Decriminalize Nature DC
Reform Laws for Plant Medicines in DC
The DC Psychedelic Society and the Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC invite you to a special Happy Hour on Wednesday, January 29, 2020.
Come and meet the candidates running for the DC Psychedelic Society position on the DNDC steering committee.
DC BOARD OF ELECTIONS
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
RECEIPT AND INTENT TO REVIEW INITIATIVE MEASURE
The Board of Elections shall consider in a public hearing whether the proposed measure, “Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020,” is a proper subject matter for initiative at the Board’s regular meeting on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 10:30 a.m., at 1015 Half Street SE, Suite 750, Washington DC 20003.
In making a subject matter determination, the Board does not consider the merits of a proposed measure. Instead, it may consider only whether the proposed measure meets the subject matter requirements set forth in District of Columbia law. Specifically, the Board must reject the proposed measure if it determines that:
Those who wish to testify at the hearing on the propriety of the proposed measure in light of the above-referenced criteria should contact the Board’s Office of the General Counsel at 202-727-2194 or ogc@dcboe.org and provide their name, address, telephone number, and name of the organization represented (if any) by no later than Friday, January 31, 2020, at 4:00 p.m.. Any written testimony or memoranda should be submitted for the record to the Board’s Office of the General Counsel, 1015 Half Street SE, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20003 or at ogc@dcboe.org by that date and time as well. Individuals shall be permitted a maximum of three minutes for oral presentations. Representatives of organizations shall be permitted a maximum of five minutes for oral presentations.
We are suffering under misinformation about traditional entheogenic plants. These are traditional healing plants, respectfully used for religious and healing purposes for millennia, around the world. Although currently illegal outside of limited clinical and religious contexts, these plants aren’t addicting, socially destabilizing drugs.
“Entheogenic plants” are different from, for example, amphetamine, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, tobacco. Contrary to political messaging, the science shows that these plants are not addictive – if fact, they help alleviate addiction, depression, and, when used with respect and care, can be deeply healing to individuals and communities. Here are a few facts about these plants, with their scientific references listed at the bottom of the page.
Entheogenic plants and fungi have co-evolved with humans for millennia, first used, possibly, to enhance hunting ability through heightened sensory awareness allowing greater success during hunting and gathering. From there, the plants and fungi began their co-evolution with humans, creating a unique synergistic relationship between these entheogens and human communities via shamanic integration.
Eventually, the sensory and consciousness benefits, including the social cohesion and expansion of consciousness, were brought into the villages and communities. From there, the relationship between the entheogens and humans grew and are thought to be the genesis of the mystical experiences that led to growth of religion, and to expanded capacity of humans to contextualize themselves within the greater cosmos and understand their surroundings as a fully integrated ecosystem and to create a workable narrative of their own existence within this ecosystem.
These plants and fungi have been revered throughout the world, but have become limited to humanity by millennia of colonization, authoritarianism, industrialization, and the disenfranchisement of humans from their ecological roots.
In addition, countless indigenous groups throughout the world, including Native Americans, the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, and Aztec used peyote and psilocybe mushrooms. Mushrooms stones and art date back to 3000 BC in the Americas and as far back as 11,000 BC in northern Africa. The Aztecs would drink chocolate and eat mushrooms called “Teonanácatl” in Nahuatl (literally “god mushroom”—compound of the words teo(tl) (god) and nanácatl (mushroom)) with honey. The act of ingesting the mushroom sacrament is known as monanacahuia (to mushroom oneself).
Entheogenic plants and fungi are known to increase an individual’s respect for the earth and the ecosystem and to heighten human awareness of their own condition within society, a fact that may have led to these plants and fungi being place on the Federal Schedule 1 list of banned substances.
A top Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, admitted: “You want to know what this was really all about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Wall Street investors are already investing in psilocybin companies which are developing synthetic versions of nature that will cost $7,000- $10,000 a gram and potentially reduce access for our community, rather than increase access.
Individual and community empowerment comes from being able to know where our entheogens come from, from our garden, or from our community. We should not have to rely upon synthetically made substances from the pharmaceutical industry that distances us from our relationship to Earth.
