Today, I hold a strong level of enthusiasm for the field of psychedelics. This type of enthusiasm I hold is something that many once held during the cannabis craze of the late pre-pandemic days.

The reason why I'm highly optimistic about psychedelics is that, after reading more about them, I've come to the conclusion that they hold more promise in the field of medicine and mental health than cannabis.

Yes, I actually mean it.

Even though cannabis is well ahead of the psychedelics industry in terms of regulations and legalization, the potential and promise that psychedelics hold shouldn't be ignored. Peter Thiel didn't ignore it when he chose to invest in $ATAI. Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary didn't ignore it when he chose to invest in $MNMD and $CMPS.

Let's begin with a story of a pro-hockey player named Daniel Carcillo. A few years ago, Carcillo nearly committed suicide. The brain damage he got from his years in the NHL was so severe that he couldn't take it anymore. All the viable solutions that modern medicine had weren't helping him in any way. Many in his position would've asked their doctors to commit euthanasia on them. But Carcillo chose to experiment with an untested solution: psychedelics.

After taking a psychedelic, Carcillo felt normal once again. This experience is what led him to start Wesana health, a psychedelics biotech firm looking to make medicines that treat mental and neurological illnesses with psychedelics. Around the same time, Oregon and Washington D.C. have both decriminalized psilocybin.

There's growing research that finds that psychedelics have promising potential in treating mental illnesses. MindMed, one of the top healthcare startups looking to create medications for mental illnesses through psychedelics, finds that one dose of its medicine can provide long-lasting relief with fewer risks of addiction or significant side effects.

For all of my cannabis investors and enthusiasts out there, Town & Country went as far as to say:

"The evidence for psychedelics as medicine far exceeds the evidence for CBD, a compound in marijuana that companies are selling, based on basically nothing, to relieve ills ranging from Parkinson’s to Crohn’s diseases."

In other words, the research on the medical applications for psychedelics far exceeds that of cannabis. If an investor had to bet on a healthcare company that will make medicines out of cannabis or out of psychedelics, the investor would have a better chance at success with the company that's making medicines out of psychedelics.

Interestingly enough, the government is more focused on legalizing cannabis and less focused on legalizing psychedelics. A big reason for that is that society is more accepting of cannabis and less accepting of psychedelics. At the same time, despite the fact that the benefits of psychedelics are clearer, governments are still hesitant to legalize them.

While Washington D.C. and Oregon have decriminalized it, Californian lawmakers are looking to legalize it. This is news that could start convincing more states to consider legalizing, or at least decriminalizing psychedelics. If Californian lawmakers succeed, then California could become the hub for the psychedelics industry.

At the same time, we could start to see more lobbying spending from Big Pharma to prevent psychedelics from ever becoming legal to use in healthcare. That's because the benefits of psychedelics will prompt people to stop consuming traditional medicine. As I mentioned earlier, with one dose of psychedelic treatment, patients have experienced long-lasting relief. With that, the chances of experiencing addiction or significant side effects are a lot lower than compared to traditional medicine.

One prominent fan of psychedelic drug makers is the Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary. He believes that the potential for psychedelics is a lot higher than that of cannabis drug makers. At the same time, he acknowledges the legal risks and he's more bullish on the medical side of it rather than on the recreational side of it.

Today, people overestimate the medical potential that cannabis has and underestimate the medical potential that psychedelics have. In the future, we will look back and have wished that we'd learned more about psychedelics and even considered buying the dip on those companies looking to create a medicine out of psychedelics.