Daily Archives: January 24, 2022

There are certain people who are willing to forgo any of it if they dont get all of it, said one marijuana lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to candidly discuss the industrys struggles. The lobbyist noted that such a viewpoint is not universally shared, causing a disagreement thats stunting the legalization effort.

As legalization has spread rapidly across the country, making inroads in even staunchly conservative states, the cannabis industry has blossomed into a $25 billion industry, with projections for it to top $40 billion by 2025. And its increasingly attracting powerful allies like banks and beer and cigarette makers that want a piece of the burgeoning market.

Marijuana advocacy is no longer about hippies and long hair, it's about suits and Harvard MBAs, said Kevin Sabet, president of anti-legalization advocacy group Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former drug policy advisor to the Clinton, Obama, and George W. Bush administrations. It's no longer about Woodstock, it's much more about Wall Street.

But the industry remains a relatively small time player on the D.C. scene, investing little in the influence peddling game that its main competitors wine, spirits and beer do on a regular basis.

Marijuana grows at an indoor cannabis farm.|Richard Vogel/AP Photo

David Culver, the head of government affairs at Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corp., laments that the industry just isnt investing the type of resources needed to effectively push its agenda on Capitol Hill.

I hope that at some point in the future, we as an industry are able to come together and actually put really significant resources into that type of spend that will move the needle, Culver said.

The recent showdown over cannabis banking highlights the struggles that the cannabis industry has faced. Legislation that would make it easier for cannabis companies to access financial services like loans and checking accounts has broad bipartisan support: The bill has twice passed off the House floor with the backing of more than 100 Republicans.

The bills biggest backer, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), has even attached the proposal to three different must-pass bills in hopes that it might be able to hitch a ride to the presidents desk. Most recently, it was added to the National Defense Authorization Act before it passed the House in September.

But the banking bill has gone nowhere in the Senate.

Part of the reason is opposition from the left. Liberal criminal justice activists have pushed hard to derail the proposal in favor of far more sweeping legislation that would expunge cannabis records and create a grant program to fund businesses run by people who have been impacted by the war on drugs. Maritza Perez of Drug Policy Alliance, which supports legalizing all drugs, says theyve been far more effective in pushing that message in the Senate than in the House.

I think the people who are running the show in the House are probably giving more weight to what industry-aligned people are saying, versus advocates like the Drug Policy Alliance are saying, Perez said.

Additionally, key lawmakers, most notably Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have been adamant that they dont support easing banking access unless its paired with major criminal justice reforms. During the standoff over the NDAA, Schumers view prevailed, frustrating supporters of the cannabis banking bill.

It's kind of a fantasy by Sen. Schumer [and] Sen. [Cory] Booker that they have the votes for a much bigger bill, said Perlmutter.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter speaks during a House Rules Committee hearing.|Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

Saphira Galoob, executive director of the National Cannabis Roundtable and a lobbyist, said the SAFE Banking Act remains the most viable piece of legislation before Congress at this point. However, she conceded that the industry had suffered in Washington from cannabis activists with different priorities.

I think it can be difficult for members of Congress who are just getting educated to understand ... [who] should they be listening to, Galoob said, pointing out that cannabis is not the only industry that suffers from an array of diverging voices.

Even though she asserted that the industry was maturing, Galoob added: Should we be further along? Probably.

Even as cannabis has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, there hasnt been a corresponding increase in federal lobbying expenditures. In fact, many major cannabis companies and industry groups actually spent less on federal lobbying in 2021 than they did in earlier years. The three leading cannabis industry groups spent less than $900,000 combined during the first three quarters of last year on lobbying, according to disclosure reports. In contrast, the American Bankers Association which has emerged as a key ally of the cannabis industry in pushing for banking accesss spent about $7 million during the same time period.

Cannabis company Curaleaf which is expected to rake in at least $1.2 billion in revenue this year spent $220,000 on lobbying during the first nine months of 2021, down from $340,000 during the comparable period for 2020. Similarly, the National Cannabis Industry Association spent just $150,000 on lobbying during the first three quarters of 2021, down from $430,000 during the comparable period in 2019.

Trade groups and industry representatives argue that they are using their money more wisely. Last year, many of the nations largest companies coalesced to form the U.S. Cannabis Council, which spent $180,000 on lobbying in the third quarter of 2021. The goal is for the organization to present a unified industry voice on Capitol Hill.

But one cannabis strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about industry tactics, argued that the industry has failed to create a sense of urgency, even as it appears increasingly likely that Democratic control of both chambers of Congress will end after the 2022 midterms. And not even the business community has a singular vision of what reform should look like, the strategist said. Some companies view interstate commerce, for example, which is currently banned due to federal illegality, as a threat to their business model, while others view it as crucial to their expansion plans.

At least six lobbyists or government affairs professionals for cannabis corporations or lobbying groups in D.C. told POLITICO that their focus is increasingly looking to the states or grassroots public support campaigns.

It's more so just about targeting individual states, said Canopy Growth Corp.s Culver, who is also deeply involved with lobbying efforts by the U.S. Cannabis Council. He argued that targeting ads in states to pressure fence-sitting senators could ultimately change the dynamics on Capitol Hill.

Others in the cannabis space argue that the shift towards federal legalization will simply take time, with younger lawmakers on both sides of the aisle far more comfortable with loosening cannabis restrictions. The same cannabis strategist, noting the massive shift in public opinion around legalization in recent years, maintained that theres no way that the next generation of elected officials would stand in the way.

Original post:

Big Weed is on the brink of scoring big political wins. So where are they? - POLITICO - POLITICO

