
David Nickles
David Nickles is Managing Editor of Psymposia, underground researcher, and harm reduction advocate. He has presented social critiques and commentary on psychedelic culture and radical politics, as well as novel phytochemical data from the DMT-Nexus, at venues around the world.
David’s work focuses on the social and cultural implications of psychoactive substances, utilizing critical theory and structural analysis to examine the intersections of drugs and society. He is a vocal opponent of the mainstreaming and commodification of psychedelic compounds and rituals, believing that such approaches inherently obscure the liberatory potential of psychedelic experiences.
Psychedelic Media Should Stop Parroting Corporate Press Releases
October 12, 2020
When the media republishes statements from psychedelic pharmaceutical startups and their executives with little-to-no vetting, it functions as a corporate megaphone and damages the field of psychedelic science.
We Need to Talk About MAPS Supporting The Police, The Military, and Violent White Supremacism
July 17, 2020
For decades, MAPS and other proponents of psychedelic medicalization have justified their emphasis on treating police and soldiers as a political strategy in service to mainstreaming psychedelic drugs. This strategy perpetuates the logic of white supremacism, capitalism, and imperialism.
Bicycle Day 2020 Was Truly Historic, But Not for the Reasons You Think
April 25, 2020
Jamon A. Rahn, CEO of psychedelic pharmaceutical startup MindMed, offered a glimpse of the future of psychedelic science, including proprietary data and hints of an “LSD neutralizer.”
Eleusis Benefit Corp: Taking the “Psychedelic” Out of Psychedelics
February 11, 2020
Shlomi Raz, CEO of Eleusis Benefit Corporation, made false claims about psychedelics. We asked multiple ethnobotanists, a medical anthropologist, and a chemist if they could help us set the record straight.
BBC Duped into Promoting Marketing Scheme for Microdosing Psychedelics
January 15, 2020
A recent BBC story entitled “The ‘psychedelics coach’ with drug-fuelled career advice,” offers an opportunity to examine what happens when sloppy journalism and self-promotional psychedelic marketers collide.
This is what psychedelic mainstreaming looks like…in Arizona
February 4, 2019
As psychedelic medicalization and the potential profits of a “virgin market” loom large, new organizations are increasingly looking to gain legitimacy within the field. Mainstreaming means the doors of this field are being thrown wide open.
It’s time to debunk prohibitionist narratives and calls for monopolies within psychedelic science
October 25, 2018
As venture-capital-backed, for-profit companies barrel into psychedelic therapy, the potential for the widespread privatization of psychedelic knowledge and profits looms large. Some researchers are so enthusiastic about medicalization by “any means necessary” that they’re resorting to prohibitionist historical narratives and calling for monopolies to push the agenda forward.