Psychedelics Today

In today's Solidarity Fridays Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Kwasi Adusei, Nurse Practitioner, and board member of Psychedelics Today. In the show, they talk about the root of protesting, privilege, the country's leadership, the importance of this conversation and ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Show Notes About Kwasi

• It's difficult for all groups of people to talk about, not everybody is coming from the same place on this topic
  • Kwasi says it's wonderful to see so many people rising up to fight against injustice
• These things have been happening for a long time, and it speaks to the history in America
• Kwasi grew up in The Bronx, and it wasn't uncommon to hear about deaths, gun violence, etc
• Kwasi went to receive his Doctorate, but reflects on his time in middle school and barely graduating
  • It wasn't because of him and his willingness to learn, it was because of his environment
  • The high school he went to is now shut down because of the low graduation rates

The Perfect Storm

• Kyle says he wonders why this time in particular, why this is impacting the nation and the world more than anything else going on
  • Kwasi sees it as a two part thing, it's a snowball effect, the anger around these instances continue to grow
  • The other part of it, has a lot to do with the Coronavirus, people are losing their jobs, having trouble paying rent, feeding their family, etc
    • They are losing their outlets to grieve, and they go through it for weeks
    • Then something like this happens and it results in rage

Making the Right Statement

• It's important to look to the family of George Floyd, they are angry at the violence coming out of the protests
• Some people believe that the anger that people are showing when damaging property, is causing the same anger when lives are lost
  • But some people are capitalizing on chaos, burning buildings and bringing destruction, and it takes away from the message of changing the systemic issues, it perpetuates it
  • It brings the spotlight to those who are inviting hate by graffiti-ing, lighting buildings on fire, ec
  • The conversation needs to prove that protests are making a statement

Poor Leadership

• We have a President that is enforcing law and order to remove peaceful protesters in a violent way
  • The leadership we have is very important, how crisis is approached is really important
  • "How [as a leader] do you calm the nerves of people, while getting to the root of the problem?" - Kwasi
  • We have a lot of people that support Drumpf, and he doesn't do the best job at leading and supporting the country in a respectful way, especially in these times
• Joe mentioned videos out there of undercover cops breaking windows that are 'bait' to bring in stronger forces to shut down the protests
• "We should all be asking ourselves, if I care about the messaging, how do I use my sphere of influence to change things?" - Kwasi
• There are so many roots to this problem
  • How much are we using to fund the police force versus funding education, community services, public health?

How to Support

• Joe says this platform (Psychedelics Today) is to create a space for people to give back, have an impact, share stories and support movements like this
• Kwasi says to look locally to give your time, money and support
  • He says look to get involved in local elections, making a small difference in your local community, makes a difference on the larger scale when multiplied
• Stay informed for yourself and share that information with everyone else
• People are thinking heavily right now "where are my tax dollars being spent?"
  • Instead of extra funding to the local police force, you can vote for that increase to go toward something else like education

Having the Conversation

• Our voice is our vote
• Many people who listen to the Psychedelics Today podcast are probably privileged
• The psychedelic movement is (and if not, should be) connected to so many other movements like BLM
  • Psychedelics Today is mainly about social justice, changing the narrative on drug policy, the drug war, psychedelic exceptionalism and access
• Kwasi says that for those who have acknowledged their privilege, not to just keep themselves in the pillar of 'because I support the psychedelic movement and its connected to the BLM movement, I've done enough'
  • He encourages becoming an ally of the BLM movement, as well as any other movement

Privilege

• Being a spiritual and privileged person, you have even more time to sit and process and think about all of this, especially when it's not affecting you
• It's difficult to analyze one's own privilege
  • Kwasi says he went on a medical mission to Ghana, where he was born
  • Going back and seeing what the lifestyle was like there, it shifted a lot in him to understand his own privilege
  • He had the privilege of coming to America, receiving an education, etc
  • Because of his education, he is asking himself how to give back

