According to a Reuters report magic mushrooms could boost economic productivity and make investors money. Recent clinical trials of psilocybin mushrooms, the psychedelic fungi, show it helping mental health patients without causing significant side effects.

As well as health gains for individuals the positive ramifications for society are huge.

The cost of mental illness globally was as much as $2.5 trillion in 2010 and could more than double by 2030, reckons the World Economic Forum. Using those numbers, medical journal the Lancet has argued that investments in mental-health treatment have high returns. If $10 billion were invested every year from now until 2030, the net present value of enhanced economic productivity might be $400 billion.

Investing in psychedelic medicine could be both profitable and increase productivity. Two clinical studies of cancer patients with depression or anxiety found meaningful improvements in mood without serious adverse reactions. Laboratory work on the use of trippy pharmacology had been similarly problem-free in the 1960s. In 2005 New Labour criminalised harvesting and using naturally growing mushrooms. Maybe the prospect of boosting economic productivity might reverse that decision…

From 2005: New Labour Attacks Pagan Minorities 

See also: Food Of The Gods: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs and Human Evolution