CONFESSIONS OF A KETAMINE CLINIC CALL GIRL

An insider's journey through the sleazy side of psychedelic therapy

When Anne* started working for the corporate office of Ketamine Wellness Centers in 2022, she immediately encountered red flags. KWC was touted as the largest and fastest growing chain of ketamine therapy clinics in America; in November 2021, it was acquired for $10 million by Delic, a psychedelic company co-founded by the ex-owner of High Times, Matt Stang. Stang positioned the deal as a big bet on the future of psychedelic medicines:

“As MDMA and psilocybin and other novel compounds come down, they’re going to need special clinical places where people can come get treated with them,” he said. “What we’re building is a large chain of specialty clinics that deal with psychedelic wellness.”

But Anne’s position as a salesperson interfacing with potential customers put her at the front lines of the company’s business practices, which she describes as a sleazy operation where profits, investor interests, and scalability were placed before the patients’ well-being at every turn. Last March, KWC abruptly shut down all 13 of its clinics across 9 states. The implosion, which an ex-employee described as “a disaster,” left thousands of patients in a lurch, some of whom were army veterans who had depended on the clinic providing them with free or discounted treatments.

KWC is not the only hotly-touted psychedelic company to bite the dust; in recent months, Field Trip, a startup renown for its spa-like luxury ketamine clinics, as well as Synthesis, a psychedelic retreat in Oregon, have both seen their own spectacular downfalls. The ketamine clinic model has many concerning issues, which I’ve explored previously in Double Blind. Anne’s experience at KWC/Delic, however, is especially shocking—and perhaps illustrates in detail the issues with an investor-driven startup culture that has many concerned about the emerging psychedelic industry as a whole. (Note: the below story includes discussions of suicide and sexual assault.)