Tripping Towards the Middle Path

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have seen some of the many stories in the press about how an increasing number of people have been struggling with their mental health and reaching out for help. And of course, big pharma is still right here, ready to offer a quick fix, or maybe a not so quick fix… but that’s not new.

What is new though, is the rising availability of mental health providers offering help via video, phone, and even chat breaking down barriers, giving more and more people the opportunity to seek the long term benefits of talk therapy. But there have been another group of stories about mental health I’ve seen recently that have caught my eye.

Move over cannabis, mushrooms are entering the main stream.

In the FADS book, I talk about plants being the way forward as people seek natural alternatives to treating their ailments. And while marijuana is the plant we focus on the most in the Drugs chapter, it looks like we have another plant moving into the mainstream. Mushrooms.

We’ve got mushrooms in our coffee to boost our immune system, mushrooms in skincare, replacing leather, being used as building materials, mushrooms to lower the risk of cancer, and to even treat COVID. And when that doesn’t work, your family can buy a coffin made of mushrooms too (seriously – get your vaccination and you won’t have to treat COVID with mushrooms or anything else). But what’s really caught my attention in all these mushroom stories are all the ones covering the renewal of research into our very, very old friend magic mushrooms.

Always bet on the marketers.

Not only does the focus on mushrooms support the middle path forward between drugs and plants predicted in the FADS Marketing Book, but it also shows how researchers (and more importantly those funding research) are quietly, and intentionally pushing consumers towards the middle between legal prescription medication and an illegal (for now) option.

While big pharma comms staff pitch stories to the media to get those story clicks on magic mushrooms, they are working a familiar magic on changing our views on mushrooms. They’re making sure we learn all about  exciting new research, and breakthroughs showing real promise in treating some very difficult to treat conditions.

FADS Marketing means profits will follow.

But, if you read FADS, you know they’re not doing it for our benefit (and there do appear to be very clear benefits). The powers that be see a potential profit, especially as things have shifted so much since they were banned. In fact, some have predicted significant shifts in the mental health landscape in the next 3-5 years and an explosion in growth in the magic mushroom industry.