Category Archives: Psychedelics

Welcome to theCannabis Countdown. In this weeks rendition, well recap and countdown the top 10 Marijuana Stock News stories for the week of March 2nd 8th, 2020.

Without further ado,lets get started.

*Yahoo Finance readers, please click here to view full article.

The Psychedelics Industry is Beginning to Heat Up, Giving Cannabis Investors an Eerie Sense of Dja Vu

Psychedelic Stocksare in high demand asChampignon Brands (cse:SHRM)andMindMed (neo:MMED)IPO in the same week. Lets compareSHRMandMMEDs first week of trading to see how the two stacked up and which stock came out on top.

READ FULL PSYCHEDELIC STOCKS IPO ARTICLE

Dow Jones Soars 1,173 Points as Joe Bidens Super Tuesday Win Sparks Major Market Rally

As the stock market soared, North AmericanPot Stocksalso rebounded sharply with some posting double-digit gains on the day. Here are the top 15 gainers of the trading session.

READ FULL TCI MARKET WATCH ARTICLE

Heres What Wall Street Is Saying About TLRYs Disappointing Q4 Results

Tilray Inc TLRY, -16.07% reported a net loss of $219.1 million in the quarter, or $2.14 a share. The net loss included a $112 million impairment charge related to assets, as well as a $68 million inventory write-down.Wall Streethad been anticipating a loss of 40 cents a share.

READ FULL TILRAY EARNINGS ARTICLE

Now Listed on the NEO, MMED Stock Was Very Active on its First Day, Trading Over 14 Million Shares

Prior to going public,PsychedelicsfirmMindMed (neo:MMED) (fra:BGHM)raised $24 million in a pre-IPO round which includedKevin OLearyand the founder and former CEO ofCanopy Growth (WEED) CGC, -18.20% (fra:11L1),Bruce Linton.

READ FULL MINDMED IPO ARTICLE

One Harvard Economist Says the U.S. Government Loses up to $20B a Year By Keeping Cannabis Illegal

Some experts believe that the U.S. Federal Government makes up for prohibition costs and lost tax revenue in other ways, such as by not allowing cannabis companies to write-off regular business expenses.

READ FULL FEDS CANNABIS ARTICLE

Analysts Gordon Johnson Calls the Companys Guidance Aspirational

GLJ Research is zeroing out itsTilray Inc TLRY, -16.07% price target in the wake of the cannabis companys fourth-quarterearnings. Johnson maintained a Sell rating and lowered the price target for Tilray from $5 to $0, suggesting the equity is essentially worthless.

READ FULL TILRAY TARGET ARTICLE

Q4 Results Fell Short for Acreage Holdings According to Beacon Securities Analyst Russell Stanley

In an update to clients, Stanley kept his Buy rating on shares ofAcreage Holdings (cse:ACRG.U) (otcqx:ACRGF) (0VZ),but dropped his price target from $17.00 to $5.25 per share. Stanley said the quarter came in under his estimates.

READ FULL ACREAGE HOLDINGS ARTICLE

BlueKudu is a Producer of Premium Edible Cannabis Products

Curaleaf Holdings (cse:CURA) (otcqx:CURLF)will acquire BlueKudu, a Colorado-based producer of premium cannabis chocolates and gummies. Founded in 2011, BlueKudu is one of Colorados oldest and most experienced edible manufacturers.

READ FULL CURALEAF ARTICLE

GW Pharma Owns a Proprietary Cannabinoid Platform with Epidiolex as its Lead Product

As the worlds first company to commercialize a plant-based cannabinoid-derived pharmaceutical,GW Pharmaceuticals GWPH, -11.95% stands out as a Top Pick for 2020, according to David M. Kideckel, an analyst for AltaCorp Capital, who stayed bullish on the name in an update to clients.

READ FULL GW PHARMA ARTICLE

Hundreds of Canopy Employees Showed Up for Work Only to Find Themselves Out of a Job

Canopy Growth (WEED) CGC, -18.20% (fra:11L1)has closed large greenhouses in Delta and Aldergrove, B.C. The top Canadianlicensed producer (LP)says the closures have resulted in the elimination of approximately 500 positions. In addition to the closures in B.C., the company says it no longer plans to open a third greenhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

READ FULL CANOPY BC TWEED ARTICLE

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2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Cannabis Countdown: Top 10 Marijuana Stock News Stories Of The Week - MarketWatch

Podcast host Joe Rogan, the current pied piper of psychedelics.