Making Change through Action

• If you're going to voice your support, that voice needs follow up with actions
  • Actions like donating to groups, educating yourself on local authority measures, voting, etc
• Sometimes an organization's agenda isn't always aligned with what the people want
• Kwasi says that he had a few people randomly venmo him money and it offended him
  • He doesn't want money, he wants change to be made in other ways
  • He says for those looking to help, ask first and see what ways those who have been oppressed want to see the change and be supported
• "We can all be change makers, and all make a change in this world" - Kwasi

Final Thoughts

• Kwasi wants to bring mental health into communities of people of color
• He says email him at [email protected]

Resources to Support

Reading list

• Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown: Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live.
• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein: Analysis of laws that have maintained and further facilitated racial segregation and inequity
• Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates: The biggest concerns of racist American history reframed through personal stories of racial awakening in a letter to his son.

Viewing list

• 13th: An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
• I Am Not Your Negro: Explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin's reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American history.

Ways to take action; Donate to victim funds

• Official George Floyd Memorial Fund: These funds will also go towards the funeral and burial costs along with the counseling and legal expenses for his loved ones. A portion will go towards the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.

Ways to take action; Donate to organizations

• The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund: the NAACP Legal Defense works on advancing the goals of racial justice and equality by protecting those that are most vulnerable in society. Their work includes court cases that work for a fairer justice system, increasing graduation rates among African American students, protecting voters across the nation, and decreasing disproportionate incarceration and sentencing rates.
• Communities United Against Police Brutality: The Minneapolis organization was created "to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis." More information can be found here.
• Campaign Zero: The organization uses data to inform policy solutions that aim to ends police brutality. Their vision is to create a better world by "limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability."

About Kwasi Adusei

Kwasi dedicates his work in the psychedelic movement to altering the stigma in mainstream channels by promoting the science, the healing potential of psychedelics, and civic engagement. Kwasi is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and graduated from the University at Buffalo. He is the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York and project manager for Psychonauts of the World, an initiative to share meaningful psychedelic stories, with the ultimate goal of publishing them in a book as an avenue to raise money for psychedelic research. He is also one of the administrators for the Global Psychedelic Network, a conglomerate of psychedelic groups and individuals from around the world. Born in Ghana and raised in the Bronx, New York, Kwasi hopes to bring psychedelic therapy to communities of color.

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Navigating Psychedelics

In this episode, Joe speaks with Jacob Curtis a photojournalist at Denver7, a Denver-based ABC affiliate.

Curtis covered Alaska's marijuana legalization in 2014, and as a photojournalist living in Denver, has been at the forefront of the Decriminalize Denver movement, even providing some of the first broadcasted footage of a local mushroom grow. Curtis speaks about attending Psychedelic Club meetings and meeting James Casey, wanting to be the person to bring this story to the mainstream, and how these meetings and growing interest from the community were ultimately the incubators for the Decriminalize Denver, and later, Decriminalize Nature and #thankyouplantmedicine movements.

They also discuss the National Psychedelic Club (of which Joe reveals he is now on the Board of Directors), Edward Snowden and the dangers of speaking with the media, and advice for how to protect one's identity, the Telluride Mushroom Festival and documentaries like "Dosed," the Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, new startups in the field like MindMed, the Denver Mushroom Cooperative, MkUltra experiments in Denver, the importance of the #thankyouplantmedicine hashtag, and ultimately, how much Covid-19 has impacted the speed of progress in bringing legalization to the mainstream.