Al Letson:Listening to the news can feel like a journey. But the 1A Podcast guides you beyond the headlines and cuts through the noise. Lets get to the heart of the story together. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR.Speaker 2:Reveal is brought to you by Progressive. Have you tried the name, your price tool yet? It works just the way it sounds. You tell progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and theyll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Its easy to start a quote and youll be able to find a rate that works for you. Its just one of the many ways you can save with Progressive. Get your quote today Progressive.com and see why four out of five new auto customers recommend Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law.Al Letson:From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. This is Reveal Im Al Letson. This week, we have part two of our series about the attack on group of students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College. And we should remind you that this story contains scenes of violence. At the end of September 2014, the students were riding in buses at night when police surrounded them.Speaker 3:[Spanish 00:01:22].Al Letson:And open fire.Speaker 3:[Spanish 00:00:01:27].Al Letson:Three of the boys were killed. 43 students were never heard from again. A month and a half later, the Mexican government announced it had solved the case.Speaker 4:[Spanish 00:01:42]Al Letson:The government said corrupt police had taken the students and handed them to members of a local gang. And that the gang had taken them to a garbage dump, shot them and incinerated their bodies. But parents of the students had their doubts.Speaker 5:Whatever it is, I need to know. I need the truth. I want my son to return to achieve his dreams of being someone in this life.Al Letson:For them, the government story didnt make sense. For starters, it didnt answer the most important question of all. Why? Why were the students shot? This is our serial investigation. After Ayotzinapa. Chapter two, The Cover. The parents of the missing students have been searching for answers for years. In 2017, they reached out to human rights investigator Kate Doyle. Kate has exposed atrocities throughout Latin America and testified as an expert witness in trials involving officials in Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador. Shes with the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research organization that uncovers government records tied to state violence. Kate has been working with Reveals Anayansi Diaz-Cortes for the past two years on our series. What they found is that understanding why the students were attacked in Mexico has a lot to do with a small town in Illinois, more than 2000 miles to the north. Kate tells us how she got involved in this story.Kate Doyle:I got pulled in when the lawyers for the families contacted me. There was a really intriguing lead in the case that the Mexican government had just ignored. And it came from a drug investigation in Chicago of all places. Heres what happened. At the end of 2014, not long after the attack on the students, the Us Justice Department posted a press release announcing a drug bust. It said eight men had been charged as a part of a heroin trafficking ring operating out of Aurora, a Chicago suburb. According to the DEA, the men were working for a Mexican drug cartel called Guerreros Unidos. Thats the same gang Mexican officials were saying was involved in the disappearance of the 43 students in Iguala, Mexico. When the lawyers called my first move was to track down this man.Mark Giuffre:My names Mark Giuffre. Its G-I-U-F-F-R-E for the record. Im a retired special agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.Kate Doyle:Mark was the supervisor in charge of the DEAs Chicago investigation and he remembers when he read about the missing students a couple months after the attack.Mark Giuffre:I was reading the Time Magazine expose on the 43 students and there was a part in the article that saidKate Doyle:It caught his eye that Mexican authorities were saying Guerreros Unidos was behind the attack. The Mexican attorney general had described them as a bunch of local criminals who turned on the kids. In fact, they were a much bigger deal. And no one knew that better than Mark. Hed been tracking them closely for more than a year since 2013, when one morningMark Giuffre:At 7:00 AM, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts and grabbed a cup of coffee and went up to the north side of Chicago and parked my car at block away.Kate Doyle:Mark was staking out a guy he thought was laundering money. After the man got into his Jeep with a duffle bagMark Giuffre:I got in the car, walked up to the bag, it was overflowing with cash.Kate Doyle:Mark arrested the man, but he had stumbled onto more than a money laundering operation.Mark Giuffre:We executed a search and discovered multiple kilograms of both heroin and cocaine and hundreds of thousands dollars worth of cash and money counting machines, et cetera, et cetera.Kate Doyle:Mark had uncovered a massive drug trafficking ring.Mark Giuffre:But that cell was run by a man named Transformer who they all feared. Transformer was Vega, Pablo Vega. He ran a Chicago cell of this cartel. Guerreros Unidos Cartel.Kate Doyle:Pablo Vega was from Iguala, but he grew up in Aurora and he was the one making sure that Guerreros Unidos in Iguala could get heroin across the US border to sell in the American Midwest. Mark got a court order to wire tap the gangs cellphones and started reading their text messages. Thats when the DEA figured out how the smuggling worked.Mark Giuffre:We knew from the codes they were using that they were using buses. Mexican passenger bus company, when they arrived after they did their various drop offs in the neighborhoods in the little village in Pilsen or wherever, they would go to this location warehouse in Aurora and they would be serviced at the warehouse.Kate Doyle:The warehouse was the heart of the heroin operation. From a van nearby, Mark and his team watched this place on and off for months through binoculars. A year ago, Anayansi and I went to Aurora and found the warehouse.Mark Giuffre:Hello?Kate Doyle:Hi Mark. Hows it going?Mark Giuffre:Good. How are you?Anayansi Diaz-C:We called mark on the phone so he could describe the drug smugglers setup.Kate Doyle:Give us a tour of what we should be looking for and what you were seeing here from your perspective and what you-Mark Giuffre:Okay.Kate Doyle:Yeah.Mark Giuffre:Around back is where the buses would pull in right along the side, next to the park there.Kate Doyle:And where were you watching?Mark Giuffre:So theres a park to the left of this warehouse and theres a parking lot, and I was parked in that parking lot with binoculars. We had people in the park.Anayansi Diaz-C:It was mind blowing to see how an ordinary building in the heart of suburbia can be the front for a bustling drug operationKate Doyle:Mark had previously told me that over the course of the investigation, the DEA had intercepted thousands of text messages sent between the drug dealers in Aurora and their suppliers in Iguala.Mark Giuffre:We were intercepting conversations. It being unloaded? Yeah, were unloading it right now. When they were talking about the code name they used for heroin.Kate Doyle:Wait, what was the code word for heroin?Mark Giuffre:I cant remember what they used in this-Kate Doyle:Okay. In the court document, they say Is your aunt arriving tonight?Mark Giuffre:Yeah, I think the aunts were the buses. So we knew from the codes they were using that heroin loads were coming up in buses and that bulk cash, millions and millions of dollars was going back out via the same method.Kate Doyle:Mark was a foot soldier in the war on drugs. The American campaign to stamp out narcotics trafficking around the world. His job was to take apart the groups operating inside the United States. But the US also played a huge role in Mexicos drug war. In 2006, then president Felipe Calderon decided to enlist the armed forces in the fight and the US dedicated billions of dollars to send helicopters, weapons, intelligence and training for Mexican security forces.Speaker 9:Giving the Mexican military and police US training, armament and resources.Kate Doyle:Militarizing the fight in Mexico and criminalizing it in the United States was supposed to win the war on drugs, but the strategy has backfired. At home, its led to mass incarceration and the deaths of more than 800,000 Americans by overdose in the past 20 years. More casualties than in any other war in our countrys history. And in Mexico, the war produced a whirlwind of violence unlike anything the country had seen before. Karla Quintana heads the national commission on the search for the disappeared in Mexico.Karla Quintana:There had been drug cartels in Mexico way before 2006. So something happened in 2006 that a deal was broken among drug cartels, federal government, local governments. Something was broken there. After that, the violence has just beenKate Doyle:Skyrocketing.Karla Quintana:Yeah, skyrocketing.Kate Doyle:Exactly. Karla says that unleashing the Mexican military against the cartels had a destabilizing effect. When the bosses were taken down, their operations splintered and new people tried to take over. She says they intimidated or paid off police and government officials to look the other way. A.Karla Quintana:After that, the mix of cartels and of state agents in perpetrating these crimes is very common. So we, as Mexican people, we dont know whos who.Kate Doyle:Corruption wasnt a new problem in Mexico, but the war on drugs made it much worse. People were getting caught in the crossfire of rivalries and turf wars across the country. By the time the Ayotzinapa students were ambushed and taken off the buses, some 30,000 people had gone missing. Collateral damage in the war on drugs. Almost no one was prosecuted. Mexican institutions were becoming a part of the Narco system.The DEAs Mark Giuffre could see that, even from Chicago. As he and his team read the text messages they got off the wire taps, he says it was obvious that local officials in Iguala were working with the cartel.Mark Giuffre:There were people that you could tell from the context that were political figures at the highest level from Iguala and in Guerrero state that were communicating with various people that we were being ordered to intercept.Kate Doyle:Mexican investigators had evidence that Guerreros Unidos was bribing officials to look the other way. And their drug business was booming.Mark Giuffre:We looked at our data, our intelligence, the intercepts. More than 2,000 kilograms of heroin came to Chicago in a one year period of time, which is a unprecedented, mind boggling amount.Kate Doyle:The heroin was hidden behind the bumpers of the buses. Through the wire taps, Mark realized the buses were carrying these secret drug stashes. The smugglers had built ingenious, airtight containers that dogs couldnt sniff out and X-ray machines couldnt see through. Mark connected the dots between Guerreros Unidos buses and the Ayotzinapa students.Mark Giuffre:These students hijacked the wrong bus. They hijacked the wrong bus. To me, it was just so crystal clear that if not for that being the bus they hijacked, my hypothesis is they might all very well be alive today.Kate Doyle:It would take a very long time before Marks epiphany would become a serious focus of the investigation into Ayotzinapa. The Mexican government never even posed the question, did the students commandeer a bus loaded with heroin? And could that explain the intensity of the attacks on them?Al Letson:In a moment, we go back to Mexico where parents of the students are convinced theyre not getting the truth and the government soon has a crisis on its hands.Mark Giuffre:The Mexican government, its hoping this case will go away and the case doesnt go away.Al Letson:Thats next on Reveal.Latif Nasser:Are you hungry for some great investigative journalism that sounds like a music? Then Radiolab might be the show for you. Radiolab began over 20 year ago as an exploration of science, philosophy and ethics. The show has since expanded to become a platform for some of the best long form journalism and storytelling youll hear today. Join Jad, Lulu Miller and myself, Latif Nasser, as we investigate stories that provoke, delight and ask you to completely change the way you view the world. You can find Radiolab wherever you get podcasts.Al Letson:From the center for investigative reporting in PRX, this is reveal Im Al Letson. More than 2000 miles away from Chicago and DEA agent Mark Giuffre, the Mexican governments investigation continues. Its the fall of 2014 and Mexican officials are saying nothing about heroin hidden on buses or drug smuggling to the US. The parents of the missing students suspect the government is hiding the truth. Then in December, three months after the attack, the government makes a surprise announcement.Speaker 4:[Spanish 00:15:16]Al Letson:The attorney general says they have results from a DNA lab in Innsbruck, Austria. They sent the lab a bone found near river, not far from where the students were attacked and the lab was able to match it to one of the missing students. Alexander Mora Venancio.Speaker 4:Alexander Mora Venancio [Spanish 00:15:37]Al Letson:This news is a gut punch to the parents of the missing boys. The blow that hits one parent hits all of us, says Cristi Bautista whose son Benjamin also disappeared that night. Alexander was a 19 year old student at the Teachers College. His dad, Ezequiel is a taxi driver but he never taught Alexander how to drive. If I teach you, youll want to be a taxi driver like me and I cant allow that, he would tell him. Now, Ezequiel was preparing to bury his son or the only remains he had, just a single bone, no