Yesterday, early-stage tech expert Chris Wood told us why 6G and quantum computing will be big…
But it’s still too early to invest in them.
Today, he shares two exciting tech trends that are imminent. In fact, 2022 could end up being a landmark year for both. Here’s why…
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Reilly: Chris, let’s talk about psychedelics… you’ve called them “the next pot stocks.” Is this an opportunity readers can focus on now?
Wood: Yes, this is one of the more imminent emerging tech trends.
Psychedelic compounds can treat many mental health conditions—like anxiety, depression, and addiction—better and more safely than what’s currently available. They’re an absolute game changer for the billion or so folks worldwide who suffer from a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
And that’s not just my opinion.
Organizations like the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and world-renowned Johns Hopkins University also share this vision.
MAPS has been funding clinical trials of psychedelics for two decades. And in September 2019, Johns Hopkins launched The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research to study these compounds.
Reilly: Were there any important finds?
Wood: In May 2021, MAPS announced the results of a large-scale clinical trial. It found that MDMA (ecstasy) is an effective treatment for severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
67% of the patients treated with MDMA no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis. And 88% experienced a meaningful reduction in symptoms.
That means two-thirds of patients were effectively cured. And the most stunning part is that many doctors considered these patients untreatable.
To date, dozens of clinical trials show that psychedelics have helped in treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction.
All this scientific evidence is now forcing governments and regulators to come around.
For the past several decades, the US government has classified psychedelics as Schedule I drugs. That’s the most restricted category. According to the government, these drugs have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
As recent studies show, that’s total baloney.
Reilly: Are governments starting to legalize psychedelics, like they did with cannabis?
Wood: In 2019, Denver, Colorado, became the first US city to decriminalize psilocybin. That’s the active chemical found in “magic mushrooms.”
Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, soon followed suit. They also decriminalized several other psychedelics too. Today, there are dozens of efforts to legalize psychedelics throughout the US.
That’s why psychedelics stocks are one of the top ideas on my radar.
Reilly: Lastly, do you think this will be a big year for 3D printing?
Wood: I do. For decades the US outsourced most manufacturing to countries with cheaper labor like China. Then COVID-19 and the lockdowns showed us the weakness of global supply chains. Bottlenecks at ports. Shortages of goods.
Now efforts are being made to bring manufacturing back home. 3D printing will be a big part of that.
3D printing has been around since the 1980s. It’s long been used to make prototypes.
It has not, however, been used to mass produce the final, useable parts and products. That’s because of the material used.
Most early 3D printers printed with plastic. You can only do so much with plastic. You can’t make airplane wings, most car parts, or thousands of other high-value items with plastic.
Reilly: And that’s changed?
Wood: Totally—newer technologies have unlocked the use of metal in 3D printing.
New 3D metal printers can produce lighter, stronger, and more durable metal parts than those made with traditional manufacturing.
Metal 3D printing also allows engineers to design things that were never thought possible. That’s because 3D printing is an “additive manufacturing” technology.
With regular manufacturing, you might start with a big block of metal. Then, machines carve it to get the part you want. This wastes time, money, and material—and lacks the precision of a modern 3D printer.
With the additive manufacturing of 3D printers, you start from nothing. Then the printer adds layer upon layer until you’ve created an object.
As a result, 3D printers can create intricate structures that are impossible to build any other way. You can create parts with moving components, hinges, and parts within parts. And changes cost almost nothing to make.
So, 3D printing promotes innovation. And it allows designers and engineers to optimize products with a level of precision that was never possible before.
Put it all together and you see that 3D printing is ready for primetime now.
Reilly: Are there any 3D printing stocks you recommend readers buy today?
Wood: An easy way to play the growth in 3D printing is The 3D Printing ETF (PRNT) from ARK Invest. It holds all the big names in the 3D printing space including Desktop Metal (DM), Materialise (MTLS), Autodesk (ADSK), Stratasys (SSYS), and 3D Systems (DDD). And it should benefit handsomely from a rebound in 3D printing stocks.
Chris Reilly
Executive Editor, RiskHedge