Psychedelic Business Glossary

Ethical design means building products, services, therapies, or technologies with ethical principles in mind from the very start. That includes treating people as humans and not as cogs in a machine, anticipating both intended and unintended uses, and prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable users.

Above all, it means that just because we can do something, it doesn’t mean that we should.

For an example of an ethical design framework and its application, see: .Psychedelic Therapy and Ethical Design

A Markush claim is a broad and sometimes-abused form of patent language that allows companies to claim exclusive licence over entire families of molecular structures. In the psychedelic space, Markush claims are used to pre-emptively fence off future research or competition, sometimes in ways that conflict with the movement’s stated values of openness and healing.

For more on the use and ethics of this kind of patent, see Smothering Competition or Protecting Progress?

Psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT) is the use of psychedelic substances that produce altered consciousness, paired with psychological or psychoanalytic therapies with the aim of producing positive psychological outcomes. PAT usually includes preparation and integration phases.

The most common substances used are psilocybin (found in Psilocybe mushrooms or "magic truffles"), MDMA, and LSD, though newer, and therefore patentable, drugs are under development.

More detail on psychedelic assisted therapy can be found in: What is Psychedelic Therapy?

The Psychedelic Majority is a term used to represent the people who have the majority psychedelic experiences. These experiences are often unsanctioned and almost always occur outside clinical contexts. This majority includes both underground and traditional use of psychedelics & visionary plants and fungi. The number of people covered by this definition could range from the tens to the hundreds of millions worldwide.

For a broader discussion of the makeup and ethical significance of this term, see: The Psychedelic Majority.

In the context of psychedelic therapy, a regulatory bottleneck is any legal or administrative restriction that limits who can access, prescribe, or facilitate use of a psychedelic compound, regardless of clinical demand or need.

While such restrictions don’t shrink the Total Addressable Market (TAM), they do constrain the Serviceable Available Market (SAM) and reduce the volume of product required to meet legal demand.

A more detailed discussion of how this applies to the legal psilocybin market in Australia can be found here: Tripping Over Reality: The Economics of Psilocybin in Oz.

While originally coined to denote an individual or organisation with recognized authority in a field and ability to lead thinking in a given area or topic, ‘Thought Leader’ is now an often self-appointed moniker used for market positioning and self-aggrandisement. Nowhere is this more true than in psychedelics.

Experts with genuine experience and depth of knowledge and insight still exist. But they will rarely name themselves as thought leaders.

For an example of how to not use Thought Leader as a marketing tactic, see: Thought Leader, Clickbait or Something Weirder?