Chris’ note: In yesterday’s dispatch, I introduced you to Mike “Zappy” Zapolin. He’s the newest member of Palm Beach Research Group. In a special presentation last week, he and PBRG’s Teeka Tiwari unveiled a new investment advisory called Palm Beach Special Opportunities.
It’s all about what Teeka says is his next “trillion-dollar trade”: psychedelic therapeutics. That’s an area Zappy has a wealth of experience and connections in. As he shares below, he’s used this emerging megatrend to help an NBA superstar bounce back from the lowest of lows…
It was a Rocky-style comeback…
After suffering 12 strokes, six heart attacks, kidney damage, and liver failure… two-time NBA champion Lamar Odom was back on the court.
It seemed almost impossible three years earlier. That’s when a drug overdose in a brothel left Lamar in a coma.
That near-death experience led him to search for a cure to his drug and alcohol addiction.
I’ll get to how his comeback happened. But first, some background for those who aren’t familiar with him…
Fall From Grace
Lamar was a first-round NBA draft pick in 1999 out of Rhode Island, where he won first-team all-conference honors and was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year.
He spent 13 years in the NBA, including seven with the Los Angeles Lakers… where he won titles in 2009 and 2010 alongside late legend Kobe Bryant.
When Lamar’s basketball career ended in 2013, his life started to go downhill. And the world had a front-row seat…
He married into reality-TV royalty in 2009 when he tied the knot with Khloé Kardashian.
During their marriage, Lamar was a regular on the hit reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. The couple also had their own spinoff, Khloé & Lamar, which featured Lamar’s personal struggles.
October 2015 is when Lamar hit rock bottom. That’s when authorities found him unconscious in a Nevada brothel and took him to the hospital comatose.
Rarely has a celebrity had such a public fall from grace… from NBA champion married into reality-TV royalty… to publicly humiliated and overdosing at a brothel.
After nearly dying, Lamar realized that in order to live a better life for himself, he needed treatment for his drug and alcohol addiction.
That’s where I (Zappy) come into the story…
Concierge to the Stars
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mike Zapolin… but all my friends call me Zappy.
At 23, I’d made it to the top on Wall Street and had become the youngest vice president in history at one of the most prestigious investment firms.
Over the years, I’ve met and worked with numerous celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Quentin Tarantino, and Michelle Rodriguez.
And as a futurist, I’ve been identifying megatrends for decades…
For instance, I was an early pioneer in the domain-naming industry.
In 1998, before the internet really took off, I had a hunch and bought Beer.com for $80,000. Two months later, I sold it for $7 million – an 8,650% return on my initial investment.
I went on to own many of the world’s top domain names, including CreditCards.com, Music.com, and Diamond.com. I even had my own Super Bowl ad in 2000.
My knack for identifying early-stage trends naturally drew me to the psychedelics industry… And I’ve spent the last 15 years personally researching psychedelic medicines and their therapeutic powers.
My advanced insight into cutting-edge products and investment opportunities in this space has earned me the nickname “psychedelic concierge to the stars.”
And that’s how Lamar found me…
Superstar Recovery
By the time Lamar came to me for guidance on alternative plant-based medicine, he had tried everything else… including traditional addiction therapies and rehab.
His health had deteriorated. His substance problems were well-documented. And nothing had helped him yet.
So I recommended he try a plant called iboga. It’s a shrub native to West Africa. Research shows its root is capable of breaking opiate addiction in a single session.
Lamar and I had to travel to Mexico, where the controversial – but remarkable – drug is available for therapeutic use.
During our therapy session, I sat by his bedside with doctors and nurses as a precaution. But the treatment went fine.
After it was over, Lamar slowly sat up, and I saw a fresh look in his eyes that showed me the lion’s heart inside of him – the one that made him a champion – was back.
Less than 48 hours later, as we drove back to Los Angeles in our 12-passenger van, Lamar turned to me and said, “I feel so good physically and mentally, I think I can make a comeback in professional basketball.”