● Substance use disorder and alcohol dependence
Winkelman, M. (2014). Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. Current Drug Abuse Reviews 7, pp. 101-116.
Winkelman (2014) describes a successful addiction treatment center called Takiwasi. “For more than 20 years, Jacques Mabit and the Takiwasi center in Peru has been a pioneer in the use of ayahuasca treatments for addiction. The Takiwasi program incorporates ayahuasca in ritual treatments for addicts in remote settings in the Peruvian Amazon. The Takiwasi program is known for its work with cocaine and cocaine paste addicts, as well as a variety of polysubstance users.
Loizaga-Velder, A. and R. Verres (2014). Therapeutic effects of ritual ayahuasca use in the treatment of substance dependence–qualitative results. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 46(1), pp. 63-72.
Loizaga-Velder and Verres (2014) qualitative research findings indicate that ayahuasca can serve as a valuable therapeutic tool that, in carefully structured settings, can catalyze neurobiological and psychological processes that support recovery from substance dependencies and the prevention of relapse.
● Treatment-resistant depression
Palhano-Fontes, F., Barreto, D., Onias, H., Andrade, K., Novaes, M., Pessoa, J., . . . Araújo, D. (2019). Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: A randomized placebo- controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 49(4), 655-663. doi:10.1017/S0033291718001356
Palhano-Fontes et al. (2019) randomized placebo controlled trial found significant decreased depression severity, which persisted two and seven days after the trial. For example, on Day 7 the Hamilton Depression Rating scale remission rate was 43% in ayahuasca versus 13% in placebo, and the MADRS remission rate showed 36% ayahuasca and 7% placebo.
● Recurrent depression
de L. Osório, F., et al. (2015). Antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression: a preliminary report. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria 37(1), pp. 13-20.
de L. Osório, F. et al. (2015) preliminary report on the antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca suggest fast-acting anxiolytic and antidepressant effects in patients with a depressive disorder.
● Grief
González, D., et al. (2017). Potential Use of Ayahuasca in Grief Therapy. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying, pp. 1-26.
Gonzalez et al. (2017) comparison between 6 (avg.) ayahuasca experiences compared to 12 months of peer support found 83.3% (25/30) believed their ayahuasca-drinking experience had a very positive influence on their grieving process 16.7% (5/30) felt it had a positive influence.
● Neuroprotective and Parkinson’s
Samoylenkoa, V., et al. (2010). Banisteriopsis caapi, a unique combination of MAO inhibitory and antioxidative constituents for the activities relevant to neurodegenerative disorders and Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 127 (2), pp. 357–367. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.10.030.
University of Mississippi: Samoylenko et al. (2010) study shows inhibition of MAO-B activity by β-carbolines harmine (7) and harmaline (6), in addition to potent MAO-A inhibition responsible for antidepressant activity, provide protection against neurodegeneration, and has a potential therapeutic value for the treatment of Parkinson’s diseases.
Djamshidian, A. , Bernschneider-Reif, S. , Poewe, W. and Lees, A. J. (2016), Banisteriopsis caapi, a Forgotten Potential Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease?. Mov Disord Clin Pract, 3: 19-26. doi:10.1002/mdc3.12242
Djamshidian’s (2015) research proposes that harmine should be reconsidered as a potential rapidly acting anti-Parkinsonian agent.
● Evidence of health and safety
Halpern et al. (2008) study shows physical exam and test scores revealed healthy subjects. Members claimed psychological and physical benefits from ayahuasca. 19 subjects met lifetime criteria for a psychiatric disorder, with 6 in partial remission, 13 in full remission, and 8 reporting induction of remission through Church participation. 24 subjects had drug or alcohol abuse or dependence histories with 22 in full remission, and all 5 with prior alcohol dependence describing ayahuasca-based church participation as the turning point in their recovery.
Harris, R., and Gurel, L. (2012). A Study of Ayahuasca Use in North America. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 44(3): 209-215.
Harris and Gurel (2012) qualitative study reveals that ayahuasca users reduced their alcohol intake, ate healthier diets, enjoyed improved mood and greater self-acceptance and felt more loving and compassionate in their relationships.
