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Psychedelics Investing & How I Missed a $2.4B Company?

How to play the multi-voweled medicine game: psilocybin, ketamine, ayahuasca etc.

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Welcome to the almost 2,000 Contrarians who joined last week!

A few of you were asking how to get the playbook for playing the RV and Land for Camping Game. You’re in luck, we did a playbook this month in the Cashflow crew. Three ways to play it for $$.

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“Are you prepared?” she asked. “Oh and be sure to bring any crystals or totems meaningful to you…”

Can one roll their eyes over a phone call? I gave it a valid effort before hanging up.

Then grabbed a turquoise necklace while contemplating if it met the definition of a crystal. In for a penny in for a pound. I was after all, on my way to my first psychedelic medicine ceremony.

This is a story all about how I got roped into a psychedelic journey, what it taught me, and how perhaps there is profit to be had alongside a higher purpose?

This week, in <10 minutes, we’ll talk about psychedelic profits:

1. A week I was lost (or found?) in the world of psychedelics
2. Why the industry is booming (fun fact: boomers = nickname for )
3. Why I am starting to believe it’s the next frontier of the mind
4. How I missed a 2 Billion Psychedelic exit?
5. What companies are out there & 5 stocks I’m watching

First, let’s start with some truth.

My literal motto is to question everything. So as you can imagine before I decided to try psychedelics medicinally, I had some questions. Enter our fearless leader, a man who had a few degrees to his name, 100’s of sessions with varying mind-altering plants, and specialization as a breathwork teacher. Let’s call him Paul. Before I let dear Paul take me to Never-never land, I required a pre-screening. Seems reasonable prior to letting a strange man drug me. So I jumped on the phone with our, do we call him a Shaman??, to get the details.

“First of all Paul, I’ve seen these hipsters post medicine ceremony and they all of a sudden come out the other side wearing Fedoras, body paint, feathers in random places, and talking about polyamory/one love. That is not my jam. We clear?” I stated with I am sure, ZERO judgment.

Gotta hand it to him, the guy is cooler than a cucumber. “Codie, the medicine isn’t about your fashion choices. That is probably about the only thing I can guarantee you,” he said.

Touche shaman-man.

He went on to describe each medicine, what its purpose was, and how he would “hold space” for us, a term for watch over and shepherd those doing a medicine journey. The next week I can safely say, was one of the most profound experiences of my life. All while mostly lying on a bed, surrounded by YES crystals, palo santo, candles, flowers, and an altar. Words don’t describe it well. Except I can almost guarantee you that Alice & Wonderland, Fantasia, Avatar and probably Star Wars were all created while on mushies.

More importantly, I’m halfway convinced our world would be infinitely better if more humans used psychedelics for breakthroughs and trauma instead of pills, acting out and alcohol. Then again, I’ve done this once, so I’m an expert.

The journeys (what they call it when you take psychedelics) I had were a mix of psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA, and DMT (frog poison). All of which upon reading will probably give my poor parents a heart attack. TBF, I’m sure they NEVER tried anything similar in Woodstock days. Insert eye roll.

I did however have a few learnings so deep in my skin they might as well be tattoos. They’ve stuck with me since then and to say that I walk lighter, and let things flow to me more than chasing them would be an understatement of the century.

Never would I tell another to try psychedelics, I’m no doctor, but I will tell you that there is a world of exploration I found on the other side of my eyelids.

Four Learnings While on Psychedelics:

Connection is irrefutable – we are not individuals in a vacuum

Do you know what the largest organism on the plant is? An aspen forest, called Pando (meaning “I spread”, in Latin). Which outwardly seems to be 47,000 trees but in fact is 47,000 genetically identical male aspen above-ground stems, and one massive root system weighing 12 million pounds.

It is a forest of one tree.

A very old forest that is perhaps 10-14,000 years old. This and an ecosystem of fungi compete for the largest creature on the planet.

This makes sense when viewed through the lens of one on psychedelics. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more tactile way to show us humans that yes, we are all actually connected. Maybe we could slip it into the water at the next Republican/Democratic convention. (JUST KIDDING! I think Grace Slick tried to do that to Nixon, eh?).

Looking inward is often more important than looking outward

In a world that tells us, we are victims, in fact, we are often the cause of our own suffering. To quote the man himself Buddha, “desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering.”

Everything is energy, and our minds are infinitely more powerful than you think

I’m reading a phenomenal book by Dr. Joe Dispenza called Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. He talks about how hard it is for us to conceptualize that most things are in fact just energy. Does anyone else remember how we were taught about atoms in school? It was graph one for me! When in reality we are comprised less of mass and more of energy.

There is no fully healed human – we all need to do the work, me included

If you roll your eyes at any of this, as I did, I invite you to dive in more deeply. You just may surprise yourself.

Psyche-Curious Resources

If any of this intrigues you, do your own due diligence. These plants ain’t always a bed of roses. So I’ll leave you with some resources I found titillating. Please share in the comments any I missed.

Michael Pollen’s Book – This Is Your Mind on Plants​

• Favorite line: “One good way to understand a complex system is to disturb it and then see what happens.”

Mushroom Documentary – Fantastical Fungi​

• One of the best documentaries I’ve seen and it happens to be on Fungi. Favorite line: “Mycelium is Earth’s natural Internet.”

Tim Ferriss – Won’t shut up about psychedelics :).

• ​Here’s a list of all his podcasts on them. Fascinating.