bigger than the palm of his hand, Dona Cristi and the other parents decided they had to be there to support him.Cristi Bautista:[Spanish 00:16:31]Al Letson:The families went to Alexanders hometown in Costa Chica to cry and pray together with his father. As painful as it was for the parents and the Mexican people to accept Alexanders death. It seemed to confirm what the government was saying happened to the students. Still, as Kate Doyles and Reveals Anayansi Diaz-Cortez discovered, the governments announcement just raised more questions for the families of the students who were losing faith in the government investigation. Anayansi explains why.Anayansi Diaz-C:The bone that belonged to Alexander was identified through the work of Mimi Doretti, a forensic anthropologist from Argentina whod been asked by the families of the missing to work with the Mexican government. Getting confirmation from the DNA lab in Austria, that this bone was from one of the students is a major development. The government holds a press conference and Mimi issues a statement of her own, a press release. In it, she decides to clarify a small detail on the governments announcement that just doesnt sit well with her.Mimi Doretti:Lets just put that we were not there when the bag was allegedly found on the river and that we were not there when this particular fragment was found.Anayansi Diaz-C:Because the government was declaring publicly that Mimi and her team were there.Speaker 4:[Spanish 00:17:57]Anayansi Diaz-C:When the bag was pulled out of the river, when it was opened and laid out. What happens next, completely blindsides Mimi.Mimi Doretti:That produced a major controversy with people that were on the federal government conducting the investigation. They felt that we put in doubt the whole thing, the bag, the location of where the bag was found and the origin of that fragment.Anayansi Diaz-C:And there were other things the government was claiming that didnt make sense. Like the theory that the boys were shot at the top of the dump and thrown over a cliff of garbage. If that were the case, Mimi expected there would be dozens of bullet shells at that spot.Mimi Doretti:And we found a few cartridges here and there, four or five, but really not much. So were like, Wait, this is not telling the same story.Anayansi Diaz-C:Then out of the blue, new evidence appears almost as if in response to their doubts.Mimi Doretti:Like 10 days after, we all have left the site the prosecutors office went back to the site, to the garbage dump. They didnt tell us to go we with them and they found more than 40 [inaudible] cases under a rock where that was the rock where we always sit down to change shoes or something like that before going down. So were like, Wait a minute, they have been placed there.Anayansi Diaz-C:Mimi believes the government planted the evidence. For the families, this confirms their suspicions about the official story and in early 2015, the families take to the streets. This time demanding a brand new independent investigation.Cristi Bautista:[Spanish 00:19:43]Speaker 5:The March on January 26th, it was huge. We marched the center of Mexico City from four different places.Speaker 3:[Spanish 00:00:19:54]Anayansi Diaz-C:Dona Cristi and the other parents hold up huge body size portraits of their sons. Thousands of people join them.Speaker 3:[Spanish 00:20:06]Anayansi Diaz-C:The governments answer to the protestors comes quickly with another press conference. The governments response is to double down. They restate their original theory. Boys, dump, fire, river, DNA match, case closed. And they call their theory la verdad historica, the historical truth. Which is like saying the absolute truth. The message to the families of the missing is clear. This is finished. You need to turn the page.Cristi Bautista:[Spanish 00:20:56]Speaker 5:We were having dinner and we just stared at each other, we didnt believe it. We couldnt accept it. All we could was, This is a historic lie that theyre making up.Anayansi Diaz-C:Instead of calming things down the governments response leads to more outrage.Jim Cavalero:The Mexican government, its hoping this case will go away and the case doesnt go away.Anayansi Diaz-C:Thats Jim Cavalero. He was with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the time. Its part of the United Nations in Latin America. In a very smart move, the parents had reached out to Jim when they were pushing for a new investigation.Jim Cavalero:Theres a sense that this is going to be extremely politically detrimental, if not devastating for the Mexican government, possibly to the level of seeing a Mexican government fall.Anayansi Diaz-C:The outcry is so big. The government has no choice but to support an independent investigation.Jim Cavalero:So I think the Mexican government engages in a bit of a gamble, but a gamble they think theyre going to win and that they need some kind of cover. Which is we invite in the commission, see families, see media, see opposition. We have a commitment to human rights and we will do this the right way.Anayansi Diaz-C:So immediately Jim gets to work, putting together a group of experts.Jim Cavalero:Im picking up the phone and Im calling up people and Im twisting their arms.Francisco Cox:Im in my house sleeping and I get a call from Jim Cavalero, who didnt respect the time difference because he was in California and I was in Santiago. So it was like 3:00 in the morning or something like that.Al Letson:Francisco Cox, whos a Chilean criminal law expert and human rights expert.Francisco Cox:He said like, its a group of experts that will oversee the investigation. And I said, Yeah. Im in. Im all for it.Anayansi Diaz-C:Jim pulls together a whos who of Latin American experts.Francisco Cox:Carlos Beristain.Anayansi Diaz-C:A psychologist who works with families of the disappeared.Francisco Cox:Claudia Paz y Paz, who stood up to some of the most ruthless, organized criminal groups and corrupt authorities in Guatemala. Angela Buitrago and Alejandro Valencia.Anayansi Diaz-C:Both from Columbia where they investigated massacres and paramilitary groups and she prosecuted them.Francisco Cox:So we had folks who were not gun shy.Anayansi Diaz-C:This newly minted group of five international experts calls itself El Grupo Interdisciplinario Expertos Independientes or GIEI for short, which is how well refer to them. On March 2nd, 2015, the GIEI arrive in Mexico city and they get to work.Francisco Cox:We went to the foreign affairs office. The woman that was in charge of receiving us was this very well dressed woman. Her secretary came in with a huge mug, like transparent mug with something green in it. And she had all her jewelry and her rings and she was very elegant.Anayansi Diaz-C:From the fancy offices, they asked to be taken to the school in Ayotzinapa.Francisco Cox:We went out and we had this huge How you say [inaudible].Anayansi Diaz-C:Body guards?Francisco Cox:Yeah. But I mean, they were like police officers with huge, huge machine guns. And they all had their face covered and this is something that Mexico does a lot, which is the state shows you its power. And then you go into these peoples school and you see the contrast. Once you shake the hand of one of the 43 fathers, I mean, you feel like you have Your hands are like tiny and very, very weak. I mean, its a strong persons hand. So the contrast of Mexico to me was right there.Anayansi Diaz-C:Even though the experts were from Latin America, theyre outsiders in Mexico, trying to crack a super sensitive case. Each of them told us over and over again, [Spanish 00:25:17] We didnt understand Mexico. Not really. They needed an insider to help them. This is where Omar Gomez Trejo comes into the picture again. You met him in our last episode, he works for the UN and was observing the governments ongoing investigation. When he reads about the experts coming in, the GIEI, he realizes he knows one of them, Alejandro Valencia.Omar Gomez Trej:[Spanish 00:00:25:46]Speaker 17:And then we went to go grab a beer and then we started to talk and then he tells me, Omar, were thinking about finding someone to be our anchor in Mexico. And I told him, Dont look anymore. Im here. He tells me, Are you for real? Yes. We can offer you a three month contract. I had a lifetime contract at the United Nations.Anayansi Diaz-C:And Omar walks away from his comfortable UN job.Omar Gomez Trej:[Spanish 00:26:17]Speaker 17:I was there [inaudible] in Mexico. So I knew that as soon as I arrived, my time was work, work, work with them and travel.Anayansi Diaz-C:At first, the GIEI worked out of these slick offices in a fancy part of Mexico City. They felt uncomfortable there, like they were being watched and it was getting in the way of their work.Francisco Cox:It was so bad. We ended up making Omars apartment our office. So thats how committed he was.Speaker 17:So yes, my apartment became sort of the headquarters where we worked. We would get coffee and buy some snacks, cold cuts A little bit of fruit.Anayansi Diaz-C:And sometimes Omar would pull out his guitar.Speaker 17:So we would work around the clock leaving only for lunch or dinner and then we would work some more, and then eventually everybody would leave. And I would go into my room and play video games, you know?Anayansi Diaz-C:And the next day, theyd start again. The Chilean law expert, Francisco Cox, who goes by Pancho says the first thing the GIEI decides to focus on is the dump. Where Mexican officials said the students were executed and burned.Francisco Cox:So the fire is critical in terms of if this story stands or doesnt stand. And we need to know the amount of material you need to burn somebody. What happens to the body? I mean, lets go through it.Anayansi Diaz-C:From the beginning, parents of the boys didnt believe the government story about the fire.Cristi Bautista:[Spanish 00:27:59].Speaker 5:We worked the land, how were we to believe that 43 students were going to turn to Ash over the span of one night? We cant accept that, that cant be true.Anayansi Diaz-C:So Pancho brings in one of the worlds top experts on fire, a Peruvian.Jose Torero:My name is Jose Torero. Ive been a fire engineer for about 30 years now. So Ive been involved in a number of very complicated cases like the World Trade Center. I did part of the analysis on the collapses of World Trade Center one, two, and seven.Anayansi Diaz-C:And when Jose arrives in Mexico, the government gives him and Pancho a military escort to the dump. Then the two men start climbing down on the pit.Jose Torero:Theres a path of garbage, plastic bottle, bags, you name it, insects all over the place. I mean, your legs are being eaten alive.Francisco Cox:We get there. He starts to look around and there were some trees, bushes that were still there. Why is he stopping kind on the bushes? I mean, he said like, Look. The minute I saw that there werent any burns around it, I had what I needed. And yeah, we were there like 15, 20 minutes, not more.Anayansi Diaz-C:Already what Jose is seeing cast doubts on the government story.Jose Torero:Basically the historical truth existed on the premise that 43 body were incinerated to a level that there was no organic matter left in that dump, you know? To be able to incinerate 43 bodies, you needed a fire that was basically enormous, hundreds of feet in length and many feet in width. And the fire wouldve been so large in nature that you would have seen it miles away. And it would have completely incinerated all the garbage in the slope. There was no way you could have had that fire in that place. Impossible.Anayansi Diaz-C:Joses findings punch a big hole on the governments so-called historical truth. Because if there was no fire at the dump, why were people confessing to burning the bodies? You see, since the early days of the investigation, Mexican officials released videotaped declarations of suspects admitting to every detail of the crime. Without the fire, those confessions had to be staged or coerced,And the most devastating evidence of all, the experts unearthed security camera footage from the Iguala Bus Station, where the boys took the buses. The video shows the students had five buses. All along, the government said that there were just four. The experts realized that the government is likely hiding that fifth bus. The bus is key evidence and could explain why the students were attacked. Just as DEA agent Mark Giuffre insisted, the students may have unknowingly commandeered a bus loaded with heroin or cash.All of this gets written up by Omar and the members of the GIEI. And they go public with it a year after the attack in September 2015. The GIEIs report is a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government. Soon officials start distancing themselves, no longer cooperating with the GIEI like they were before.Francisco Cox:They never say no, but they can delay the response forever. So we start to feel that.Anayansi Diaz-C:The government also pulls resources from the independent investigation and at the same time, a smear campaign begins targeting each one of the experts.Speaker 19:[Spanish 00:31:53].Anayansi Diaz-C:Suddenly Jim Cavalero from the Inter-American Commission is in scramble mode, rallying every connection he has to keep the GIEI in Mexico for another six months. And he succeeds, but theres immediate fallout.Jim Cavalero:Im invited with another commission member to a dinner at the home of a very high placed authority in Mexico. Super formal with linen and there are a number of spoons and forks. I just remember something like, Oh man, what fork am I going to use?Anayansi Diaz-C:After some small talk, they look at Jim intently. Why did you renew the mandate of the experts without Mexicos express consent? And suddenly this diplomat starts screaming.Jim Cavalero:Mexico is an important country and you meant to treat us with respect and you dont do this without consulting