It might be time to expand your mind.

In a world where mainstream news sources are steadily increasing the chasm of understanding between human beings, Joe Rogans Powerful JRE podcast is a media phenomenon showcasing a wide array of voices and ideas many that serve to remind us of our shared humanity. Rogans show, which routinely clocks millions of views per episode, takes a slow burn, longform approach to interviewing thats devoid of edits and hype. The podcast version of an Errol Morris outtake, the tape rolls and the conversations unfold in a sort of cinema verit style. One of the best aspects of the show is that a conversation can go in virtually any direction at anytime. While Rogan has found himself occasionally ensnared in petty controversies over guest choices, given the wide breadth of personality types hes invited on the show over 1,431 episodes not to mention his expansive 3 to 4 hour format he generally hits all the notes necessary for good viewing. With a roster spanning from notable physicists, authors and entrepreneurs to extreme athletes, A-list actors and presidential hopefuls including Elon Musk, Laird Hamilton, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, Edward Norton, Mike Tyson, Richard Dawkins and Michael Pollan the show goes further afield than any current media company can or will go.

And then theres Rogans interviews about psychedelics a treasure trove of some of the most insightful interviews that exist today on the topic of mind-altering states.

Six years ago, Rogans interview with Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), presented an early, sneak peek at the long-term research being conducted on MDMA (aka, ecstasy) to treat PTSD in war vets and firefighters. To date, Doblins organization has raised over $70 million from donors since 1986 and is currently in final Phase 3 trials with the Food and Drug Administration to potentially legalize MDMA to treat PTSD alongside assisted therapy. Holding a doctorate in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Doblin later said of the FDA clinical trials and MAPSs scientific approach to legalization, Science is the vehicle in our culture that we trust, and is perhaps one of the reasons why MAPS has experienced success.

Jump to 2018 and Rogans interview with Michael Pollan, author of the groundbreaking book How To Change Your Mind (a work that shattered the glass ceiling of psychedelic exploration) and Pollans chronicling of various encounters on LSD, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms and 5-MeO-DMT (toad venom). The then 62-year-old straight-edge author who prior to research for that book had limited experience with psychedelics and is better known for his bestselling books In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma willingly catapulted himself into the stratosphere of psychedelics. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the current state of psychedelics. Alongside other very expansive moments in the interview, Pollan describes the white-knuckle ride he faced after inhaling toad venom, which he admits he wasnt a big fan of. You take one puff, and before you exhale, youre shot out of a cannon, theres no lead up, no warm up. Its like FUMPT! said Pollan. I felt like I was actually strapped to the outside of a rocket, going through space and through clouds, the g-forces pulling down my cheeks. Making his way through the miasma of the experience, Pollan described an incredible feeling of gratitude he had when making his way back to ordinary consciousness. I was grateful for the fact that there was something and not nothing, he said. Because Id seen what nothing was like. Pollans book, and his captivating interview with Rogan, has unquestionably helped move the needle regarding the acceptance of psychedelics as tools of positive growth.

In early 2019 there was another notable interview: when Iron Mike Tyson took to the mic on Rogans show describing his profound experience on 5-MeO-DMT and had a different encounter from Pollans. I look at life differently, I look at people differently. Its almost like dying and being reborn, said Tyson, describing the event from two months prior. Its inconceivable. I tried to explain it to some people, to my wife, I dont have the words to explain it. Its almost like youre dying, youre submissive, youre humble, youre vulnerable but youre invincible still in all.

Later that same year, notable mycologist Paul Stamets, who has devoted his life to the study of fungi, described in glorious detail the synapse-like web present beneath mushrooms (called mycelium) that can run for miles and create subterranean circuit boards that help to restore ailing trees and transmit vital nutrients across vast stretches of forest floor. During that segment, Stamets relayed a heart-rending story about his personal challenges with stuttering as a young man and one mind-blowing afternoon taking a whopping amount of magic mushrooms during a lightning storm. It was an event that completely changed his life.

