How the American Right learned to love psychedelics
Rick Doblin… now his organization’s corporate spinoff, Lykos Therapeutics, may soon be acquired by Antonio Gracias, a billionaire private equity investor and close friend of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.
The planned acquisition of Lykos is an example of how tightly entwined a once left-wing psychedelic movement has become with the Trump administration and the tech right. Peter Thiel, who has close ties with many top-level Trump officials, is a major investor in the psychedelic company Atai Life Sciences. Mr. Musk has talked about how he uses a small amount of prescription ketamine “once every other week or something like that.” And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he’s open to decriminalizing or even legalizing the drugs in some form, citing his son’s experience using ayahuasca to process grief from the death of his mother, Mary Kennedy. Stocks in companies working on psychedelic treatments rose after Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary… many members of the millionaire and billionaire class have found meaning, healing and joy in psychedelics, and they want to bring that to the masses. (Take any of the big American dynasties — the Gettys, Rockefellers, Mellons, Kochs, Hearsts — and you’ll probably find a member who has given money to psychedelic causes.) They may dismiss concerns about safety as sensationalism or drug war propaganda, but their resources provide them access to months of therapy and time off work to recover after a bad trip. Most Americans don’t have that luxury.
Original Article (New York Times):
How the American Right learned to love psychedelics
Artwork Fair Use: Disclaser
Recent Comments