● Diabetes
Wang, P. et al., (2015). A high-throughput chemical screen reveals that harmine-mediated inhibition of DYRK1A increases human pancreatic beta cell replication. Nature Medicine 21, pp. 383–388.
Wang et al. (2015) study using three different mouse and human islet in vivo–based models, we show that harmine is able to induce beta cell proliferation, increase islet mass and improve glycemic control. These observations suggest that harmine analogs may have unique therapeutic promise for human diabetes therapy.
● Recidivism
In 2013, volunteer therapists working with Acuda, a prisoner’s rights group based in Port Velho, Brazil, began integrating yoga, reiki, and ayahuasca ceremonies as part of a wide- scale rehabilitation effort to help the half-million-plus inmates scattered across the nation.
● Smoking Cessation
Johnson, M. et al. (2017). An online survey of tobacco smoking cessation associated with naturalistic psychedelic use. Journal of Psychopharmacology 31 (7), pp. 841-850.
Johnson et al. (2014) open-label, proof of concept study found the clinical outcome of successful smoking cessation in 80% of the sample (12/15 participants), with biologically verified abstinence 6 months after each participant’s planned quit date. 73% of participants rated at least one of their sessions as among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives.
● Alcohol dependence
Bogenschutz, M., et al. (2015). Psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol dependence: A proof-of-concept study. Journal of Psychopharmacology 29(3), pp. 289-299.
Bogenschutz et al. (2015) proof of concept study found patients in the study exhibited a significant improvement in drinking after their first psilocybin session and scores on ratings of psilocybin-occasioned mystical experience correlated strongly with change in drinking behavior.
● Treatment resistant depression
Lyons, T. and Carhart-Harris, R. (2018). Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political viewsafter psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32(7), pp. 811–819.
Centre for Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London: Lyon et al (2018) study on depressive symptoms: One week after psilocybin treatment, depressive symptoms were significantly reduced to levels more comparable with controls. The patients’ depressive symptoms remained significantly reduced at the 7–12-months follow-up.
● End-of-life anxiety
Ross, S., et al. (2016). Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), pp. 1165-1180.
New York University: Ross et al. (2016) double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial, on 29 patients with cancer-related anxiety and depression found “immediate, substantial, and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression and led to decreases in cancer-related demoralization and hopelessness, improved spiritual well being, and increased quality of life.” At the 6.5-month follow-up “approximately 60–80% of participants continued with clinically significant reductions in depression or anxiety.”
● Openness
MacLean, K., et al. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11) 1453–1461.
Johns Hopkins Medical School: MacLean et al. (2011) combined two double blind studies with 52 participants to show significant increases in Openness after a high dose psilocybin session with mystical experiences that were larger in magnitude than changes in personality typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experience. Openness remained significantly higher than baseline more than 1 year after the session.
● Nature-Relatedness
Lyons, T. and Carhart-Harris, R. (2018). Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32(7), pp. 811–819.
Centre for Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London: Lyons et al. (2018) open-label pilot study with a mixed-model design on treatment resistant depression found patients reported being significantly more connected to nature 1 week and 7–12 months after psilocybin treatment compared with baseline.
● Decreased Authoritarian
Lyons, T. and Carhart-Harris, R. (2018). Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32(7), pp. 811–819.
Centre for Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London: Lyons and colleagues (2018) open-label pilot study with a mixed-model design on treatment resistant depression found patients were significantly less authoritarian 1 week after psilocybin treatment and a trend-level decrease was found at 7–12 months compared with baseline.
● Most Meaningful
Griffiths, R., Richards, W., Johnson, M., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 22(6), 621–632. doi:10.1177/0269881108094300
Johns Hopkins Medical School: Griffiths et al. (2006, 2008) 67% of the volunteers rated the experience with psilocybin to be either the single most meaningful experience of his or her life or among the top five most meaningful experiences of his or her life, which continued at the 14-month follow-up. 79% of the volunteers rated that the psilocybin experience increased their current sense of personal well-being or life satisfaction “moderately” (50%) or “very much” (29%) Lifetime mystical experience and spiritual transcendence scores were significantly higher in the group that received psilocybin. These results were relatively the same after a 14-month follow-up.
