There's a lot of money in creating and patenting new drugs. Like, tens of billions of dollars. But the field is crowded, competitive and dominated by large pharmaceutical companies. So some new startups are looking elsewhere.

For decades psychedelics have been illegal, taboo and largely considered the drugs of hippies. The past decade, though, has changed that, as psilocybin, ketamine and others have been increasingly used therapeutically. So now the race is on to create brand new psychedelics, that can be approved, patented and ... yup, marketed to you. Welcome to the psychedelic arms race.

GUEST: John Semley, writer and researcher (Read John's piece in WIRED, right here.)

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