We fully concur..it’s the same as the cannabis sector. If it is a press release publish it thus and don’t pretend it is an article.
Psymposia write…
When the media republishes statements from psychedelic pharmaceutical startups and their executives with little-to-no vetting, it functions as a corporate megaphone and damages the field of psychedelic science.
The push to mainstream psychedelics has included a variety of alarming decisions by psychedelic corporations, from eagerly welcoming in an advisor to “the global elite’s favorite strongman,” to claiming they want “nothing to do with those kinds of folks who want to decriminalize psychedelics,” to expressing disregard for the literal skeletons in their investors’ closets. Although less discussed, the increasing trend of corporadelic firms publishing press releases about impending scientific “breakthroughs” is also troubling.
As certain media outlets have engaged in the irresponsible practice of amplifying press release statements with little-to-no vetting, it’s worth examining how this practice can propagate false and misleading information. Media coverage of a recent press release by Mindset Pharma highlights the hazards of parroting the claims of psychedelic pharmaceutical start-ups. These corporations have incentives to make misleading statements about safe, well-known psychedelic compounds that have long histories of human use. When the media amplifies public relations narratives about the alleged superiority of understudied, proprietary drugs with unknown safety profiles, it does a disservice to psychedelic communities and those interested in learning about these compounds.
Press releases are pseudo-news stories crafted by organizations and delivered to the media for the specific purpose of advertising an organization’s products, services, or actions; they reflect the interests of the companies publishing them. Additionally, corporations have used press releases for a variety of fraudulent purposes, ranging from manipulating the value of penny stocks to making false claims about their ability to acquire N95 masks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Psychedelic media outlets often treat corporate press releases like peer-reviewed articles, which they are not. In an article titled “Peer Review in Scientific Publications: Benefits, Critiques, & A Survival Guide,” the authors offer the following explanation of “peer review”:
Read full article at https://www.psymposia.com/magazine/psychedelic-science-media-corporate-press-release/?mc_cid=9a516d9655&mc_eid=e725fdc50c
