Psychedelics and business could make for a bad trip
In case you don’t have any tech bro friends who’ve told you this already: the “psychedelic renaissance” is in full swing. From mushroom-derived psilocybin to LSD, mescaline — Hunter S Thompson’s favourite — and ayahuasca-compound DMT, mind-altering substances are back, baby.
But this time around, the people involved are not just wittering on about free love and world peace. The new generation of enthusiasts will tell you that psychedelics offer two big opportunities: solving the western world’s “mental health crisis” and also making you — and them — some serious money.
For proof of how delicately the altruism and profit motives can be brought together, consider the co-founder and former chief executive of New York-based psychedelics start-up MindMed, JR Rahn, on the day the company — he called it “the Tesla of mental health” — listed on the Nasdaq last year. “Forty per cent of the country is suffering [mental ill health],” Rahn said. “That’s a big, big market.”
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Jemima Kelly