● Mystical experiences
Griffiths, R., Richards, W., Johnson, M., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 22(6), 621–632. doi:10.1177/0269881108094300
Johns Hopkins Medical School: Griffiths et al. (2006, 2008) 22 of the total group of 36 volunteers had a “complete” mystical experience after psilocybin, staying relatively the same after a 14-month follow-up.
● Reduced suicidality
Hendricks, P., et al. (2015). Psilocybin, psychological distress, and suicidality. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(9), pp. 1041–1043.
Hendricks et al. (2015) found that having ever used any classic psychedelic substance— namely, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca… mescaline, peyote or San Pedro, or psilocybin—was associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of past month psychological distress, past year suicidal thinking, past year suicidal planning, and past year suicide attempt in the United States adult population.
● Cluster Headaches
Schindler, E. et al., (2015) Indoleamine Hallucinogens in Cluster Headache: Results of the Clusterbusters Medication Use Survey, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 47(5), pp. 372-381. DOI:10.1080/02791072.2015.1107664
Schindler et al. (2015) survey from Cluster Buster Headaches 496 respondents with diagnosis of cluster headache verified by a neurologist or headache specialist. “Psilocybin… along with another hallucinogen, DMT, were used daily to weekly for abortive purposes (n = 23). For prevention, they were used every few weeks to twice yearly (n = 80). The word “single” or “once” to indicate one dose of psilocybin or LSD was clearly written by eight responders. In contrast to these conventional medications, the current study shows that psilocybin and LSD provided over 70% of those who tried them with at least moderate protection from attacks. Complete preventive efficacy was about 40% for each drug, which is greater than that reported for any other conventional medication.”
● Intimate Partner Violence & Recidivism
Walsh, Z. , et al. (2016). Hallucinogen use and intimate partner violence: Prospective evidence consistent with protective effects among men with histories of problematic substance use. Journal of Psychopharmacology, pp. 1- 7. DOI:10.1177/0269881116642538.
Walsh et al. (2016 ) study of 302 inmates at a US county jail found that any lifetime use of hallucinogens was associated with lower rates of Intimate Partner Violence; 26.79% of the hallucinogen-use group were arrested for later IPV (mean survival time=62.76 months) compared with 41.79% of the group that reported no hallucinogen use (mean survival time=54.85 months). 13.64% of the lifetime hallucinogen-use disorder group were arrested for IPV (mean survival time=68.82 months) compared with 35% of the group that reported no lifetime hallucinogen use disorder (mean survival time=58.50 months).
● Recidivism
Hendricks, P. S., Clark, C. B., Johnson, M. W., Fontaine, K. R., & Cropsey, K. L. (2014). Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 28(1), 62–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881113513851
University of Alabama Observational Study: Hendricks (2014) collected data from 25,622 individuals charged with a felony and under community corrections supervision for individuals with a history of substance involvement. Hallucinogen use disorder was associated with a decreased probability of supervision failure. This stands in contrast to any cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, opiate, and amphetamine use disorder, each of which was associated with an increased probability of supervision failure. Any hallucinogen use disorder was the third strongest predictor of supervision outcome among all predictors, trailing only any cocaine use disorder and any cannabis use disorder (both predicting failure).
• Mushrooms: https://www.iceers.org/psilocybin-mushrooms-basic-info/
• Cacti containing mescaline: https://www.iceers.org/san-pedro-basic-info/
• Ayahuasca: https://www.iceers.org/ayahuasca-basic-info/
• Iboga: https://www.iceers.org/iboga-basic-info/
Why should we decriminalize all entheogenic plants and fungi on Schedule 1?
Why should we ensure equitable access to all people?
Why should we support a decriminalization approach that reconnects our roots to nature?
We commit to working with DC civic and community leaders and residents to pass a ballot initiative as well as develop an educational framework and program to ensure all residents can receive information, provided in a culturally relevant way, about effective and proper use, practice, set, setting, dosage, risk, and benefits in a way that enables greater personal choice and agency in healing.