Rogans psychedelic-centric conversations include talks with icons like Dennis McKenna (brother of Terence McKenna) and Dr. Andrew Weil M.D. the latter, a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine and Aubrey Marcus, who reveals the details of an incredible ayahuasca trip he had. Then theres Hamilton Morris, a journalist and pharmacological sleuth best known for his illuminating and entertaining television series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, who broke down the essence of a productive psychedelic endeavor and the benefit in approaching life from a non-fearful perspective where the intention is to learn.

"You can extract a lot from a psychedelic experience including the difficult experiences, said Morris. This is what is maybe the hardest thing to communicate about psychedelics, is that it's the difficult one's which are often the best. Those are the ones that really teach you something. When youre trying to talk about psychedelics with someone whos never used them, its not a great selling point to say: You know, the best thing that can happen to you is you think that youre gonna die. Because thats a confrontation with the overarching fear the fear that generates all other fears. If you conquer that fear, your life will almost certainly improve."

Stay tuned for what will certainly be more entertaining and enlightening segments from Rogan on the topic of psychedelics. Hes endlessly fascinated by them, so you can count on that. As one viewer recently pointed out in the comments of a segment, Joe made it exactly one hour into the podcast before first mentioning DMT. Proud of you, Joe.

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Podcast Host Joe Rogan Is Steadily Documenting A Psychedelic Record Of The 21st Century - Forbes

It uses its database of 165,000 patients to advance psilocybin research, develop products and partner with leaders in the field

Empower Clinics Inc () (OTCMKTS:EPWCF), a vertically integrated life sciences company, said Tuesday that it intends to leverage its existing clinic network, the developing franchise brand, its 165,000 patients and product development capability, to create psilocybin and psychedelics subsidiaries.

In a statement, the company said it has been conducting market research on advancements in psilocybin and psychedelics in North America and globally, along with building the business case internally on how to create greater shareholder value, utilizing company assets that include clinics, patients, physicians and technology.

"There is an undeniable mental health crisis in our country and around the world, that has an ever-increasing, devastating affect on our society," said Empower Clinics CEO Steven McAuley.

"Empower is uniquely positioned to immediately impact research, develop new products and bring advancements to plant-based therapies, under a framework of rapidly increasing awareness and a movement toward decriminalization of psychedelic treatment options," he added.

The company said studies are finding that psilocybin the active agent in magic mushrooms could treat addiction, depression, anxiety and mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), end-of-life psychological distress.

"Over the past seven years, we have assisted over 100,000 patients obtain access to alternative health care and medicinal cannabis. The provision of legal access to psilocybin therapies are perfectly in-line with our philosophy of providing a Scientific Approach to Alternative Medicine", said Dustin Klein, senior vice president, business development at Empower Clinics.

"Clinical trials have shown that psilocybin therapies provide tremendous help with conditions we see everyday in our clinics. It is our responsibility, to make sure we are providing the most up-to-date alternative therapies to our patients and our community," added Klein, who is also a director in the company.

The company said the mental health crisis could cost the world $16 trillion by 2030, andFuture Market Insights estimates that the global behavioral health (non-pharmacological) market will be around $156 billion by 2028.

The US Food and Drug Administration has granted "breakthrough therapy" status to both the Usona Institute and Compass Pathways, allowing clinical trials to advance. For the first time in US history, a psychedelic drug is on the fast track to getting approved for treating depression by the federal government. Last October, Compass Pathways, a UK-based company that develops mental health treatments, said the FDA granted it breakthrough therapy designation for its trials into psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms.

On a separate note, Empower Clinics said it has issued Haywood Securities Inc., fourmillion shares under a financial advisory agreement dated September 25, based on its completion of a final written SWOT analysis. The company said the shares issued are priced at fair market value.

The Vancouver-based company is a leading operator of a network of wellness clinics throughout the US that are geared towards helping patients improve and protect their health through physician-recommended treatment options such as CBD.

The firm also produces a proprietary line of CBD-based products distributed throughout the US.

The companys CBD is manufactured under the brand name Solievo, and the Sun Valley Health Clinics operate at nine locations in the US. It is the operator of an extraction facility in Oregon.

Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at[emailprotected]

Follow her onTwitter:@UttaraProactive

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Empower Clinics to create psilocybin and psychadelics division leveraging corporate wellness and franchise clinic network - Proactive Investors USA...