with us. His voice is raising. And with each syllable, theres a fist pound. How dare you do this without Mexicos express consent. And Im looking at the table with each punch. The plates all dance upward in unison and just watch the plates go up and down and up and down. The whole experience was surreal. But for me, it was telling about how Mexican authorities thought they could and should engage with the Inter-American Commission. I think they thought that they could control a situation. I think they thought that I would say, Im so sorry for not asking for your consent.Al Letson:The GIEI is being sabotaged by extremely powerful people in Mexico. Their investigation is hanging by a thread. When we come back, the experts have to figure out how to keep that thread from breaking. Youre listening to Reveal. From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal, Im Al Letson. After the international experts released their report about the attack on the students, the Mexican government is in a bind. The report raises troubling questions about the Mexican investigation and the government wants nothing more than the experts to stop scrutinizing them and go away. But the optics would be terrible if the government shuts down the experts work. Reluctantly Mexicos president agrees to renew the experts mandate, but as Anayansi Diaz-Cortez reports, theyll have a limited of time to get the job done.Anayansi Diaz-C:The international experts known as the GIEI have been doing their work under diplomatic immunity. The Mexican government is now saying that immunity will end in seven months in April 2016. So the experts need to wrap up their investigation by then. The government also pulls the plug on logistical support for the GIEI, no more helicopters, bulletproof cars and armed bodyguards. Now to get around, theyre squeezing into an old Jetta owned by their Mexican liaison, Omar Gomez Trejo. One time, theyre following up on a tip.Speaker 17:We have a lead and we have a person that has important information about what happened to the students.Anayansi Diaz-C:They head to Iguala, but the road gets too rough for the Jetta. So they borrow a pickup truck.Speaker 17:So his truck was a very beat up old, very tiny truck.Omar Gomez Trej:[Spanish 00:35:44]Speaker 17:The door would only open on one side, so there I am driving Alejandro and Pancho are on the back part of the truck.Anayansi Diaz-C:Its hot, theyre sweating and when they see a hat stand up ahead they make Omar pull over. They buy big sombreros, put them on and keep going.Speaker 17:And so we were getting really close, Alejandro and Pancho are talking in the back and Alejandro says Hey, didnt we just see that motorcycle with those two guys pass us already? Yeah. Yeah, they passed us twice.Anayansi Diaz-C:They suspected these were lookouts known as halcones or hawks spying on them.Speaker 17:So we finally get there and we talk to this person that has intel for us, and he didnt want to talk to us at all. He goes Get out of here, because youre being followed. Go back to where you came from.Anayansi Diaz-C:And then theres this other lead that turns out to be explosive. A lead that points straight to the top of the Mexican government. The experts hear about a video. It was shot by a photo journalist named Pepe Jimenez at the river where the bone of the student was found. As it turns out, I shared a car ride with Pepe this past summer. We were both headed toward the Cocula dump. Crammed in the back of an SUV, he tells me the story of the footage. Hes in the area reporting on the case. Its October 28th, 2014, one day before a garbage bag was pulled out of a river and a bone fragment was found insidePepe Hears government helicopters flying overhead and decides to follow them and see where they land. He starts recording.Speaker 17:And about 80 yards away from the camera. What caught my attention was a group of armed men like bodyguards. And then a man in a suit and tie, its over a hundred degrees just extreme heat and this guy is dressed in a black suit with a pistol in his hand, and he is holding onto another guy in handcuffs.Anayansi Diaz-C:Pepe is with two other reporters staking out the situation.Pepe Jiminez:Yes [Spanish 00:38:20] Wall Street Journal [Spanish 00:38:22]Speaker 17:And then the reporter from the Wall Street Journal tells me, Oh, if it isnt the famous Tomas Zeron, the chief of police and the lead investigator on this case.Anayansi Diaz-C:Tomas Zeron, the governments lead investigator notices Pepe and the others and theres this moment of tension.Speaker 17:I just kept filming the whole time and thats how we got them. It was all by luck really.Anayansi Diaz-C:You can see Zeron and his entourage, talking and making calls, all while the armed guard holds tight to the young man in handcuffs. In many ways, the video shows what youd expect, given the government story of what happened to the students. You see an SUV blocking the road to the site. Zerons men by the river with two garbage bags in the frame. When the GIEI get word about this video, they ask Pepe if they can come over and take a look. And when they see it, they all sit there frozen. The timestamp on the video says October 28th, but the government told the world the remains were discovered the next day, the 29th. And when the experts follow up, they find nothing in the case file about a trip to the river on October 28th. Pepes video introduces a whole new element of doubt about the governments story. In April 2016 with just days left before their official mandate ends, the GIEI wraps up its second report about the investigation. But before releasing it to the public Pancho Cox, the lawyer from Chile says they first need to take their findings to the parents.Francisco Cox:We went to present the report. We did it in the school at Ayotzinapa.Anayansi Diaz-C:Dona Christi, whose son Benjamin disappeared was there.Speaker 5:They were just so sad. We cried. They cried with us. It was soul crushing.Anayansi Diaz-C:The experts tell the parents what theyve learned, the drug cartels and the connection to Chicago. The proof that there was a fifth bus, not four as the government claimed. The impossibility of the fire. It was intense.Francisco Cox:And that day it was Oh man, we gave the report to them and tell them that we needed to leave because they hadnt renewed the mandate. So we needed to leave. And I remember, I asked for their forgiveness because we hadnt accomplished the main objective, which was determine what had happened to each one of them, of their sons. Its every time I remember that sorry. Its one of the most emotional times of the whole process.Anayansi Diaz-C:Even after learning all this about their government, the obstruction, the cover up, the repression, many of the parents are still proud of their country, of being Mexican. And they have something for are their experts.Francisco Cox:As a gift, they gave us this very big Mexican flag.Speaker 5:We bought a flag and we wrote our names and the names of our sons. And we asked them to always remember our sons, to remember everything.Francisco Cox:They wrote on the flag [Spanish 00:42:12] always thankful for our experts. [Spanish 00:42:19] Thank you for not selling out. It was moving. It was sad. It was frustrating. At least They valued what we had done or tried to do. To me, its my badge of honor.Anayansi Diaz-C:The very next day, the GIEI presents their findings publicly, exposing to Mexican society and the world that the governments case is built on lies.Francisco Cox:I remember we were all very nervous. I mean, we were very, very nervous. And we walk into this room, Omar started to give the press conference.Anayansi Diaz-C:Omar walks up to the stage and takes his place at the table. Even though hes not one of the expert investigators, they decide that he should lead the press conference.Francisco Cox:Omar won every bit of space that we ended up giving him, because at the end, he was one more of us. I think it was important for him being Mexican and for the Mexicans to see a Mexican. I think we borrowed a little bit of legitimacy from Omar.Anayansi Diaz-C:The room is filled with press. The parents are there. Hundreds of others, too. The government was invited, but no one shows up, just a few empty chairs in front of the podium. You took them alive. We want them back alive. The room quiets down and Omar begins.Speaker 17:The moment I take the mic, everybody gets up and starts shouting.Speaker 19:[Spanish 00:44:17]Anayansi Diaz-C:Dont leave, dont leave. The entire room is a chorus of these words.Speaker 17:To listen to them shouting really wanted to cry. Finish the story youre making. Tell us who did it. Because if you leave the people responsible, remain free and can do whatever they want.Anayansi Diaz-C:When things quiet down, Omar begins the press conference, which goes on for two hours. They talk about their findings just as they told the parents. Then toward the end, they show parts of the video shot by Pepe Jimenez, the one at the river. One of the experts Carlos Beristain describes whats happening.Flash of two plastic garbage bags, one where the bone was supposedly found. Then he describes the scene with Tomas Zeron, the governments lead investigator for the case, and the detainee, a man named Agustin Garcia Reyes. And he ends by explaining how theres no record of these events on October 28th in the case file. In the eyes of the experts, the video appears to show that Alexander Moras bone was planted on October 28th. So it could be discovered the next day. The experts have also learned by examining medical reports that the man being held at gunpoint on the side of the river was tortured to confess to the crime. And it was the lead investigator, the presidents trusted aid, Tomas Zeron at the center of all of it.Now that the findings are public. Its time for the experts to leave Mexico. Without immunity, they fear indictment by the Mexican government or worst, prison time. Heres Dona Cristi.Speaker 5:I cant even talk about it because its so sad. We all felt hopeless. What are we going to do now? What is going to happen now that weve lost our experts?Anayansi Diaz-C:Pancho Cox and the other four Latin American experts had packed their things and booked flights home. But theyre worried about Omar.Francisco Cox:Our concern, yeah was Omar. Omar was the weakest link. He was a Mexican, he had family, brothers, his mother.Anayansi Diaz-C:And he was in the cross hairs of the Tomas Zeron. Omar remembers clicking on his phone, his name is making headlines.Speaker 17:I wasnt really thinking about leaving until I realized I was being targeted. I was all over the news being set up.Francisco Cox:We werent comfortable with that situation. I remember the five of us saying, We need to see a way to get Omar out of here.Anayansi Diaz-C:So they huddled together and then Pancho tells Omar.Speaker 17:So he tells me in his Chilean way You have to leave your country.Francisco Cox:And then he said like, Do you think I should leave like for a couple of months? And I said like, No. Omar, I think you need to leave, leave. Like for a long time.Anayansi Diaz-C:The message sinks in. Omar rushes to his apartment and packs what he can into two suitcases. He pays whats left on his lease. His brother drives him to the airport. And the next thing Omar knows, hes on a plane headed out of the country.Al Letson:Its been a year and a half since the students from the Teachers College came under attack and parents have pretty much lost hope of ever finding out what happened to their sons. International experts had shown instead of exposing the truth, the Mexican government covered it up. Now those international experts, along with executive secretary Omar have left the country in fear. Next week, the final episode in our series. We track down a man in witness protection who says he was tortured into signing a false confession.Speaker 21:Its something I cant describe what it feels like to have a bag over your head and to be deprived of air. I could not move, my heart racing at 1000 miles per hour from the need to breathe air.Al Letson:And the Mexican governments lead investigator becomes a fugitive.Kate Doyle:He had been charged with very serious crimes including torture, forced disappearance and obstruction of justice.Al Letson:Thats next week on After Ayotzinapa. To see cell phone video of the attack and documents related to the investigation. Visit revealnews.org/disappeared. Our partners at Adonde Media are developing a Spanish language version of the series. Stay tuned for more details. Our lead producer is Anayansi Diaz-Cortez. Kate Doyle With the National Security Archive is our partner and co-producer for this series. Taki Telonidis edited the show. We have production help from Reveals David Rodriguez and Bruce Gil. Thanks to Tom Blaton. Megan DeTura and Claire Dorfman from the National Security Archive and to Laura Starecheski, Lisa Pollak, John Gibler and Ariana Rosas. Special thanks to Santiago Aguire, Maria Luisa Aguilar from Central Pro and Maureen Meyer from the Washington Office on Latin America.Victoria Baranetsky is our general counsel. Our production manager is Amy Mostafa. Original score and sound design by the dynamic duo Jay Breezy, Mr. Jim Briggs and Fernando, my man yo, Arruda. They had help from Claire C Note Mullin, Kathryn Styer Martinez, Steven Rascon and Jess Alvarenga. Our digital producer is Sarah Merck. Our CEO is Kaizar Campwala. Sumi Aggarwal is our editor in chief and our executive producer is Kevin Sullivan. Our theme music is by Camerado Lightning. Support for Reveal is provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Hellman Foundation, the Democracy Fund and the Inasmuch Foundation. Reveal as a co-production of the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. Im Al Letson and remember, there is always more to the story.Cristi Bautista:[Spanish 00:51:29].Speaker 22:From PRX.

