It's never been easy to be a chemist with a passion for tinkering with psychedelic drugs. You're always looking over your shoulder, should the Feds come knocking at your door. Plus, there wasn't any money in all this tinkering—the US government had rendered most psychedelics illegal in 1970, writes John Semley. "Such research had typically been the domain of so-called clandestine chemists, who worked in backyard sheds and underground bunkers, mass-producing trippy new compounds while evading law enforcement." But what if psychedelics could be reengineered? What if they could be made synthetically, with the same trippy properties, but all-new chemical compounds? Chemist Jason Wallach, of the Discovery Center at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, has made it his mission to "fine-tune" the psychedelic experience using synthetic drugs—and then replicate them for patents and profits. He's backed by Compass Pathways, a UK biotech firm that's staking its claim on using these synthetic psychedelics in mental health therapy. The healing properties of the psychedelic trip is a gamble, but there's big money on the other side. "In 2020 the fledgling psychedelic industry was predicted to balloon to $6.9 billion by 2027," writes Semley. "A year later, that estimate increased to over $10 billion." Michelle Legro | Deputy Editor, Features |
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