By The French Toast's Vince Silwoski, provided exclusively to Benzinga Cannabis.

A race is underway to explore the attributes of psychedelic mushrooms and to leverage their promise in commercial applications.

There is a bona fide movement underway with psilocybin. Decriminalization occurred last year in Denver, Oakland and Santa Cruz, and that was just a start:nearly 100 other citiesare looking at decriminalizing psychedelics. At the state level, ballot measures are out for signature in California andOregon. Federally,legislationhas been proposed to allow research into psychedelic drugs, alongsidecalls for decriminalization.

On the commercial side, well-funded private companies (for- and non-profit) are pushing ahead with Food and Drug Administrationpsilocybin studies, patent acquisition, and registration of other intellectual property. Many of these private companies areset to go public. Others are public already. All in all, a race is underway to explore the attributes of psychedelic mushrooms and to leverage their promise in commercial applications.

Because psilocybin and otherentheogensare Schedule I drugs in the United States (and strictly controlled under international law), the comparison is often made between what is happening with psilocybin and what happened with marijuana over the past few decades. Its not a terrible comparison, but its not perfect either. Below is a high-level survey of psilocybin, contrasting the lay of the land with historical cannabis progress.

On the first track, psilocybin is moving ahead via initiatives and initiated ordinances, just like marijuana from 1996 to the present. The scope of the psilocybin initiatives is similar to the early marijuana ballot measures in that they focus primarily on decriminalization. These initiatives do not contemplate a commercial model and it seems unlikely that they will be lucrative. They certainly do not yet resemble the second wave of retail model programs that became standard with medical and adult use cannabis. Mushrooms and cannabis are very different in nature.

The second track for psilocybin is the pharmaceutical model. We also saw this with cannabis, first with synthetic drugs and then withEpidiolex, the first non-synthetic cannabis drug to win FDA approval. With psilocybin, this second track is moving faster. The FDA already has granted breakthrough therapy status to a pair of psilocybin applicants for depression-related formulas, afterapprovinganother antidepressant designed to mimic hallucinogenic ketamine last year.

Psilocybin will continue to be decriminalized around the United States in 2020 and beyond. But that is not the same thing as broad legalization. The closest we may get to legalization will be in proposals such as Oregons Measure 34, which goes beyond mere decriminalization to create a state-sanctioned patient and caregiver framework. This type of proposal envisions psilocybin-assisted therapy in controlled environments. It rules out the retail model entirely.

On the pharmaceutical side, the FDAs willingness to grant breakthrough therapy status to psychedelic drugs, as mentioned above, has put psilocybin approvals in an expeditious place. Research companies, along with FDA, are seemingly all in on psilocybins potential in battling treatment-resistant depression. The funding and sophistication required are definitely there.

This targeted pharmaceutical approach will serve psilocybin promoters well, as contrasted with cannabis, which has been touted broadly and amorphously for every use from chronic pain to Alzheimers disease. Expect psilocybin to move more quickly than cannabis on the pharma track. Concurrently, expect the groundswell of broader legalization efforts to continue, even if we never see psychedelics sold at retail.

Photos by: Flickr user afgooey74, HighGradeRoots/Getty Images

Any legal right of adults to decide what to put into their own bodies must be re-litigated with every controlled substance. That was true 100 years ago with alcohol, its true with cannabis, and its going to be true with psychedelics going forward. Much of this litigation happens in the court of public opinion. People begin to believe that prohibition is useless, that incarcerating people for using drugs is wrong and that new rules are needed. This is how we ended up with laws from the 21stAmendment to the U.S. Constitution (1933), to Californias Proposition 215 (1996) to Oregons proposed Measure 34 (2020).

For at least several years, most Americans havesupportedthe medical use of psychedelic drugs. As I previously discussed in a close reading of Oregons proposed Measure 34, the legalization model is similar to the trail blazed by locally cannabis. When enough cities and states move along the continuum from prohibition to decriminalization and beyond, the legal status quo becomes untenable. People will push this hard; people willtry things. At some point, federal policy finally evolves and change becomes inevitable. All of that should happen this decade with psilocybin.

Vince Sliwoski is an attorney atHarris Brickenand this article wasoriginally publishedon theCanna Law Blog.

