At a time when the trading world is discussing Gamestop and the “dangers” of outsider trading, sneaking under the radar is another story: the world’s first psychedelics Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), Horizons Psychedelic Stock Index ETF, began trading on the Canadian NEO exchange on Wednesday under the ticker PSYK.NE.
That means bringing to light 17 publicly traded companies focused on using psychedelics. Of special note is one we are rather keen on: the biotech firm MindMed (OTC: MMEDF, NEO: MMED) who has been a trailblazer for “magic mushrooms.” In the past three months, MindMed has seen its stock soar 250% signaling what many think will be the next burgeoning industry to follow marijuana in 2021: psychedelics.
In many ways, marijuana paved the way for psychedelics and likely will allow it to grow at a faster pace than marijuana did. The cannabis industry broke down many legal barriers and resistance from politicians which means psychedelics will have a smoother road to travel.
What helped move marijuana along were not just the medical benefits, but high demand from the recreational crowd. These very same reasons will spur psychedelics at what I believe to be a much quicker pace of acceptance. While cannabis is lauded for its ability to help people with eating disorders, muscle spasms, pain, nausea, seizures, reducing inflammation, and a host of other physical ailments, in comparison, psychedelics show greater promise when it comes to social and mental disorders and ailments.
When it comes to those suffering from things like anxiety, suicide ideation, PTSD, opiate addiction, OCD, depression, alcoholism, etc. psychedelics administered under supervision in a safe environment show promise in not only lessening their intensity but in many cases eliminating them altogether. Mostly, this is done in the form of “micro-dosing,” taking very small amounts that have no hallucinative side effects.
In addition, the primary benefits from the use of psychedelics are a new sense of belonging, more optimism, creativity, a new way of thinking and perceiving – a sort of cerebral reset. This is a new lease on life for many.
These individual benefits by extension translate into social and collective ones. Since mediums like MDMA, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and DMT have decades of study by medical facilities and universities, and the science behind their benefits has been piling up, they’ve reached a tipping point of acceptance socially, medically, and among psychiatrists.
This ETF launch will bring a tremendous amount of attention to the psychedelic industry that has been waiting to explode on the scene. It just needed a spark to ignite it, and it looks like that spark has arrived.
