They intersect with one of the most profitable… and controversial… investment trends on our radar – psychedelic medicine.
It’s the use of psychedelic compounds to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)… even the neurological damage from repeated head injuries so common in these two sports.
In March 2020, colleague Nick Giambruno gave paid-up Crisis Investing subscribers the chance to lock in a gain of 996% on psychedelic medicine stock MindMed (MMEDF) after a holding period of just 10 months.
You may have missed your chance at this massive gain. But there’s still time to profit big from psychedelic medicine stocks.
They’re a rare opportunity to get in early on a market megatrend that’s changing the world for the better.
I (Chris Lowe) will show you why in a moment. First, it’s important you understand a bit more about the head injuries in question… and the long-term mental health issues they can cause.
He won his first 19 professional fights by knockout… 12 of them in the first round.
And he’s widely regarded as one of history’s greatest heavyweights.
But he took some punishing knocks along the way.
One match Tyson would prefer to forget was against Buster Douglas in the Tokyo Dome in Japan, in 1990, when Tyson was 24 years old.
Douglas was the 42-to-1 underdog. But he was on fire that night.
In the 10th round, he measured the champ with a few quick jabs before landing a brutal uppercut right under Tyson’s chin that snapped his head back.
Tyson reeled… and Douglas rushed in with a series of bone-crunching left and right hooks to the sides of his head. This knocked “Iron Mike” to the canvas for the first time in his career.
But that wasn’t the only time Tyson’s opponents bested him in the ring. They knocked him out four more times over the course of his two-decade career.
During a heavyweight championship match in 1997, he bit off a chunk of opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear.
He also served three years in prison on rape charges.
Tyson claims the battering he took as a boxer contributed to mental health issues that led him to alcoholism and the brink of suicide.
Now, you may think he’s just trying to avoid the blame for his bad behavior.
But he’s not the only sporting legend to point to traumatic brain injury (TBI) as the source of mental health issues.
But unlike Tyson, he exchanged blows on the ice-hockey rink.
The Chicago Blackhawks left winger earned the nickname “Car Bomb” for his violent approach to the sport.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion had 164 fights, thousands of hits, and at least seven concussions.
And like Tyson, he says they had severe mental health impacts.
In 2015, at the age of 30, he was forced to retire, with symptoms including slurred speech, headaches, memory loss, extreme light sensitivity, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
As Tyson explained it to British newspaper The Guardian…
I believe if I’d been introduced to the benefit of psychedelics for therapeutic use early in my professional career, I would have been a lot more stable in life. I had a lot of public outbursts and they were all mental illness related. Prescription drugs meant I didn’t feel like myself, but with psychedelics I feel I’m a happier, lighter version of me.
Carcillo has a similar story.
Three weeks into planning to commit suicide, he tried a high dosage of psilocybin, under supervision. And he says it cured him of his TBI-related issues…
I am cured, for sure, of TBI and any related symptoms. 100%. I do not suffer from slurred speech, headaches, head pressure, insomnia, impulse control issues, anxiety, depression, or suicidal ideation. I do not suffer from any of that.
Magic mushrooms are typically associated with hippies and frat parties… not with a breakthrough treatment for neurological damage.
But studies show that their active ingredient, psilocybin, and other psychedelic compounds are successful treating depression, addiction, and PTSD.
And one of the most published scientists on the effects of psychedelics on the brain, Matthew Johnson, isn’t at all surprised about claims that these compounds help with TBIs.
Johnson is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University and an associate director of its world-leading Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. As he put it…
[Carcillo’s] recovery sounds viable and doesn’t surprise me. In our controlled trials, success rates look really good. It’s not uncommon for the people in our sessions to have life-changing experiences with long-lasting effect.
Johnson points to studies from a team at the University of California that found psychedelic treatments induce neuroplasticity in rats’ brains.
In other words, under the effects of the psychedelics, their brains seem to be reorganizing and rewiring.
It’s called Wesana Health. It aims to develop psychedelic-based treatments for brain injuries. And Tyson is an early-stage investor.
The company has teamed up with the World Boxing Council (WBC) for further research. The WBC is one of four major organizations that sanctions boxing matches and hands out title belts.
And brain injuries are just one promising area of study. Psychedelics also show potential in helping folks deal with emotional traumas.
That’s what put psychedelic medicine on the radar of another of the analysts on the Legacy Research team, Teeka Tiwari. Teeka…
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five American adults suffers from some form of mental illness. This has created a huge market for antidepressant drugs. Sales are expected to grow to $18 billion by 2024.
So not only is it a major health issue… it’s also big business.
And Johns Hopkins University recently published a study that showed psychedelic-assisted therapies were effective in treating emotional traumas.
Suppose a safe and effective psychedelic drug can capture just a fraction of the antidepressant market. That would make this niche industry explode in value.
This British biotech was the first company to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a cannabis-based drug.
It’s called Epidiolex. And it’s effective treating severe forms of childhood-onset epilepsy.
In 2013, when GW was beginning clinical trials of Epidiolex, you could have picked up shares in this company in the U.S. for as little as $2.95. Today, they trade at $14.45 – a 389% gain.
And Teeka believes we’ll see a similar growth trajectory for the best-in-class psychedelic companies.
I’ll have more for you on this profit theme later in the week.
Meantime, take a look at the Defiance Next Gen Altered Experience ETF (PSY).
It’s not a pure play on psychedelic medicine companies. But it gives you exposure to a mix of companies in both the psychedelic medicine and cannabis industries.
Regards,
Chris Lowe
June 14, 2021
Barcelona, Spain