The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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The Psilocybin Movement Is Like The Cannabis Movement (Except When It's Not) - Benzinga

As psychedelics are being embraced as a potential treatment for mental health conditions, new research suggests that mind-altering substances like 'magic' mushrooms leave people feeling positive and socially connected hours after the high wears off.

The study by Yale University, surveying 1,200 Brits and Americans at six music festivals, provided evidence to support lab-based research that psychedelic drugs can boost wellbeing.

Between 2015 and 2017, teams of researchers set up "Play Games for Science" booths in busy areas at their selected festivals between 10 AM and 1 PM, encouraging people to come and speak to them. Participants spent 15 minutes filling out surveys on their use of psychoactive substances, as well as age, gender, level of religiousness, political orientation and level of education.

Each person was asked whether they'd had a transformative experience at the festival defined as "an experience that changes you so profoundly that you come out of the experience radically different than you were before the experience" and, if so, whether they enjoyed it.

Most of the participants were moderately liberal 30-year-olds who had attended four-year colleges. Some 80% of them drank alcohol at the festival, 50% used cannabis, and 26.6% used psychedelics. (Only 12.3% of festival goers reported taking zero substances.) Researchers only approached people who weren't noticeably drunk, and they put a question into their survey that functioned as a sobriety check, ruling out participants that were too drunk to answer correctly.

The researchers, led by neuroscientist Molly Crockett, found that the results were strongest in people who'd taken the drugs in the last 24 hours, though most seemed to be experiencing an "after glow" hours after the effects of the drugs should have worn off. They found people who'd taken psychedelics were more likely to feel positive, and some even experienced a shift in their moral values.

Crockett's team could not verify which drug each person was taking, how much of it, and whether it was mixed with other substances. But even their general findings were useful, echoing results in previous controlled laboratory studies that found psychedelics make us feel socially connected.

Crucially, they wanted to understand whether participants' expectations affected their 'high'. People taking psychedelics may have wanted or intended to have a transformative experience, Crockett told Insider, and the fact that attending an event might be a transformative experience even without psychedelics.

"We found that psychedelic use is associated with transformative experience over and above expecting and desiring such experiences," Crockett told Insider.

The study did not look at negative reactions beyond asking participants if their transformative experience had been positive or negative.

In the 1950s and 60s, psychedelic properties such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were the subject of many scientific studies, but they fell out of favor as the drugs became associated with debauchery and hedonism.

Recently there's been a resurgence of scientific interest in the benefits of psilocybin. In 2018, researchers at John Hopkins, America's oldest research university,urged the federal government to legalize psilocybin.

Last year Johns Hopkins launched a center solely dedicated to psychedelics research. This came after a number of studies which looked at the effect psychedelics had on depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

"Something with more immediate effects has a huge benefit as a tool in the therapeutic toolbox," Matthew Johnson, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who authored his own psilocybin study, previously told Insider.

However, most research on the possible medical benefits of psychedelics takes place in a sterile lab environment, Crockett told Insider. It means scientists still don't have enough evidence to confirm if people will react to psychedelics in the real world the same way they would in a lab.

That's why Crockett led a group of researchers in visiting a bunch of music festivals, where psychedelics are often used to augment the musical experience, to find out what effect psychedelics might have in a natural setting.

"There is still a lot we don't understand about how psychedelics affect the brain and mind," Crockett told Insider. We need more research on how psychedelics "can be used to reduce suffering and enhance wellbeing, and how to minimize risks and potential negative effects associated with their use."

Read more:

Researchers think magic mushrooms could have the potential to treat depression

A psychedelics expert says magic mushrooms will be approved for depression by 2027 here's why

Why psychedelics like magic mushrooms appear to kill the ego and fundamentally transform the brain

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Researchers went to festivals to study psychedelic drugs and found they left people feeling happy and connected hours after the high wore off -...

Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly microdose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson.

In 2006, 36 research subjects were given the psychedelic agent psilocybin under carefully controlled lab conditions. The majority reported having a mystical experience, with 21 of 36 rating it one of the top five most personally meaningful experiences of their lives.