Resources: www.facebook.com/somasagas

Notable quotes

On James Casey: "He was an awesome subject to sort of wrap the story around, and he was the perfect poster child because he had all the right ingredients- he was a veteran, really well-spoken, and just pretty straight-laced." (9:41)

"It is interesting to watch, how the media sort of responds and works with stories that are on the fringes and then move slowly towards the mainstream. It's one of those things about our culture- it bends and shifts. The times change and what was radical 10 years ago is normal now." (13:51)

"We've had so many huge events that have taken place in our lifetimes that this kind of seems trivial… it's not the highest priority anymore after we had the 2000 election, September 11th, the Iraq war. Those things [psychedelics] aren't as high on the list of things that we are supposed to be worried about anymore." (14:45)

"I don't think that we're going to shy away from talking about psychedelics after a catastrophic virus collapses the world economy. It'll be an easy topic." (15:57)

On #thankyouplantmedicine: "I don't think there was necessarily a hashtag for drug policy reform that has been a conscious effort like that before, so it definitely gained some attention... If anything, it brought people together. If it didn't get this big media splash, it definitely helped grow the network." (53:09)

About Jacob

Jacob is a photojournalist at Denver7, a Denver-based ABC affiliate. He has been at the forefront of the Decriminalize Denver movement, even providing some of the first broadcasted footage of a local mushroom grow.

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Navigating Psychedelics

In today's Solidarity Friday's Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about Grof Legacy Training, Peyote scarcity, a DMT survey on entities, and more.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Grof Legacy Training

• Its based on Stanislav Grof's research into psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and spiritual emergencies
• Dr. Stanislov Grof and his wife just launched this program
  • It's not just about breathwork
• His involvement in the Grof transpersonal training program dropped off in the last few years
  • He wasn't allowed to teach breathwork in the GTT model, there wasn't any growth in the company, so a lot of people like Grof left and started their own thing
  • Kyle says this is pretty common with trademarks and protocols
  • Joe says he's very excited about it
• Kyle says Stan's work is very important and a lot of the reason Psychedelics Today came to be

Peyote

• Native American Churches don't have as much access as they need to properly grow Peyote
  • Perhaps, in countries where Peyote isn't illegal, there should be growing of Peyote
• Native American's are in a bad spot due to colonialism
• As insiders, we need to talk about how to use less Peyote
  • "Pick one, plant two" should be the mindset
• Kyle says, "how do we just respect these sacred medicines?"

DMT Survey

• Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects
  • 2,561 individuals (mean age 32 years; 77% male) completed an online survey about their single most memorable entity encounter after taking N,N-dimethyltryptamine
  • Senses involved were visual and extra-sensory
  • The most common descriptive labels for the entity were being, guide, spirit, alien and helper
  • 41% of respondents reported fear
  • More than half of those who identify as Atheist before, no longer identified with Atheism after the experience
  • Out of any other method, DMT seems to occasion the most entities

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Erik Davis, Author of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. In the show they cover topics on La Chorrera, uncertainty, synchronicities and more.

In today's Solidarity Friday's Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Dave McGaughey, Founding Partner of NorthStar. In the show, they talk about NorthStar, Ethics, and the story, "We Will Call It Pala".

In today's episode, Joe and Kyle sit down with Dr. Mike Hart. In the show they talk about Cannabis and Ketamine used as medicine.

3 Key Points:

1. The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health. CBD is really good for people with inflammation.
2. When it comes to any psychedelic/plant medicine therapy, it's all about agency. The power lies within the individual, the therapy and the drug are just tools to help the person obtain the power to heal themselves.

3. Ketamine is a useful treatment for depression. It's instant, a patient can take it and it's effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes About Dr. Mike Hart

• He attended Med school on Saba Island
• Then he came to Ontario where he did his residency
• 8 months after practicing he started prescribing cannabis
• He got into cannabis because it's a great alternative to opioids and pain pills, etc.

