The hyped and distorted claims of psychedelic marketing
The USA has a rather distorted health care and medicine system, in that it&#x27;s viewed here as a profit center, not as a basic societal necessity.  In contrast, police and judicial services are not really viewed as an investment opportunity (let&#x27;s skip private prisons), just a basic necessity.<p>Where this comes out in the &#x27;psychedelic treatment&#x27; movement is that it&#x27;s not going to be very profitable, and in fact - if it works as advertised - will mean a lot of people will end up spending much less on anti-depressants on one hand, and alcohol and opiates and cannabis on the other.<p>This is because psychedelics - administered not as daily microdosing, but rather as infrequent full-dose experiences, ideally under somewhat controlled conditions - show promise in providing treatments for depression and addiction that don&#x27;t require further daily interventions.  The effects of a single dose can last for weeks to months.<p>From the business end of the health care system, this is a fiscal disaster.  Someone spending $50 a day on alcohol, or cannabis, or opiates, or antidepressants and therapy, now spends $50 every few months on a bag of psychedelic mushrooms, with a more postive long-term outcome r.e. depression and addiction.<p>One conclusion is that a society that views health care as a profit opportunity, rather than a basic necessity, has some serious value problems that end up encouraging unhealthy behavior, i.e. pushing junk food in schools, encouraging obesity and depression and addiction, which then generate further profits for hospitals and pharmaceutical producers.