Lab-controlled experiments of the effects of psychedelics have repeatedly shown that the agents can induce so-called "transformative experiences"powerful, nearly religious experiences that may even lead to a reevaluation of central values. Lab studies also suggest that they can cause a dissolution of the ego, leading to certain universal "oneness" and lasting positive effects. But let's be honestthe vast majority of people who use psychedelics aren't using them in laboratories.

So where do you go to find people using psychedelics in the real world?

Yup. Burning Man.

You've probably heard of Burning Man, Coachella, Lollapalooza. And if you were a part of Dr Molly Crockett's Yale team of psychology researchers, you could actually gofor science!

Results of the in-the-wild study appear in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team attended six multiday mass gatherings in the United States and United Kingdom and set up a booth to interview participants about their experiences with various substances.

Credit to clever survey design here. They maintained anonymity by creating a unique identifier for each individual. And to make sure that people weren't actively under the influence, they included a few sobriety checks in the questionnaire. Here's one:

Did you catch that?

To ensure that participants would be comfortable being honest about their exposures, they mixed legal sources of exposure into the survey examples. So instead of asking if the participant had been smoking marijuana, they asked whether he or she had used cannabis products (eg, weed, THC, CBD, hemp oil).

The numbers indicate... well, about what you'd expect.

Eighty percent of individuals surveyed had used alcohol at the event, 51% had used cannabis products, and just over a quarter had used psychedelics. About 1 in 8 reported using no substances at all.

The big question was whether those mystical effects seen in the lab would translate to the real world. And, indeed, they seemed to.

Those who had taken psychedelics were more likely to report a transformative experience, more likely to have a positive mood, and more likely to feel socially connected. This was independent of the effect of other agents.

Now, you might think that people predisposed to take psychedelics are also more likely to claim transformative experiences. The researchers tried to disentangle that by asking the participants about their desire and expectation to have a transformative experience. The effect of psychedelic exposure was just as robust even after accounting for that desire.

The transformative experiences themselves were different when psychedelics were involved compared with other drugs. They were more positive and more likely to lead to shifts in one's moral values.

Now, a major caveat is that the survey wasn't really designed to pick up adverse drug effects, so take the Pollyanna-ish results here with a grain of lysergic acid. But still, overall, the drugs seem to do in real life what they do in the lab. And broadly, the effects are positive.

But why are we talking about this? Three reasons.

First, it's a fun study to remind us that science is cool and doesn't have to be done in a petri dish.

Second, it's a study to remind us that some of our patients use drugs that don't come from us. It is part of good medical practice to ask about them and to understand their effects in context.

But most of all, I think we need to start paying more attention to this space. Softening social attitudes toward certain drugs like cannabis and psychedelics have opened the door to more robust research about their effects. And though it's early days, there seems to be some promise here.

Depression is an epidemic in this country. Current therapies are okay but fail in too many patients. I am encouraged that certain previously verboten drugs, like ketamine, are seeing a rebirth as potentially game-changing antidepressants. We should proceed slowly and cautiously in evaluating any substance that has the capability to alter the sensorium so profoundly (and even change our moral values), but we'd be remiss to dismiss them out of hand. So pay attention. And stay groovy.

F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, is an associate professor of medicine and director of Yale's Program of Applied Translational Research. His science communication work can be found in the Huffington Post, on NPR, and here on Medscape. He tweets @methodsmanmd and hosts a repository of his communication work at http://www.methodsman.com.

Follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube

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Psychedelics and Their 'Mystical Effects' in the Real World - Medscape

Psychedelics have been a mainstay for a millennia and appreciated in the counter-culture for decades. In 2020, whether consuming, investing, or both, mushrooms are having a moment.

PsychedeliTech, a ground-breaking new conference, incubator and discovery platform for psychedelic medicine will host Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as the keynote speaker at the first-ever PsyTech Summit, a forum for psychedelic science, innovation and investment conference, in Israel.

The inaugural PsyTech conference will take place March 29-30, 2020 at the Hilton Hotel, on the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv.

PsyTech is a division of iCAN: Israel-Cannabis, which together with CannaTech, its medical cannabis events platform, has been a global participant in education and innovation for cannabis therapeutics and products with conferences in London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Panama and Cape Town, to date.