Cannabis

• The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health
  • CBD is really good for people with inflammation
  • CBD is good for anything with -itis like arthritis, etc
• THC is found to be much better than CBD for things like sciatica and nerve pain
• Kyle mentions that when he takes CBD he has flashbacks of ayahuasca dreams/experiences
  • CBD is not psychoactive in that it doesn't get you high
• Kyle says that people can have spiritual experiences just by breathing, so the
  • CBD is just another vehicle that helps
• Adding a small amount of THC to CBD isn't going to potentiate it, but there may be an entourage effect that can be a further benefit to a patient
  • Don't use more than 2.5mg of THC with CBD if you don't want psychoactive effects
• Mike says that some people use CBD isolate, and that's great, but like an egg, it's best not to eat just the egg whites, it's best to eat the whole egg to get all of the benefits
  • So just like eating the whole egg, the best way to get all the benefits of cannabis is to use/consume the whole plant
  • There are definitely situations where using the whole plant is best, and other situations where isolation is best

Cannabis and Therapy

• Anxiety can be treated very well with exposure therapy
  • Exposure therapy is exposing something you're afraid of, and exposing it over and over until its not an anxiety anymore
• CBD can decrease learned fear
  • PTSD is a learned fear
  • "The people who end up doing the most in life, are the people who have had the most trauma. We need to tell people that their trauma does not define them." - Mike
• It's all about personal agency
  • It's not about the drug, its you
  • It's not about therapy, its you
  • The power is in you, its just learning how to harness and use that power
• Mike says your relationships, your job, and your health are the three most important things to master
• Going without something makes you more grateful for that thing

Ketamine

• Mike has been prescribing Ketamine for just over a year now
  • It is helpful for mental health and chronic pain
  • Ketamine is really useful for treatment resistant depression
• He prescribes Ketamine orally
  • He advises his patients to take it in the morning as soon as they wake up on an empty stomach
  • If it is taken that way, they get a psychoactive effect, and he thinks that it is the most effective way
  • Its instant, a patient can take it, and its effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in

Links

Website

Instagram

Twitter

About Dr. Mike Hart

Michael Hart, MD is the medical director and founder at Readytogo Clinic in London, Ontario. Readytogo Clinic focuses on cannabinoid medicine, but also offers family medicine services, IV vitamin therapy and specialized hormone testing. Dr. Hart is a recognized speaker on the topic of cannabis. He has spoken at CME events throughout Ontario, multiple cannabis conferences and has been featured on a variety of cannabis websites. In March of 2017, Dr. Hart released a free Ebook with his co-author Jeremy Kossen. Dr. Hart has seen first hand how the opioid epidemic is affecting our population and wanted to take action by finding a solution. Dr. Hart believes that cannabis is an excellent alternative to opioids and has seen excellent results in his practice. Dr. Hart emphasizes lifestyle changes in his medical practice and follows a low carb diet himself. Dr. Hart actively trains MMA at Adrenaline Training center and follows a comprehensive strength and conditioning program.

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In today's Solidarity Friday's Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about therapists being unprepared to talk to people taking psychedelics, the drug war and more.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes MAPS Press Release

• PRESS RELEASE: Interim Analysis Shows At Least 90% Chance of Statistically Significant Difference in PTSD Symptoms after MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy
• MAPS hired a third party to work through their data set and they may be getting FDA approval

Therapists Are Unprepared to Talk to People About Taking Psychedelics

• Should there be some sort of body regulating therapist training in integration?
  • Should there be a standardized training?
• There are going to be good therapists that care, and go out of their way and get the training, and there will be bad therapists, that do harm
  • It's a long and difficult topic
  • Should people be going to jail for being bad therapists?
• Looking at breathwork, there are training groups, but there isn't one large, overarching group that governs all trainings
• "Are we acting with integrity if we aren't bringing the utmost safety to the table?" - Joe

Group Setting Impact

• How is COVID going to impact psychedelic tourism?
• In breathwork, people are potentially coughing, crying, and in general just doing heavy breathing, COVID is super contagious

About Kyle

Kyle's interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle's life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, "Stanislav Grof's Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences," and the other one which he co-created, "The History of Psychedelics."

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle's clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

About Joe

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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In this episode, Kyle and Joe interview Eamon Armstrong, host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival. In the show, they talk about Eamon's Iboga experience, the festival culture, rites of passage, ethics and more.

3 Key Points:

1. Eamon Armstrong is the host of Life is a Festival, a podcast promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture.
2. Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols.

