MAPS reports that the total contributed revenue in the fiscal year of 2014 was just over $4 million and that 93% of it came from roughly 40 individuals and family foundations. The organization hopes to someday receive these grants from the federal government and major foundations as well. As indicated from the reports created by MAPS, the investment into the psychedelic studies program has resulted in a series of successes and profits for the organization and its investors. It is an undeniably costly project, but many believe that shifting the project and its investors from the private economic sector to the public sector will increase U.S. government stability as well as economic profit for major corporations across the U.S.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring substance, which makes it non-patentable. Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic studies (MAPS), explains that pharmaceutical companies are motivated by the ability to create/patent something and then monopolize the industry, gaining market exclusivity and making most of the profit. Doblin adds, “Donations from individuals and family foundations have been the only source. There have been no government grants yet since the government is still in middle of supporting the war on drugs. There are also no pharmaceutical grants since psychedelics are off-patent, can’t be monopolized, and compete with other psychiatric medications that people take daily.”
Furthermore, strict regulations make it extremely expensive to research Schedule I drugs, as psychedelic substances have been classified since the Controlled Substances Act passed in the U.S. by Richard Nixon in 1970. According to David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, “Everyone needs a licence: the manufacturer, the hospitals, the researchers. It is ten times more expensive to use these drugs compared to others that are not Schedule I.”
Pharmaceutical companies are undoubtedly profit-driven. They gravitate towards life-long treatments, as opposed to short-use treatments that help patients recover quickly, no longer needing treatment. According to the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, growth of the pharmaceutical industry is led predominantly by the maintaining and expanding of diseases that keeps the industry running as long as the body is hosting them. So a key strategy to accomplish this on the part of pharmaceutical companies is to develop drugs that “merely mask symptoms while avoiding the curing or elimination of diseases.” Psilocybin is not one of these drugs, as it completes its task without leaving the patient in need of a refill.
Organizations such as the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) exist to encourage the FDA to approve psychedelic medication for use by the general public, and to attract investors and donors to allocate funds to the project. MAPS organized a comprehensive report of their income, expenses, and assets accumulated throughout the process.
"Really, my dear, you must cross-examine the next witness. It quite makes my forehead ache!'
Still largely dependent on private funds, psychedelic research and clinical testing is being fueled by individuals without the same monetary incentives that other research studies entail- rather, by individuals with personal experience and plans for social goodwill. For example, clinical psychologist Pal-Orjan Johansen and neuroscientist Teri Krebs, a couple based in Oslo, Norway, have dedicated a massive portion of their assets and their lives to studying psilocybin, which Johansen believes had saved his life as a depressed psychology student years earlier. Johansen and Krebs co-founded a non-profit organization called EmmaSofia with the hopes of raising about $1 million to manufacture psilocybin and MDMA, and to provide support for protection and destigmatization of psychedelic users around the globe.
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