3 ms·

>> As psychedelic therapies for mental health go mainstream, companies are recruiting chemists to create patentable versions of hallucinogens. Same old same ol

>> As psychedelic therapies for mental health go mainstream, companies are recruiting chemists to create patentable versions of hallucinogens. Same old same old. Let's tweak this molecule to make it "novel" while retaining it's cool properties. Then we can patent it and own the market. In this case they also get the advantage that the existing molecule is illegal.

labrador 4y ago
I'm not above making money off it if I can despite the Nurse Ratched vibe: https://www.psychedelicfinance.com/ https://www.psychedelicfinance.com/
jseliger 4y ago
This may be somewhat difficult, however, given the prior art of Shulgin and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiHKAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiHKAL. TIHKAL and PIHKAL cover a lot of ground.
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  The problem is not that we lack patent unencumbered medicine, the problem is that only patent encumbered medicine has the incentives behind it to fund studies into its safety, and the rest of the FDA process.
xyzwave 4y ago
May be different for a drug company, but I believe a lot of those molecules would still be illegal under the Federal Analogue Act [0]. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analogue_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analogue_Act
notjulianjaynes 4y ago
I can't help but notice that this is basically how we got oxycodone, and even stronger opioids such as fentanyl. Would the opiod crisis have been so extreme if the hardest stuff you could get was raw opium? Not that opium's not a hell of a drug itself, but as I understand it, the risks of serious health issues like fatal overdose are not as high compared to synthetic opiates. Jeet Thayil's semi-autobiographical novel Narcopolis touches on this. Set in Bombay, the opium-addicted characters run into problems when dealers start switch from selling opium to heroin. I'm not sure how this might play out for psychedelics, which are generally not addictive, but the incentives are similar. I don't necessarily think this is a bad idea, in fact I'm excited to see where those incentives lead things. Will researchers invent a hangover free ecstasy? Acid you can drive to work on? Lovely.

labrador 4y ago

I'm not above making money off it if I can despite the Nurse Ratched vibe: https://www.psychedelicfinance.com/ https://www.psychedelicfinance.com/

jseliger 4y ago

This may be somewhat difficult, however, given the prior art of Shulgin and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiHKAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiHKAL. TIHKAL and PIHKAL cover a lot of ground.

CameronNemo 4y ago
The problem is not that we lack patent unencumbered medicine, the problem is that only patent encumbered medicine has the incentives behind it to fund studies into its safety, and the rest of the FDA process.

xyzwave 4y ago

May be different for a drug company, but I believe a lot of those molecules would still be illegal under the Federal Analogue Act [0]. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analogue_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analogue_Act

notjulianjaynes 4y ago

I can't help but notice that this is basically how we got oxycodone, and even stronger opioids such as fentanyl. Would the opiod crisis have been so extreme if the hardest stuff you could get was raw opium? Not that opium's not a hell of a drug itself, but as I understand it, the risks of serious health issues like fatal overdose are not as high compared to synthetic opiates. Jeet Thayil's semi-autobiographical novel Narcopolis touches on this. Set in Bombay, the opium-addicted characters run into problems when dealers start switch from selling opium to heroin. I'm not sure how this might play out for psychedelics, which are generally not addictive, but the incentives are similar. I don't necessarily think this is a bad idea, in fact I'm excited to see where those incentives lead things. Will researchers invent a hangover free ecstasy? Acid you can drive to work on? Lovely.