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This article is from the Winter 2021 issue of the Nonprofit Quarterly, We Thrive: Health for Justice, Justice for Health.

If anything has the potential to alter the grievous state of mental health and well-being and move us toward visionary, transformative and liberatory realms of possibility, it is the psychedelic renaissance we are on the cusp of today.1 The prospects for individual mental health and the transmutation of trauma alone are encouraging, but it is the potential for rebirth that keeps me engaged in and inspired by this work: the promise of our ego dissolving into its rightful place as steward of the soul; increased awareness of both our interconnection to one another and this planet, and thus the emergence of a more responsible, respectful, and reciprocal society; and expanded access to the creativity needed for systems change and eco-innovation. Psychedelic and plant medicines, some of which have been used in ceremonial contexts for thousands of years to transform consciousness, may be one of the only viable tools we have available that can properly awaken us from the illusions we currently occupy, keeping us stuck in the patriarchal, capitalistic, supremacist paradigms that govern our experience of life on this planet. Understanding and learning from plant-based or synthetic psychedelics is a quest to understand consciousness, the mystery of the universe, and our place within it.

As a forthright advocate for the safe use of psychedelics, and psychedelic psychotherapy in particular, my hope is that we can reintroduce these healing modalities to society, with great caremaking sure to avoid the usual profit-driven pitfalls that ravage our mental healthcare system and make wellness accessible to few. For health justice to succeed, we need to heal the past and step intentionally and attentively into new models and standards of care. This medicine space, like most other spaces that humans engage with, is ripe with opportunities for exploitation, misuse, and abuse, and it would be remiss not to address this fact.2 The greatest harm caused rests on the shoulders of the policy-makers who relegated this work to the shadows in the first place, criminalizing the use of psychedelics, incarcerating countless humans (mostly people of color), suppressing research, peddling misinformation, and all but guaranteeing that much of this work would be conducted in secret, where unsafe usage and abuses of power run amok.3 Few people question that the war on drugs has been a disaster of epic proportions, and it is our collective opportunity to encourage decriminalization, medicalization, and legalization of psychedelic and plant medicines, so that appropriate safeguards can be established.4

