The wave of positive news for medicinal psychedelics has continued to swell heading in the new year. If it keeps up, we’re going to have an alternative plant medicine tsunami, but the
when is trickier to pin down.
One reason next year is looking like a milestone year for psychedelics research and investment is the sheer number of forces pushing this market forward. You might expect research to be the leading driver, but at this point, it’s the political headlines driving interest.
For starters, we’ve seen a number of progressive US politicians hearing the positive feedback from studies on psychedelics and looking to push legislation. Things got started in June, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
tabled a spending bill amendment that would have allowed research into potentially beneficial Schedule I drugs (including psilocybin). At the time it was defeated,
but further positive research and feedback from many non-profit organizations make further attempts in 2020 likely.
Then we have Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who will soon get a chance to bring the discussion to the debate stage and national television. On Dec. 14, Yang tweeted out his support for legalizing medicinal psilocybin for treating depression, particularly amongst veterans.
And while progress on the federal side is promising, the biggest force in 2020 might instead be more local. Following the decriminalization of psilocybin mushrooms in Denver and the follow-up in Oakland, ongoing campaigns in Oregon and California to include a vote for legalizing psychedelic mushrooms on the 2020 ballot are
generating strong support.
In fact, there are
currently support initiatives starting in 100 American cities. Though many are in the earliest stages, eight major municipalities including Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Berkeley, and Portland are well into engaging directly with the campaigns and considering resolutions. Next year, you can expect more cities to move onto the next steps.
At the end of the day, however, the biggest indicator of the increasing viability of psychedelics (and imminent expansion of the investor market) is the rapidly growing amount of research being supported. Case in point, the notoriously slow and stringent FDA is
granting more and more Breakthrough Therapy designations to psychedelics programs at a relatively blistering pace. One of the companies gaining traction here,
Compass Pathways, has already received significant investor attention.
In Canada, research is also well underway and ongoing. The British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse is
already in Phase III of a clinical trial on the use of MDMA for patients suffering from PTSD, and universities across Canada are set to
launch studies of their own. Vancouver-based
Numinus is one of the companies looking to conduct their own research and prepare for the market ahead of time.
Will the numerous forces propelling medicinal psychedelics into the mainstream make a breakthrough in 2020? By sheer number it seems likely, and many big market names have
already heeded the call. As with cannabis, the full bursting of the dam may still take time, but at the very least, expect the cracks next year to be significant.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Numinus Inc. is a client of Stockhouse Publishing.