Saul Kaye, iCAN founder and CEO, said, Rick Doblin is an early pioneer and extremely effective advocate for the potential of psychedelics in the treatment of mental health disease and symptoms, including depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. We are thrilled he will join us at our first PsyTech Summit in Tel Aviv to share his enlightened vision and vast knowledge of the fast-developing therapeutic ecosystem that is about to explode as a wave of new information, research and consumer interest about psychedelics floods the market.

For the first 30 years of MAPS dedicated research, there were virtually no for-profit psychedelic business opportunities, apart from a few ibogaine and ayahuasca clinics and mushroom sales in countries where the substances are legal.

Psychedelics have the potential to impact and improve mental health.

For-profit entities emerging in the field of psychedelics, such as Cybin with microdosed psilocybin products and Mind Med with synthetic ibogaine, are directly due to the success of non-profit psychedelic therapy research, including the lifelong work of MAPS and other advocates.

"The new psychedelic industry will need to focus on public benefit as well as profit in order to avoid a cultural backlash against these historically misunderstood substances," cautions Doblin."I am looking forward to discussing these important issues at PsyTech, Israels first summit focusing on psychedelic innovation," he continued.

The global market for mental health medications was worth $88.3 billion in 2015, according to BCC Research.

Similar to the cannabis industry, psychedelics and medicinal mushrooms will require an ecosystem to effectively drive education, regulation, safety, investment, research and development.

These key issues, as well as personal stories of treatment, will be explored at PsyTech.

The topic of psychedelics is sparking worldwide mainstream interest. People who want to learn more about the companies developing the science of mushrooms can attend a conference in New York, prior to the upcoming one in Tel Aviv.

"This is an exciting new industry and it's just starting to grow, which is whyGMRis hosting a mini-conference on Psychedelics in New York," says Debra Borchardt, Editor-In-Chief of Green Market Report.

TheEconomics of Psychedelic Investing takes place onJanuary 24, 2020 in NYC.

For those who merely want to experience the effects of psychedelic mushrooms in a safe and welcoming environment, Irie Selkirk offers her guests a transformative psilocybin experience complete with farm-to-table meals and a psychotherapist on staff, at her immersion retreat in Jamaica.

With conferences, nascent investment opportunities and infused staycations available, magic mushrooms are going mainstream.

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Psychedelic Events Are Going Mainstream, Where The Much-Maligned Mushroom Industry Focuses On Mental Health - Forbes

Research on psychedelics, which have been profoundly stigmatized, highly restricted, and tragically undeveloped for more than half a century, is stirring back to life and rekindling scientific, medical, and cultural interest in these compounds.

In 2008, a psychedelic compound related to the primary psychoactive alkaloid in peyote was discovered to exert extraordinarily potent anti-inflammatory effects at very low drug concentrationsin vitroandin vivo. Additional studies have confirmed the capacity of psychedelics to modulate processes that perpetuate chronic low-grade inflammation and thus exert significant therapeutic effects in a diverse array of preclinical disease models, includingasthma,atherosclerosis,inflammatory bowel disease, andretinal disease.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently acknowledged thepotential of subperceptual psychedelics. To address the high rate of mental illness among active duty military personnel, DARPA aims to discover new compounds that can exert the rapid and robust antidepressant effects of psychedelics without the associated trip.

In the private sector,Compass Pathwaysis conducting Phase 2 trials of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

The time has come to make psychedelics, once seen as out there substances, mainstream and boring again.

Read full, original post: Transforming psychedelics into mainstream medicines

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Psychedelics have 'extraordinarily potent' anti-inflammatory power. Is there a place for them in mainstream medicine? - Genetic Literacy Project

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Silicon Valley, the home of Facebook, Apple, Google and Twitter, is the embodiment of the hustle culture. It's a place filled with Type-A professionals all desperately competing to start the next big unicorn company that will go public and earn the founders and early employees millionsor billionsof dollars. They also desire to advance their careers against some of the smartest and most talented people in the world.

Professionals in and around Silicon Valley, particularly those 35 years and older, are trying everythingincluding questionable fadsto appear younger than they are, and which may offer an edge for their career. Just because we are in a hot job market and strong economy, it doesnt mean that it's easy for white-collar professionals to succeed in their careers. There is still pressure, anxiety, fear of failure and the need to stay competitive. To improve themselves, weve witnessed the phases of intermittent fasting, cryotherapy, long-term meditation retreats in far off exotic locations, Botox and facelifts for men.

