Turn on, tune in, cash out … The US right used to fear psychedelics. Now it wants to sell them | Kojo Koram
OhOn May 13, 1966, a U.S. Senate subcommittee questioned a former Harvard clinical psychologist, considered by many to be “the most dangerous man in America,” about the risks of psychedelics. Senator Ted Kennedy, from America’s unofficial first family, was the head of Dr. Timothy Leary’s inquisition. Amid a series of questions that reflected the moral panic around psychedelics that was then gripping the American establishment, Kennedy asked: “It’s a dangerous drug, isn’t it?” To which Leary replied, “No, sir. LSD is not a dangerous drug.” Kennedy is not convinced. For the committee of politicians who listened to Leary, psychedelics were the cause of the hippie movement, anti-war protests, and the general breakdown of society.
Earlier this month, almost exactly 60 years after that tense investigation, Ted Kennedy’s nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supported Donald Trump as he signed a new executive order aimed at speeding up widespread access to medical treatments based on psychedelic drugs. Particular attention is being paid to ibogaine, a psychoactive compound derived from a West African shrub, which scientists believe may be effective in treating chronic mental health problems. Kennedy Jr has been the champion of psychedelics within the Maga coalition, alongside figures like podcaster Joe Rogan, who stood with him in the Oval Office on April 18. Rogan described to the press how he encouraged the president to sign the executive order via text message.
This decree did not come out of nowhere. This reflects a shift in the image of psychedelics that has been occurring for some time. Long caricatured as a marker of countercultural decadence, psychedelics have been rebranded by recent clinical research as potentially transformative mental health treatments, helping patients suffering from problems such as depression, PTSD and suicidal ideation, and attracting unexpected new supporters. In 2023, Rick Perry, an ultra-conservative former Texas governor turned psychedelics evangelist, argued that when it comes to legalizing psychedelics, “at the federal level, it’s more supported by Republicans” than Democrats. Psychedelics, once the preserve of anti-war leftists, have become a health care innovation supported by a hawkish right-wing president.
What has changed between the 1960s, when psychedelics were feared by the American right, and today? First, scientific research into their therapeutic potential means that even traditionally conservative communities in the United States, such as veterans, now support calls for reform of psychedelic laws. Veterans groups have spent years lobbying for the use of psychedelics to help with post-traumatic stress issues, and recently, even some police officers have begun calling for the same for their profession. But perhaps the big change is recognizing that there is money to be made.
Forbes now predicts that the value of the psychedelic mushroom market will exceed $3.3 billion by 2031 following drug law reforms in a number of jurisdictions. And these recent legal changes may be just the beginning. As diagnoses of PTSD and depression rise at such a rate that the number of people living with mental health disorders has reached 1 billion for the first time, new cutting-edge treatments for mental health problems could become as lucrative as Ozempic proved when it launched into a world in the grip of an obesity crisis. Like the German biotech investor Christian Angermayer explained in a recent interview that people are now investing money in companies developing psychedelic drugs because “we have the solution to the biggest health problem.”
Where does much of the investment come from? In 2020, Peter Thiel backed a biotech startup focused on developing psychedelic treatments for mental health in a $125 million funding round. In 2024, Google co-founder Sergey Brin invested $15 million in a company that seeks to develop ibogaine as a treatment for head injuries. Look behind the curtain of the psychedelic renaissance and you’ll see many familiar names from the technological oligarchy that has taken over the global economy during the 21st century.
In many ways, it’s no surprise that Silicon Valley is so optimistic about psychedelics. In the aftermath of the 1960s, California computer scientists continued to view experiments with psychedelics and new technological frontiers as part of the same counterculture. Over the years, it’s become almost a cliché for the latest famous tech genius to say he was inspired by psychedelics. Apple’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Open AI’s Sam Altman have all spoken publicly about their own psychedelic use, helping to mainstream what was once a fringe activity.
It’s also a worldview that has found a comfortable new home in a Republican administration that, against all odds, is transforming America’s relationship with drugs. “Can I have some, please? I’ll take it,” Trump joked about ibogaine at the signing of the executive order, at a time that must have left more mainstream Republicans wondering if they themselves had been doped with hallucinogens. While drug policy reform is now supported by both Democrats and Maga Republicans, with psychedelic therapy making the most progress at the state level in blue states like Colorado and Oregon, it is Trump 2.0’s alliance with Silicon Valley that is fundamentally driving the acceleration we are seeing today.
Leary believed that psychedelics would help people “open up, adapt, and move away” from conventional society. It’s a philosophy that doesn’t quite fit in an era where psychedelics are being discussed at Davos in panels on “brain capital and human flourishing.” Today, the energy behind these drugs has shifted from beatniks to biohackers, from flower power to finance capital. This could mean more people will have access to medicines that can completely transform their lives. But it could also mean that, during Trump’s fast-paced second term, the future of mental health treatment remains largely in the hands of a minority.