It is important for me to name at the outset that I am not a member of one of the many Indigenous communities that hold great wisdom on the topic of plant medicine; nor am I one of the experienced and revolutionary psychedelic guides who have been courageously practicing this form of healing underground for the last half century.5 I am a white-bodied, cisgender, transpersonal psychotherapist and trauma specialist with extensive experience in community and private mental-health practice. Though I was once optimistic about our human potential to survive adverse experiences and thrive beyond them, my years of treating trauma within the confines of a limited and limiting mental healthcare systemcombined with the increasing collective distress brought on by political unrest, gross inequality, climate crisis, and pandemic diseasehave challenged my confidence. Despite mounting frustration, I hold out hope; and my commitment to finding creative solutions to the problems I see plaguing us has led me to psychedelic psychotherapy.

I began my training with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in 2018. MAPS, a pioneer in the field of psychedelic psychotherapy, conducts extensive research in the United States, Canada, and Israel; is engaged in drug policy reform; trains diverse cohorts of therapists; prioritizes health equity; and privileges public benefit over profit. Most important, MAPS is steadily moving the work forward using evidence-based research to establish the safest and most ethical legal container possible for working with expanded states of consciousness.6 My training, the final elements of which require FDA approval, opened the door to a world of possibility and hope once diminished by the mental health system.7 I have spent the three years since my initial training with MAPS ended continuing my studies with various educators and elders in the fieldworking to integrate and balance Indigenous wisdoms with the latest science, and learning and practicing in legal contexts to develop my skills as a psychedelic guide.