Let’s go deeper.

After all, who wants to have written on their tombstone, “She died unrealized but don’t worry, she had a super high cash on cash return.”

Why Are Psychedelics Illegal?

It all comes down to your noggin, that big beautiful cranium we are better at messing up than fixing.

In the swinging 1970s research into psychedelic medicine was shut off like a light. Governments across the world deemed psychedelics as a Schedule 1 illegal drug, meaning they were drugs of abuse with no medical use.

But remember what I’ve told you… question everything. I’m not alone in thinking our dear sweet government does not always have our best interests at heart.

The contrarian side of the argument:

Tao Lin’s piece on the Why are Psychedelics Illegal:

“I discovered a CIA–LSD–suicide–homicide thread that supported McKenna’s argument that psychedelics are illegal not because the government wants to protect us from us, but because they catalyze intellectual dissent.”

​Maps piece on the history of LSD banning:

• “Sidney Cohen himself, when testifying at the hearings said “We have seen something which in a way is most alarming, more alarming than death in a way. And that is the loss of all cultural values…these people…are deculturated, lost to society, lost to themselves”

After all, our brains are big business:

• Mental health disorders are rising in nearly every country and could cost up to $16 trillion annually by 2030.
• Depression hits 264 million people worldwide.
• According to national drug abuse data, drug overdoses have increased 42% since Covid-19.

Similar IMHO to cannabis, pharmaceutical companies don’t love plant-derived remedies. They can’t be patented, or created in a lab as proprietary IP that can be sold at 100x creation price. Thus better to allow opioids, anti-depressants, methamphetamines spread than… fungus.

Anytime there is a problem that big, there is a profit to be had from it. Some good, some bad.

Where Is the Profit?

My belief: the real money in psychedelics will in FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of depression and mental health.

Let me tell you why:

• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services industry has an ARR of $50 billion+
• Add ancillary services and revenues jump to over $300 billion+
• Global antidepressants market is expected to grow from $14.3 billion in 2019 to about $28.6 billion in 2020.

Look at this graph no one is talking about:

We are winning the war on cancer deaths. This shows that since 1991 cancer death rates by both males and females…

We may be closer to curing cancer with traditional medicine but when it comes to mental health. We are losing the battle.

Now we don’t have enough data to say they unequivocally can assist with suicide prevention but it’s hard to study a thing, that’s federally illegal.

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Why Psychedelics Investing Now?

Every now and again you get to use your money and put it where your mouth is, which is what I did by investing in Latin America, then cannabis, then small business, and now psychedelics. Doing well, by doing good. Let’s break it down.

Politics Are Moving:

The trend is your friend. Politicians across both sides of the aisle have come together to decriminalize psychedelics and push for more research. Right now psychedelics are decriminalized in Denver, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, Washington DC, Oregon, Sommerville and Cambridge MA.

First Psychedelic Drugs FDA Approved

Esketamine (Spravato) was approved by the FDA in 2019, for treatment-resistant depression. It is now the first FDA-approved psychedelic treatment for a psychiatric disorder.

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This will be the first of many states and cities to legalize, and the first of many drugs to follow. We are at the tip of the iceberg my friends.

That Time I Missed a $2 Billion Exit

Remind me the next time I get a chance to invest in a Peter Thiel-backed company, even if it’s at a $400 million valuation, I should shut up and take it. Atai Life Sciences came across my desk in 2019 after getting backing by Thiel. I was fascinated by the space but concerned that their hold co-style with ten drug development programs and six ‘enabling technologies,’ all under one roof was too much for any startup to handle. Since then they’ve gone public, are worth $2.4B+ and keep on going. Maybe I was wrong, eh?

The lesson: sometimes you pay a premium for premium investments BUT also never worry about the swings you didn’t take.

How I’m Playing Psychedelics Today?

TLDR: 6 Stocks I’m tracking…

The good news first, if you were in some of these like Compass with me you might have been up 900% or Cybin up 3,000%. Which makes me feel infinitely better about my Atai swing and a miss. The bad news, these things are more volatile than my emotions during election season. So be prepared to either lose your shirt or be able to buy a whole lot of them.

• Mind Medicine (MNMD)
• Compass Pathways (CMPS)
• Field Trip Health (FTRPF)
• Cybin (CLXPF)
• Numinus Wellness (LKYSF)
• Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEEL)

The trying thing about psychedelics is also the part that leads to the excitement… we’re early. In every sense of the word. The drugs are early in trials, the industry is early in being public, the CEO’s are early in their careers at the helms of these companies. Hell, we’re even early in the legal status of these investments. Being early in a market can be incredible, but it can also be incredibly risky. While we can go into depth on each individual stock let me say this, I’m not smart enough to pick the winning pony.

My strategy (although not advice), is to have a small basket of securities and private companies for new and emerging segments that I think will be “World changers.” Meaning tech, drugs, etc, the likes of which will restructure how society works in some way shape or form. My belief is that psychedelics are one of these world changers. And not just because I saw the universe on my little “trip.” But because when you move into the numbers, it’s actually pretty incredible what plants can do. I did well in cannabis, I tend to think I’m going to do well in pscyhedelics too. I suppose only the future will tell.

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Question everything and bend your mind,

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Codie & The Contrarian Crew

Like this post? Want more on the cannabis and psychedelic space? We’ll be interviewing some experts in the upcoming weeks! Don’t miss it, and share with your friends too.

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