Since the first companies went public in 2020, investors have been betting on the “revolutionary” potential of psychedelic drugs for mental healthcare, with many jumping into the market believing it would mimic early days of Canadian cannabis stocks.
For one, let’s look at the policies around cannabis and psychedelics.
Although there have been some encouraging steps made by Health Canada as far as improving emergency medical access to psilocybin and MDMA, there is no indication that psychedelics will be made federally legal anytime soon.
Excitement around psychedelic stocks came in large part from the idea that psychedelic drugs could change mental healthcare.
Think about how accessible mental healthcare is right now.
How accessible, then, would psychedelic-assisted therapy be? Most protocols call for not one but two therapists to each patient, and psilocybin or MDMA treatments can last anywhere from four to six hours.
More glaring than differences in policy or accessibility are the differences in development.
Psychedelic companies have more in common with biotech firms than those in the business of cannabis.
She is a co-founder and editor-in-chief at Inside the Jar, a growing independent publication focused on drug culture in Canada and the United States, and a regular contributor to Forbes and The Dales Report.