While there are a variety of molecules in the psychedelic category currently being researched in the laboratory, including but not limited to MDMA, Ibogaine, Ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT, the psilocybin mushroom beautifully illuminates the potency of this work. A wise teacher of mine describes the various principles of the mushroom as a mirror. Mushrooms are the fruit of a large subterranean organism, their underground growth reflecting the unconscious shadow material we are unearthing each time we ingest their medicine. This organism and its underground mycelium, a network that connects all plant life and serves to transfer nutrients and minerals among them, reflects and teaches the interconnectivity of all living things and the idea that the exchange of love, care, and mutual regard are necessary for our health, well-being, and survival. Mushrooms are ephemeralthey fruit and die off quickly, reflecting and teaching the brevity of life and the impermanent nature of all things. They communicate to us the importance of letting go and embracing cycles of death and rebirth. Mushrooms are composters: filterers of toxicity that discard waste, they transform one thing into another in much the same way we in the healing professions work to transmute trauma and support the flow of grief as a means to make space for the integration of a renewed sense of meaning and purpose. While the mushroom provides us with plenty of useful metaphors, each psychedelic and plant medicine has its own unique spirit, and the molecules most aligned for ones growth can only be determined by oneself or with the support of a therapist or experienced guide.

Psychedelics, known for their mind-expanding and often heart-opening qualities, create opportunities for us to zoom out and witness our humanity from a wider perspectivean otherwise tall order for a person contracted by depression, anxiety, and/or traumatic injury. Furthermore, psychedelic medicines can induce powerful mystical experiences or glimpses into realms of the unknown, the contents of which have the potential to initiate the reorganization of our perception of reality and liberate us from the injuries that confine us.

The singular act of ingesting psychedelics, however, is not where the real magic unfolds. It is in several other important elements of this work that the conditions for transformation are created: Intention, preparation, set and setting, and integration are necessary agents when working with psychedelic medicines for the purpose of healing. Without these cornerstones in place, the experience lacks the container to yield truly meaningful results, and, in some cases, harm can result.

I once read the words Be careful where you are headed, or you may end up where youre going8a humorous but cautionary reminder of the importance of establishing an intention when doing any kind of healing work. We must first know why it is we are taking these medicineswhat it is we seek to heal, change, or understand about ourselves, our relationships, the universe. Intention aligns the journey with purpose and grounds the journeyer. Journeying with intention almost always leads to insights directly or symbolically related to the intention itself, and can serve as a powerful anchor point to return to when traversing difficult terrain and when engaged in the integration process.

Preparation is the practice of preparing the journeyer (client) and establishing trust between journeyer and guide (therapist). The guide starts with a thorough intake and client history, assessing for potential contraindications. Once it is determined that a client can safely move forward with the journey, the clients mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and environmental situation is explored, and the guide shares details of what to expect within the journey space. It is important that the client be of sound mind and have sufficient ego strength to enter an expanded state. They must be capable of creating space inside themself for the journey and for the process that follows.

Set and Setting refers to both the mindset of the journeyer and the container within which the journey itself takes place. Insofar as mindset is concerned, the journeyer must be prepared to surrender to the experience. While nervousness is inevitable, excessive fear and anxiety about the journey itself may interfere with a clients capacity to loosen their grip and give way to the process. If conditions have changed and an acute crisis or life challenge has emerged between the prep sessions and the intended journey date, a persons mindset may be compromised. Ensuring the client is stable and resourced enough to enter the journey space is essential, and will be evaluated in preparatory sessions and on the day of the journey.

It is the guides responsibility to establish a safe container and to communicate what that entails. The therapist or therapists (the MAPS protocol calls for two) communicate standard rules and steps for the journey, prepare music, control environment, temperature, and other such details, and monitor client needs throughout the process. Most important, the guide will have two feet in this dimension of reality, creating a safe space for the client to surrender to the effects of the medicine and retreat into the unconscious. If the therapist or client emerges from a particular lineage/culture and/or wishes to include a ceremonial- or ritual-based practice in the session, space is made to honor whatever spiritual or earth-based wisdom tradition that calls to be honored.

In addition to establishing trust with the guide and being of sound mind, the environment is an exceptionally important aspect of creating a safe container for the work taking place. Journey spaces and treatment rooms should be tranquil, calm, and invitingsafe sanctuaries with limited outside interference. Natural environments can also provide a deeply healing and supportive cocoon for this work. In many cases, access to nature is limited, and some studies are incorporating digital content as a way of simulating an experience of the natural world. According to renowned cinematographer and Fantastic Fungi director Louie Schwartzberg, a current study being conducted at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute on the use of psilocybin for alcohol abuse is incorporating elements of his Moving Art nature cinematography in sessions with subjects.9

And lastly, there is integration. By far the most important aspect of this work, integration is the key to ensuring that a psychedelic journey leads to meaningful change. Integration is the process of both embodying and actionizing the insights derived from a journey. It is one thing to adventure off to a supernatural world that defies the boundaries of this dimension of reality, and quite another to make use of that experience in a way that enhances the quality of our lives and benefits those around us.

Because psychedelic experiences often reveal information symbolically and have the potential to open difficult doors, its important that a competent and well-trained therapist provide a solid container of love and compassion as the client works to interpret the content of their journey after the fact and heal whatever material may have surfaced in the journey space.

As a therapist, I know all too well how slow the healing process can be, especially as we contend with increasingly complex trauma and an overmedicated and underresourced population. Psychedelic therapy cuts through many of the interpersonal and neurobiological self-protective mechanisms established in response to injurious experience. Those default modes are barriers to our healing and often need a powerful interruption to initiate change.10 Inducing a non-ordinary experience can speed the healing and life transformation process along, producing insights within hours that might otherwise take years to access in traditional psychotherapeutic models. In that way, a journey is like a wormhole, or passage through space and time. The insights and experiences clients emerge with then require attentive exploration in service of organization and integration.11 Integration grounds us back into our bodies and physicalizes the spiritual or ethereal wisdom we touch. Without integration, a psychedelic experience is just that: an experienceand the degree to which it is useful is up for debate. Integrating a psychedelic experience with psychotherapy or other mindfulness-based integrative modalities helps us to lay new cable and create healthier connections in the brain and extended nervous system, and in our relationships.12 This work, if done intentionally and integrated effectively, is extremely powerful and fast acting. It can liberate a person from pain and restore vitality, creativity, and a sense of meaning.13

***

As this work travels from its Indigenous birthplaces to the Wild West underground to the laboratory to the therapy room, it continues to evolveand so, too, does our understanding of how to best be in a responsible and respectful relationship with these modalities. Recognition that traditional mental health models continue to fail our most vulnerable populations helps to build momentum and support for alternative approaches like psychedelic psychotherapy. Many questions remain unanswered around how this work can be conducted safely, cost- effectively, and at a scale that provides the greatest benefit for all. However, with the second phase 3 clinical trial for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in process (MAPP1 is complete; the second trial, MAPP2, is underway) and studies being conducted all over the world at leading research institutions, it is only a matter of time before this is an accessible treatment option and self-actualization tool.14 Psychedelic medicines will not work for everyone, but we can do better where whole health is concerned. We have all the necessary instruments at our disposal for a radical shift in human consciousness and the cultivation of a more harmonious human family. I continue to look to organizations like MAPS that are learning from the past and leading the way with intention to a future where visions of equitable access to mass mental health are realized, and health justice prevails.

