There's still a lot of risk, but we do have a handful of companies that have programs that are in phase three testing, that last stage of clinical testing.

And I think a lot of the risk has been removed, not all of it, but a lot of the risk has been removed.

If those late stage tests go well, then I think you're going to see renewed interest

by investors into this space.

I'm Ricky Mulvey, and that's Motleyful contributor Keith Spates. On today's show, we're checking

in on psychedelics and the companies that want to legally provide these therapies.

My colleague Mary Long caught up with Spades for a conversation about what these companies

need to prove to the Food and Drug Administration, why investor hype in psychedelics has died

down, and the risks to watch if you're looking at this highly speculative industry.

Keith, psychedelics were, shall I say, once a more niche interest in popular culture,

but they've been slowly stepping back into the mainstream in more recent years.

This is perhaps in large part due to the fact that clinical trials have found psilocybin,

the psychedelic compound found in certain mushrooms, to have potentially therapeutic benefits for a number of mental health conditions, depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction.

You follow this space pretty closely. What are these clinical trials finding? And what questions

are they still trying to answer? Well, I'll address the second question first, Mary, that the clinical trials of psilocybin

are trying to answer the same questions that clinical studies for any drug attempt to answer.

First, is the drug safe?

Second, what's the best dosage to use?

And third, is it effective?

Now, as to what the clinical trials are finding for this drug,

the news has been generally positive so far for both safety and efficacy. For example,

there are two companies that are among the leaders in this space, Compass Pathways and Cybin.

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