Less than a year later, he hit the court for the Dubai International Basketball Championship.
My latest film, Lamar Odom Reborn, documents how psychedelic intervention helped break his addictions and lifelong anxiety.
It’s been featured on Good Morning America, in People, and in Business Insider. And it’s become a global phenomenon.
I’m extremely proud that my guidance with psychedelic therapies is helping people beat their addictions and overcome depression.
But what has me really excited right now is the life-changing investment opportunities in this early-stage industry…
Rethinking Mental Health
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 800 million people worldwide suffer from mental health disorders.
In 2019, the American Foundation to Prevent Suicide estimated there were nearly 1.4 million suicide attempts in the U.S. alone.
Suicidal ideation is often the result of a mental health condition such as depression, anxiety, stress, or trauma.
Overall, we estimate the global mental health epidemic costs society $3 trillion in health-related expenses and lost productivity.
To help treat these issues, physicians prescribe antidepressants and other pharmaceutical drugs. But their side effects can be brutal, including weakness… digestive problems… fatigue… drowsiness… weight gain… anxiety… and even more suicidal thoughts.
Of the patients willing to go through such terrible side effects, one paper found that 40-60% of people who took antidepressants didn’t see improvement.
That’s why many in medical science are looking for an alternative to traditional antidepressants.
And I believe what they’re working on will become a game-changer.
Trillion-Dollar Solution
For 50 years, the federal government has banned the use of plant-based therapeutic compounds that have been isolated from psychedelic drugs.
But recent scientific research shows these compounds have the potential to cure a wide range of mental disorders… including substance abuse, anxiety, and addiction.
For example…
New studies have shown so much promise that the Department of Veterans Affairs has approved certain psychedelic therapeutics to treat PTSD.
A study published in the elite scientific journal Nature showed that when paired with therapy, psychedelics were a safe and effective treatment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave one psychedelic substance “breakthrough therapy” designation for treatment-resistant depression.
Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has even released its own FDA-approved drug, Spravato, which uses a psychedelic compound called ketamine.
We’re not talking about recreational, unregulated use of these compounds. We’re talking about concrete scientific applications to improve health… boost quality of life… and save lives.
This is real medicine prescribed by a medical doctor and picked up at a pharmacy or administered in a doctor’s office…
And it has the potential to completely upend the traditional pharmaceutical model… where a drug’s side effects can often outweigh its potential benefits.
Together, the addressable market for these treatments is worth trillions. That’s why Teeka calls psychedelic therapeutics his third trillion-dollar trade… And that’s not hype nor hyperbole.
Teeka’s first trillion-dollar trade was in 2003 when he identified Apple (AAPL), the world’s first trillion-dollar company. Buying in at his recommended price could have turned $1,000 into $364,973.
His second trillion-dollar trade happened in 2016 when he recommended crypto – today worth over $1 trillion. If you had listened to just one of Teeka’s crypto recommendations… you could have turned that same $1,000 into $1.5 million.
Teeka and I believe certain stocks in his third trillion-dollar trade – the exploding market for psychedelic therapeutics – have the potential to beat a century’s worth of stock market gains in the next 18 months.
That’s why last week, we held a special event to explain how you can access the right companies to profit from this trend.
These companies are working on similar types of treatments I used to help Lamar Odom beat his addiction. And they’re bringing these therapies to the mainstream.
As I said up top, my reputation as the “psychedelic concierge to the stars” grants me advanced insight into cutting-edge products and investment opportunities.
By coupling my expertise in psychedelics with my Wall Street background, it’s been easy for me to analyze and select the best-of-breed companies in this space.
And now that I’ve joined Teeka, we plan to bring these life-changing ideas to Main Street. To be part of this journey, click here to watch the free replay of our presentation. You don’t want to miss it.
Peace,
Zappy