finishing my degree (in part) at Northeastern University, and ended up writing for BINJ as a student intern following an administratively-stifled attempt to start a student newspaper at Bunker Hill Community College in my adopted hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.

For the sake of some additional lore: after I met BINJ Editorial Director and my now-longtime journalistic mentor Chris Faraone, I figured I’d cover psychedelics and a little bit of cannabis industry reporting here and there for about year — with plans to expand my scope of coverage to local labor union contract negotiations and education issues through a working class lens.

But after stumbling into the whacky world of psychedelic activism through my coverage of local community events like mushroom forages in Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and subsequent outing of a particularly ill-behaved bad faith activist by the name of James Davis of the now re-branded Bay Staters for Creative Well-Being. I found my niche (and a home) as the only local reporter in Greater New England at the time that was covering the broader psychedelic ecosystem through a multi-scaled political lens.

And in embracing that niche, I found myself catapulted from literal obscurity to scooping The esteemed Boston Globe nearly a dozen times on serious community and Yes on 4 Campaign-related psychedelic issues in the first 9 months of my career as an early career (semi)-pro scribbler.

So by March 2024, while in between studying for midterms and scooping The Spotlight Guys, frustrated by the inanely repetitive PR cycle that seemed to be the psychedelic media ecosystem of that era, I started Psychedelic State(s) of America over on Substack - with the goal of publishing interesting interviews with community and organizational leaders like Dr. Emily Kulpa, Co-Founder of the Psychedelic Pharmacists Association and David Babik, ESQ. — President of the Boston Mycological Club.

In the time since those two initial Q+A’s were published, Psychedelic State(s) of America has experienced tremendous growth — now reaching over half a million monthly viewers across PSA’s social media channels — in addition to a nearly 150% newsletter audience growth since PSA migrated to Beehiiv last September (149.749%, to be exact). 

I’m also particularly proud to highlight that PSA was the first news outlet to interview the grassroots coalition that led the charge to pass the New Mexico Medical Psilocybin Act in April 2025, and the first to interview Texans For Greater Mental Health’s then-Executive Director Logan Davidson, following the historic passage of the Texas Ibogaine Initiative last May. Those two interviews kicked off the Psychedelic State(s) of America Advocacy Spotlight Initiative — a project that (unbeknownst to many) actually helped pave the way for the creation of the now-thriving Northeast Psychedelic Advocacy Alliance, and one that I am eager to revisit and revamp in the not-too-distant future, as PSA enters its next phase of organizational alignment (more on that soon). 

We’ve also hosted events in 6 major cities across the United States so far, including marquee community gatherings in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Oakland — with plans to expand PSA’s joint event offerings with the Psychedelic Writers Guild to monthly gatherings in 6+ cities by the end of this calendar year.

Speaking of The Psychedelic Writers Guild — what began as a literally half-baked thought on Twitter has grown into an organizational force to be reckoned with in the evolving independent drugs-related journalism/media landscape of today. As part of PSA’s Media Partnership Program, we’ve curated cutting edge content, coverage, and opinion-driven analysis for leading psychedelic media outlets like Lucid News, DoubleBlind Magazine, Talking Drugs, and Psychedelics Today — to name a few. We’ve also forged key strategic partnerships with mission-aligned partners like The Psychedelic Bar Association, Normalize Psychedelics, The Parable Foundation, Work in Psychedelics, and more - with major partnership expansion plans in the works under the careful guidance of the PWG’s growing leadership team in the weeks and months ahead.

As it pertains to our friends at Psychedelics Today, we’ve got some exciting collaborative projects already in the works, with weekly PSA News Roundup shows streaming live across PSA and PT’s collective platforms throughout the summer, along with a new weekly policy roundup briefing series that you’ll be reading more about very, very soon. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that I’m eager to share before summer’s end, but for now I’m resigned to share what I can… which is that the best is yet to come for PSA’s place as a cornerstone psychedelic media entity for today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Now, having said all that, the weight of covering this beat is not to be undersold. Investigative journalism certainly comes with the territory of ruffling powerful feathers and holding deep, dark, and even at times incredibly traumatic secrets from across an underground ecosystem wherein unchecked abuse, assault, misconduct, and general mischief run rampant far too often for comfort or true peace of mind.

And lately, while navigating the especially seedy underbelly of the psychedelic movement from a few different angles, that weight has been taking a larger toll on me that I was willing to admit to myself even just a few weeks ago.

As a result, I’ve espoused commentary as of late that — while informed by information I’m aware of and rooted in evidence I’ve obtained — has evoked entirely reasonable critiques of my choice of more generalized wording/phrasing at times, which I have worked hard to process, reflect on, and learn from as best I can.

In doing so, I’ve realized that I’m desperately in need of a mini-hiatus — which in short just means that for at least the next few weeks, I’ll be pressing pause on PSA’s Sunday Sound-off and State(s) of the Union Newsletters, with the intention of recalibrating and refining my journalistic bandwidth and my operational responsibilities. PSA will still publish some already-scheduled content along the way — like the latest iteration of The PSA Book Report Series on Wednesday as well as the newest installment of regular contributor Adam Butler’s Bi-Monthly Bulletin on Thursday. 

As I mentioned above, PSA’s Weekly News Roundup will still be livestreaming in partnership with Psychedelics Today in addition to the launch of a new weekly policy briefing article via PT that’s dropping later this week.

I’ll also still be contributing to PSA partners like DoubleBlind, Talking Drugs, etc. throughout the summer — with collaborative coverage planned for the duration of my summer-long stint touring Colorado starting later this week through August 4th.

For our friends in the greater Denver area — stay tuned for the details of PSA’s ongoing summer event series in the days ahead — I’m thrilled to be able to connect with industry stakeholders over the course of the next 8 weeks, and I encourage you to reach out to me personally if you’d like to connect while I’m in town.

In closing, I’d be remiss not to thank you if you’ve managed to read the entirety of this founder’s note turned personal essay, and to encourage you to donate any amount you can contribute — even just $5 goes a long way — to PSA’s Psychedelic Writers Guild Media Fund to directly support the future rigorous independent journalism that PSA is building alongside our dedicated partners from across the global psychedelic community.

With Gratitude,

Jack Gorsline

Founder of Psychedelic State(s) of America and The Psychedelic Writers Guild