Andrea Anderson, LSD May Chip Away at the Brains Sense of Self Network, Scientific American, April 13, 2016, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lsd-may-chip-away-at-the-brain-s-sense-of-self-network/.

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Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al., Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six- month follow-up, Psycopharmacology 235, no. 2 (February 2018): 399408.

Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al., The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (February 2014).

Daniel Collerton, Psychotherapy and brain plasticity, Frontiers in Psychology (September 2013).

James Fadiman, The Psychedelic Explorers Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys (Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2011).

Ingmar Gorman et al., Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration: A Transtheoretical Model for Clinical Practice, Frontiers in Psychology (March 2021).

Stanislav Grof, The Way of the Psychonaut, Vols. 1 and 2 (Santa Cruz, CA: MAPS, 2019).

Carl L. Hart, Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear (New York: Penguin Press, 2021). Albert Hofman, LSD: My Problem Child (New York: McGraw Hill, 1980; repr., Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019).

Voices of Esalen: Psychedelic Integration, Pt. 3: Rick Doblin on MAPS, MDMA, Esalen, and PTSD, Voices of Esalen, podcast, July 19, 2019, maps.org/2019/07/19/voices-of-esalen-psychedelic-integration-pt-3- rick-doblin-on-maps-mdma-esalen-and-ptsd/.

Ralph Metzner, Opening to Inner Light: The Transformation of Human Nature and Consciousness (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1986).

Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (New York: Penguin Press, 2018).

Michael Pollan, This Is Your Mind on Plants (New York: Penguin Press, 2021).

Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou, eds., Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Expanded States (Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2021).

Tom Schroder, Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal (New York: Blue Rider Press, 2014).

Ben Sessa, The Psychedelic Renaissance: Reassessing the Role of Psychedelic Drugs in 21st Century Psychiatry and Society (London: Muswell Hill Press, 2012).

Daniel J. Siegel, Aware: The Science and Practice of PresenceThe Groundbreaking Meditation Practice

(New York: TarcherPerigee, 2018).

Daniel J. Siegel, Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012).

Bessel A. van der Kolk, Posttraumatic Therapy in the Age of Neuroscience, Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives 12, no. 3 (2002): 38192.

Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (New York: Viking Press, 2014).

Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, eds., Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005).

Ayelet Waldman, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life (New York: Knopf, 2017).

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Psychedelic and Plant Medicines: A Portal to Transformative Realms of Possibility - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly

Family and friends of people who died after being poisoned by pills containing fentanyl protest near the California headquarters of Snapchat -- the social media firm has vowed to crack down on drug dealing that has proliferated on the platform - AFP / File photo / TAUSEEF MUSTAFA

The two major drugs of choice of self-besieged America are now effectively classified as totally uncool in every possible way. Theyre considered totally worthless, total garbage by anyone who knows anything about them.

Ice and Fentanyl are destroying people at a rate of about a Vietnam War per year in deaths alone. Theyre trashing many more lives with their addictions. These miserable attempts at recreational drugs qualify as nothing more than poisons and mental health destroyers.

In a new book, an obviously patient researcher and author called Sam Quinones outlines the true scope of the problem, maybe too well, in his interview with The Guardian. The new book is called The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Theres some interesting background on how the addiction plague happened and snowballed, too.

Quinones is one of an ever-dogged, ever-spreading army of people trying to fight these murderous drugs with little or no help from media, government, or anyone else. The gigantic synthetic drugs problem, like all Americas woes, has been buried in the media under endless political blunders, tantrums, and failures. As usual, absolute drivel is getting priority over human realities. In this case, its obscuring the trashing of large numbers of Americans on a daily basis.

The appalling truth about the effects of these drugs, however, is easy enough to find. Theres a virtual statistical trail of destruction:

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Deaths from overdoses from all causes have been above Vietnam War fatalities since about 2015.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Methamphetamine use and exposure in the US data

British Medical Journal 100,000 people in the US died from overdoses including 75K+ from opioids.

American Addiction Centers Basic information about methamphetamines effects and addiction.

American Addiction Centers A particularly grim explanation of how meth use leads to addiction, and its effects on mental health.

National Library of Medicine A staggeringly brief but truly scary description of the effects of psychological and physical damage from meth.

A virtual encyclopedia of negative information about Fentanyl From just about every health authority on Earth. Except as a painkiller, this stuff is just plain dangerous.

If all this very basic information makes the point that these drugs are truly bad, that was the good news. The news for users is a lot worse.

The somewhat less good news is that Fentanyl is a cheap nasty high that only lasts for a short time, like that other now out-of-fashion drug for geniuses, crack. Crack is the thematic ancestor of Fentanyl and meth. Like crack, both Fentanyl and meth can be cut to pieces with damn near anything.

Its literally the oldest trick in the book in the drug trade Cut whatever it is with whatevers available. You could be smoking anything that looks remotely like whatever it is you think youre buying. This adds a further level of unpredictability, as well as toxicity, to these drugs.

Better still, Fentanyl and meth are now made synthetically from a vast range of toxic substances. There is absolutely no way of knowing what youre actually taking. Its about as smart as it sounds.

Fentanyl is insidious and pervasive. It can be added to anything smokable, including meth, simply because its so potent. You could literally be smoking cat droppings and get a high out of it. Join those dots and you wont like what you see. Yes, you guessed it That also drastically increases your chances of overdose and addiction. Lucky you.

In the hippie days, there was a saying Dope will get you through times of money better than money will get you through times of no dope. That saying now needs some pretty drastic modification.

Both Fentanyl and meth soon become expensive, because you have to keep buying to avoid withdrawals with daily doses. The new saying should be: Times of no dope are times of no money and vice versa. People have routinely become homeless feeding their habits, as Quinones cites graphically in his interview with The Guardian.

These drugs dont need to kill you

These arent mystic drugs by any means. Theyre simple dopamine triggers, and thats it. Forget about expanding consciousness with these sloppy, revolting little chemistry lessons. Youre more likely to be expanding massive holes in your wallet, relationships, and your ability to cope with The American Rapture of social meltdowns and dysfunctions.

If you enjoy poverty, addiction will make it so much more interesting. Nothing like a totally unnecessary expense and high risks of injury to make poverty a lot worse while turning into a physical and mental train wreck. But the entertainment doesnt stop there.

As usual, the fact that you can make money out of selling ice and Fentanyl has made these extremely high-risk drugs street currency. That can mean a lot of desperate people getting themselves into some genuinely lethal situations.

Strangely, some people dont like their friends dying of whatever garbage theyve been sold. Join the dots. If you want to be in real trouble with a lot of people, thats how. It wont (and cant) end well.

Then theres the little matter of finding money to score when you run out of money. Yep, selling your stuff is the usual option, followed as usual by stealing other peoples stuff. Thatll make you pretty popular with your friends, family, courts, street superheavies, and the police.

Its all just one big ride to Disneyland, isnt it? Just think For no reason at all you can trash your whole life and spend years undoing the damage if you can undo it at all.

Stay away from this crap.

Dont get yourself into situations you cant get yourself out of.

No friend would put you at this sort of risk.

If youre looking for help in the US, talk to American Addiction Centers.

_________________________________________________

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

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Op-Ed: America's trashy drugs Ice and Fentanyl don't even need to kill you - Digital Journal

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