Episode 348
Shaahin Cheyene
Herbal Ecstasy & The Billion Dollar Smart Drug Boom
In this episode of The Psychedelic Podcast, Paul F. Austin sits down with entrepreneur Shaahin Cheyene, creator of the controversial 1990s supplement “Herbal Ecstasy,” which helped launch the legal smart-drug movement.
Shaahin shares how he built a multimillion-dollar business at just fifteen by creating a legal herbal alternative to MDMA during a shortage in the rave scene.
The conversation explores 1990s rave culture, the ethics of prohibition, and how natural supplements intersect with psychedelics, entrepreneurship, and personal freedom. They also discuss his later ventures in Amazon commerce, podcast media, and YouTube.
Shaahin Cheyene is the creator of Herbal Ecstasy, a supplement that helped spark the legal smart-drug movement in the 1990s. He built the business as a teenager into a multimillion-dollar company.
Over the past three decades, Shaahin has become an award-winning entrepreneur, Amazon expert, inventor, author, and filmmaker whose ventures have generated over a billion dollars in revenue. He is the founder of PodcastCola and Viral Mirage.
Through his businesses, Shaahin continues to mentor entrepreneurs and develop health and wellness products focused on optimizing human performance.
Podcast Highlights
- Creating Herbal Ecstasy at age fifteen
- The MDMA shortage that created opportunity
- Rave culture and the 1990s club scene
- Natural supplements as legal alternatives
- Freedom, regulation, and drug policy debates
- Health and wellness entrepreneurship
- Building product brands in emerging markets
- Podcasting and YouTube as influence platforms
Show Links
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