3. Rites of Passage can look different for everybody, they can look like going to Africa to be initiated in an Ibogaine ceremony, to attending Burning Man.

Show Notes About Eamon

• Eamon is the host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival
  • It's not about festivals, it's about how to make life like a festival
• Eamon is very passionate about mental wellness
• After graduating college, he felt very lost
• He was throwing mushroom tea parties, making electronic music with his friends
  • The key to throwing a mushroom tea party is to have people drink less mushrooms than they think that they're drinking, everyone just thinks they are tripping harder than they were
• He went to Burning Man in 2010
  • He started working in social media for Burning Man's off playa events
• Psychedelics and harm reduction became core to their editorial voice
  • He worked closely with Psychedelic Peer Support, Zendo, Kosmicare, etc

Ibogaine Experience

• Eamon attended an Iboga retreat in Gabon, Africa, and he says it was more about the retreat than the Iboga
  • He was in the chamber for 5 days, and he was alone in it
• This retreat was in the Bwiti religion
• He really went there for a full sledgehammer experience
  • He felt he had some addicted aspects that were hindering his sexual experiences
• Iboga goes to the root of the trauma and shows you where the addictive pattern of behavior is
• Iboga has a long integration period
• Iboga is a root, and he consumed it in a form of a tangled nest
  • He felt very blasted open from the experience
• Iboga took him directly to his anger
• "We have in our modern Western Culture, a lot of lost, young people" - Eamon
  • "The value of a rite of passage, is that you are confronted with certain things that you can't get to on your own" - Eamon
• The fact that you can die in an Iboga experience, is part of the initiation

Rites of Passage

• Burning Man isn't a rite of passage, but it can be used as a rite of passage
  • Burning Man is a temporary experience in civic living, it is not orchestrated by elders
• There is a growing topic on psychedelic parenting, and taking psychedelics with children

Maya

• Maya is designed in partnership with psychedelic practitioners & ceremony leaders
• Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols
• Ethics in psychedelics are so important right now
• This does not replace the therapist, it's everything the therapist needs to support their clients in healing
• "The ecosystem itself will thrive when we are all working in service to each other" - Eamon
• "If you want to be a part of the cool kids, and the cool kids are doing it ethically, then you have to do it ethically" - Eamon

Final Thoughts

• The soul is the most beautiful thing
• "Psychedelics as medicine, treat society, beyond individuals" - Eamon

Links

Eamon Armstrong Website

Life is a Festival Facebook Group

Maya

Maya Health Facebook Page

Psychedelic Therapy Podcast

Psychedelic Therapy Podcast by Maya Facebook Group

About Eamon Armstrong

Eamon Armstrong is the creator and host of Life is a Festival, promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture. He is the former Creative Director and public face of Chip Conley's industry-leading online festival guide and community Fest300, where he was a global community builder. Eamon's belief in the transformational power of psychedelics led him to take part in a traditional Bwiti initiation in Gabon, and to become a trained Sitter with MAP's Zendo Project. Eamon is a passionate advocate for mature masculinity and offers public talks and workshops from mythopoetic men's work to stand-up comedy on integrating masculinity.

Headshot Photo Credit: GBK Photos

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Navigating Psychedelics

In today's Solidarity Friday's Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down with Brett Greene, who was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago. In response to last week's episode on the Corporadelic topic, Brett comes on the show to talk about companies and drug discovery.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Brett Greene

• Brett Greene was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago
• Brett and Kyle originally met at the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York City in 2013.
• He works at The Center for Drug Discovery

Drug Development

• At his new company, they are making drugs from tryptamines that are more predictable
  • His team has not only done this countless of times with the FDA, they have also done it with psychedelics

Ethics

• The psychedelic movement doesn't own psychedelics, they don't own molecules, but they do own their history
• "We should get away from the right and wrongness of the mechanics, and get into the right and wrongness of the ethics" - Brett
• "Patents are the language of invention" - Brett
• "An ethical charter is one that covers cognitive liberty, business ethics, and responsibility and accountability for patient safety" - Brett
• What are the minimal acceptable requirements when doing this work?