We are kicking off the Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC and you are invited to join us in our efforts to reform laws for plant and fungi medicines in the District of Columbia!
Come for some free pizza and stay to help change the laws!
This text was copied from the Decriminalize Nature Oakland:
• DN believes entheogens refer to sacred natural ethnobotanicals, which are often erroneously labeled as “drugs” while in fact distinct and unrelated to “drugs”.
• The Federal Government should immediately clarify that the Federal Schedule 1 list has no authority to regulate plants and fungi as the human rights to access these is inalienable. This includes proactively clarifying that any and all plants and fungi on the schedule 1 list are effectively and immediately decriminalized or abrogated.
• DN believes all decriminalization and legalization measures must not prohibit personal growing, use, and trade outside of regulatory frameworks. In addition, no person or corporation shall patent any natural genetic material.
• DN believes the Local, State and Federal Governments should have no authority over the inalienable rights of humans to access natural plants and fungi, including entheogenic plants, for any use they choose, but especially for religious freedom, personal healing, and/or consciousness expansion.
• DN recognizes that the Controlled Substances Act creates a false dichotomy, requiring “medical value” to be rescheduled. Inherent to the process of rescheduling are clinical trials, which necessitate the production of expensive pharmaceutical grade synthetics or genetically modified “biologically-derived” substances ready to go to market. The Controlled Substances Act should not control natural entheogenic ethnobotanicals, which cannot be rescheduled because there is little funding and few trials for whole plant medical research. Natural plants and fungi should not be scheduled.
• DN recognizes that for entheogenic plants and fungi to provide the healing experience that is desperately needed by humanity, one cannot separate the plant from the approach, which includes reverence and intention around the experience as sacred. As such, DN encourages activities that enhance the sacred experience with these plants and fungi.
• DN encourages that professional activities involving entheogens should operate through models like collectives, nonprofits, churches, sole proprietorships, accredited educational institutions, or open source research.
• DN supports and encourages knowledge exchange programs between traditional indigenous wisdom keepers and contemporary cultures on entheogenic practices.
• DN believes that any and all policies that seek to decriminalize/legalize entheogenic plants or fungi for any use–including medical, research, or product development or testing–must include decriminalization language. This language must allow equitable access to the general public and must be included in any language proposed for any local, state, or federal decriminalization effort, whether through a legislative or ballot measure process.
• DN believes that any decriminalization/legalization efforts for medical, research, or product development or testing that do not also contain general decriminalization for the public should be opposed by the general public and either rescinded, amended, or defeated as the inalienable right for humans to access entheogenic plants should always be a fundamental part of any effort to legalize, decriminalize or regulate.
• The Federal Government should pass a constitutional amendment clarifying that it has no right to intervene between the access of naturally occurring plants or fungi and human beings as these rights are inalienable, or explicitly protect access to naturally occurring plants and fungi through the First Amendment of the Constitution.
• Decriminalization should never be repealed by following regulatory frameworks. Criminalization through regulation perpetuates the drug war for disenfranchised communities who cannot afford treatment. The medical and clinical framework should not use law enforcement and criminalization to require people to follow their regulations.
• DN recommends researching local flora and fauna to discover how to ethically source local and sustainable plants. We support bringing awareness to endangered entheogenic plants as well as co-creating new growing environments to proactively protect plants whose native land is endangered by mining and agricultural business.
• DN encourages any groups or individuals engaged in wild-harvesting a particular plant to have a robust replanting practice (if not invasive) to replace what was taken for future generations.
• DN encourages the conscientious and thoughtful deliberation of leadership at all levels of government to protect the equitable access to entheogenic plants and fungi by seeking to restrict any corporate activity that would clearly diminish accessibility, diversity, or supply of entheogenic plants and fungi to ensure entheogenic plants and fungi remain forever available to any and all humans. While Decriminalize Nature recognizes that many rich innovations have emerged from the for profit corporation technology in the last century, we encourage all leaders to be aware of the potential impact that for-profit corporations can have on the sacred use of entheogens.