The work world is obsessed with youth for a number of reasons. Older workers earn more money and are deemed too expensive. Management believes they could easily be replaced by younger employees who will cost significantly less. With a hyperfocus on social media and concerns of staying relevant for their customers, those with grey hair seem outdated and dont fit in with the corporate culture, according to some senior management.

The push to stay young and relevant is reaching a frightening level with a new emerging trend. It's reported in the BBC that people in Silicon Valley are taking magic mushrooms, which is really a dose of psilocybin, an LSD-type of drug. For example, $2,000 per month will get you your own psychedelic-trip coach guru. Hell guide you through your mind-altering journey.

Taking mushrooms is a sirens song luring fast-track professionals to boost their creativity and greatly enhance their work performance. It feels like the next level up from asking your doctor for a prescription of Adderall. White-collar professionals and college students alike cite their Attention Deficit Disorder to get a prescribed drug that elevates their adrenaline, sharpens focus and helps people to work better and faster.

Steve Jobs was said to have partaken in psychedelics and playfully derided his rival, Bill Gates, as being unimaginative and suggested that he should drop some LSD. Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip, pundit on YouTube and Periscope and resident of Northern California, claims that he took mushrooms once and it was the best day of his life and he no longer felt any limits to his life and career success. Joe Rogan, the host of one of the most listened-to podcasts and another California resident, is a big proponent of micro-dosing mushrooms and has had numerous guests on his shows, ranging from scientists to MMA fighters, who have shared their positive experiences from micro-dosing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted two psychedelicspsilocybin and MDMAas breakthrough designations, which permits them to be clinically researched after showing promising potential in treating patients with mental health conditions.

The research is not all positive and include number of drawbacks. One study showed that participants scored higher than usual in connectedness, creativity, focus, happiness, productiveness and well-being. However, it didnt last long, which is counter to the argument that one dose will last long or even change your life forever. There was also an increase in the trait, neuroticism, where emotions become amplified. So, if you feel depressed, it will make it worse for you. Proponents say that one out of a thousand will have a bad trip and could possibly end up with some long-term ramifications. The fear is that you will be that one hapless person.

It's still too soon to tell the long-term benefits or detractions. This trend, like many, may fade and be replaced with a new and better get-successful hack.

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Silicon Valley Is Micro-Dosing Magic Mushrooms To Boost Their Careers - Forbes

The Green Market Summit, an event series by the cannabis financial news publication Green Market Report, is hosting a half-day event on the emerging trend of psychedelics, focusing on current and future investment opportunities: The Economics of Psychedelics Investing.

The event will offer a program on the opportunities in alternative plant investments, the quickly emerging industry of psychedelic medicines, and the companies looking to capitalize on it.

Research has shown psilocybin can help relieve symptoms of people who experience cluster headaches, treat addiction, and could even be an alternative to typical depression treatments.

This event will educate curious investors as to the opportunities in this industry in its earliest stages. It will take place Jan. 24 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., at 54 West 40th St., New York, NY.

Check out Benzinga Cannabis Psychedelics portal.

This emergence of new companies focusing on the promise of mushrooms to treat certain mental health issues is really exciting. Not only from a patient perspective, but also from an investor perspective. It feels similar to the early days of the cannabis industry and I believe that is why we are seeing a lot of parallels between the two, said Debra Borchardt, co-founder and CEO of Green Market Media. Green Market Report has always had its strength in spotting trends which is why we recognized the importance of this new industry.

Attendees will hear from companies like Atai Life Sciences, MindMed, Field Trip Ventures and KCSA Strategic Communications. Topics will cover the parallels between the cannabis industry and psychedelics, micro-dosing and building a strategy around this promising new science.

After the event, attendees and key industry leaders will be welcomed to enjoy a Cocktail hour sponsored by Mattio Communications.

See Also:

Bruce Linton Talks Psychedelics Investments, Microdosing And LSD: 'The Therapeutic Potential Of Psychedelics Is Greater Than Cannabinoids'

The Keys To Understanding Psilocybin's Medical Value, Market Potential

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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NYC To Host Economics Of Psychedelics Investing Summit - Benzinga