Final Thoughts

• We need to be kind with each other
• We need to balance truth with kindness and compassion
• For those interested in a work postiton email [email protected]

About Brett Greene

Brett works in research administration under Alexandros Makriyannis, one of the world's top cannabinoid researchers. His job consists of a multitude of functions, ranging from administrative support for a team of 15+ grant submitting scientists to lab equipment and lab management, and diverse recruitment for NIH grants.

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In this episode, Joe interviews Tom and Sheri Eckert, organizers of the Oregon Psilocybin Therapy Initiative. The IP 34 is the bill that would legalize psilocybin therapy.

3 Key Points:

1. IP 34 asks the Oregon Health Authority to create a licensing system that will create a regulated program where Oregonians suffering from depression, anxiety, trauma and other challenges can see a licensed and trained facilitator to receive supervised psilocybin therapy.
2. IP 34 was written by licensed therapists in Oregon along with the country's leading advocates in the field. It is supported by healthcare professionals, treatment providers, veterans' groups and community leaders across the state.
3. There has been a multitude of studies from leading medical research institutions such as Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and NYU showing that psilocybin therapy works.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes About

• Tom and Sheri began their interest in psilocybin research about 5 years ago when they read an article in The New Yorker by Michal Pollan
• They realized how powerful psilocybin was for clinical work
• They are both therapists, and were inspired to find out if there was a way to create a modality that allowed them to provide psilocybin therapy to help their clients

Psilocybin Assisted Psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy is supposed to be experiential, the breakthrough is where the change happens
• Sheri says that psilocybin therapy gets all parts of the brain in communication together
• "The more intense the mystical experience the more clinical outcomes that are achieved" - Tom

Ballot Initiative

• They started in 2015
• They wanted the breakthrough studies and the research proving low risks to work for them
• The psychedelic community was very helpful
• They went through rotations with the way the initiative was written
• They like the therapy model, its safe, careful and mindful

Clause

• Joe asks about a Supremacy Clause, where the state supersedes local districts
  • This initiative does not get in the way of any other initiative
• There are angles on all different types of drug policy reform
• There is nothing in the IP34 that blocks any other initiative like decriminalization
  • We are all a part of the big picture, we all need to work together

GMP Psilocybin

• They wanted to keep this in the frame of non-commercialization
  • Their goal with this is not about money, it's really about the healing
  • "We are trying to move forward a healing modality to help people, we are trying to legalize psilocybin assisted psychotherapy" - Tom
• There is a part in the initiative that says measures will have to be taken to make sure the psilocybin is 'food grade' standard or in general just clean and safe

Oregonians to Sign the Petition

• Download the petition, sign it, and mail it in

Final Thoughts

• Sheri says that the team behind the initiative is inspired by what is happening globally around psilocybin and research
• They are right at the end of their signatures, but they need help to reach the goal
• "We've got to see the bigger picture here, and get behind it." - Tom

Links

Website

About Tom and Sheri Eckert

As husband-and-wife founders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society (OPS) and authors of the Psilocybin Service Initiative (PSI), Tom and Sheri Eckert have set in motion a historic campaign to legalize Psilocybin Services, also known as Psilocybin Assisted Therapy, in their home state of Oregon. A growing number of Oregonians are getting behind the idea, largely in response to the latest science. The Eckerts, with a growing army of volunteers, are spreading a truth held increasingly self-evident: that the psilocybin experience, when facilitated under safe and supportive conditions, can be a life-changing gift.In addition to their activism, the Eckert's own and operate "Innerwork" – a private psychotherapy practice serving the Portland metro area. Included in their catalog of services is their groundbreaking "Better Man" program, which is shown to neutralize intimate partner and family violence. Sheri has been awarded a Cosmic Sister Women of the Psychedelic Renaissance in support of her presentation at the Spirit Plant Medicine conference.

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