Welcome back to The Microdose, an independent journalism newsletter brought to you by the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. This week, we’re bringing you daily dispatches from Psychedelic Science 2023 in Denver. Question of the Day:
Let's be clear, patents only benefit the owner of the patent and no one else. It helps them protect their investment and allows them to charge what they like (usually way too much) for the drug.
The fact that Native and Indigenous voices were either silenced, censured or ignored should be of concern to everyone. After all these people have been using these compounds for millenia. What could they possibly know?
While I understand the limitations of having a single reporter covering such a large and multi-faceted conference, I hope that The Microdose will also cover the protests that took place during the conference's final day and session. A recurring theme I heard from attendees at the conference pertained to the dichotomy between the "good vibes" crowd and the "power VCs looking to make money" crowd, but even among those who were concerned about the influence of money and power in shaping this emerging field, there was relatively little attention paid to concerns about appropriation of Native and Indigenous traditions and practices. The protests were warranted. I hope that we will hear sincere public engagement on these issues with Indigenous representatives by MAPS and other stakeholders in this emerging field.
I have been reading your reports with interest. I have also felt left out of the conversation as someone who has used psychedelics to recover from Complex PTSD and major depression. I am an elder and have lived with disabilities for most of my life. I took it upon myself to video tape a number of my Ketamine infusions (the medicine along with Spravato that has been most beneficial for me) with the hope of being able to share this material for the benefit of others. I also have had major Kundalini activity since I was 16 years old which has made for an eventful life journey. My work is as a fine artist, Oracle Deck creator and Energy Healer. If you know of anyone that would like to connect with me, I am easy to find through my website. I am part of the LGBTQ community and am a wife and mother. Thank you.
Thank you for touching on the marginalized voices and the protests at the conference, and I hope to continue to hear more from you and other platforms about this troubling aspect of the so-called psychedelic renaissance.
A friend who attended shared a video of Doblin cutting off an indigenous man who warned that these plants would begin to harm us if we continued to use them to extract profit, in the same way sacred tobacco now causes cancer. IMO this is where the real story begins: can we, in good conscience, support a movement that will ultimately harm people by continuing to exploit marginalized populations and the earth itself in order for the wealthy and privileged few to gain some cognitive/health benefits?
Thanks for your reporting Jane. Nice overview! The conference is so large, with so many tracks, you’d really need at least three more journalists to fully capture the variety of different constituents being engaged. I’m a former therapist who loves the emerging neuroscience - both those tracks have been top notch. For the past 20 years I’ve been coaching organizational leaders (business, church, and healthcare). The psychedelic movement is relevant in all these domains and I found presentations and panels that did a very good job explaining and exploring implications for each. What I found most heartening is that the MAPS organization succeeded in fostering a norm of productive disagreement across all the big questions- even whether / how much we may be deluding ourselves about the promise of psychedelics. I hope this can continue!
Let's be clear, patents only benefit the owner of the patent and no one else. It helps them protect their investment and allows them to charge what they like (usually way too much) for the drug.
The fact that Native and Indigenous voices were either silenced, censured or ignored should be of concern to everyone. After all these people have been using these compounds for millenia. What could they possibly know?
While I understand the limitations of having a single reporter covering such a large and multi-faceted conference, I hope that The Microdose will also cover the protests that took place during the conference's final day and session. A recurring theme I heard from attendees at the conference pertained to the dichotomy between the "good vibes" crowd and the "power VCs looking to make money" crowd, but even among those who were concerned about the influence of money and power in shaping this emerging field, there was relatively little attention paid to concerns about appropriation of Native and Indigenous traditions and practices. The protests were warranted. I hope that we will hear sincere public engagement on these issues with Indigenous representatives by MAPS and other stakeholders in this emerging field.
I have been reading your reports with interest. I have also felt left out of the conversation as someone who has used psychedelics to recover from Complex PTSD and major depression. I am an elder and have lived with disabilities for most of my life. I took it upon myself to video tape a number of my Ketamine infusions (the medicine along with Spravato that has been most beneficial for me) with the hope of being able to share this material for the benefit of others. I also have had major Kundalini activity since I was 16 years old which has made for an eventful life journey. My work is as a fine artist, Oracle Deck creator and Energy Healer. If you know of anyone that would like to connect with me, I am easy to find through my website. I am part of the LGBTQ community and am a wife and mother. Thank you.
Thank you for touching on the marginalized voices and the protests at the conference, and I hope to continue to hear more from you and other platforms about this troubling aspect of the so-called psychedelic renaissance.
A friend who attended shared a video of Doblin cutting off an indigenous man who warned that these plants would begin to harm us if we continued to use them to extract profit, in the same way sacred tobacco now causes cancer. IMO this is where the real story begins: can we, in good conscience, support a movement that will ultimately harm people by continuing to exploit marginalized populations and the earth itself in order for the wealthy and privileged few to gain some cognitive/health benefits?
Thanks for your reporting Jane. Nice overview! The conference is so large, with so many tracks, you’d really need at least three more journalists to fully capture the variety of different constituents being engaged. I’m a former therapist who loves the emerging neuroscience - both those tracks have been top notch. For the past 20 years I’ve been coaching organizational leaders (business, church, and healthcare). The psychedelic movement is relevant in all these domains and I found presentations and panels that did a very good job explaining and exploring implications for each. What I found most heartening is that the MAPS organization succeeded in fostering a norm of productive disagreement across all the big questions- even whether / how much we may be deluding ourselves about the promise of psychedelics. I hope this can continue!