Is there profit in psychedelics and should there be?

Making money off psychedelic chemicals – or any quantity of such medicinal or spiritual value – is frowned upon by many purists.

There is something philistine and unseemly about allowing the profit motive to taint the transference of many goods and services, especially those that confer life-affirming joy and insight. Hence the widespread belief tin universal health care, and religious temples not charging admission for entrance. There are built-in limits on profits from the sale of psychedelics because for most of the classic ones, there are no patents in force. This wouldn't constrain a Shulgin in his laboratory from whipping up new concoctions, patenting them, and eventually bringing them to market. There are no patents on most cannabis products, but that hasn't prevented a burgeoning new growth industry particularly where cannabis is legal.

Should psychedelics become mainstreamed, it's easy for me to envision an industry mushrooming around psychedelic drugs, in the promise of purity and potency, their safe administration, and in wise and appealing modalities for the hosting and guidance of the psychedelic experience. I can see clinics and shaman lodges competing for customers in commercial advertisements shilling their just-so scented and decked-out tripping cribs provide highest measure of healing, enlightenment, and satisfaction. I envision the industry branching out into schools of practice based on a patented guidance platform with certified techniques from the respective practices of Hoffmann, Grof, Leary, Fadiman, Sabina, etc. To some degree, this is already taking place, though without lucre being pivotal to such transactions. There will (and are) a lot of charlatans, snake-oil salesmen, and false prophets in this field. The only way to crowd them out is to require certification. That would involve, industry or government regulation, of course.