Let’s Talk About That.

The War on Drugs is inherently anti-black. Most psychedelic users that I’ve encountered are hesitant to take a stance on the racial aspects of the drug war.

I feel safe openly advocating for the beneficial use of illicit substances because I have never been stopped by police without legitimate cause.

When stubborn drives for inclusion and connection in the present betray a racially divided past, psychonauts may be able to attend to histories of exclusion, separation and disconnection in order to deepen our understanding and engagement in the present.

For the movement toward psychedelic consciousness to be as transformative as it can possibly be, it is our obligation as a psychedelic community to be aware of our shortcomings and to challenge them head-on.

Social movements are remembered in history for the things they do and the actions they take, not for what they inadvertently hope will happen.

The decades-long “War on Drugs” has created a situation in which the use of psychedelics is a social justice issue.

The demonization of psychedelic culture is not a social justice issue, and using the language of social justice is damaging to those causes.

You can’t expect to get equal rights unless you push for them, and you can’t push for them without first standing up and being “out.”

During an earlier era of psychedelic research, the 1950s-70s, some scientists believed that in order to ethically administer psychedelics to others it was necessary to first experience them oneself.

The risk of coming out as queer is grossly unequal to the risk of disclosing as a psychedelic user.

Psychedelic users and sexual minorities are both involved in the same struggle. We both represent a valid threat to the same obsolete control mechanisms. We are on the same team.

Regardless of what conclusions we draw, the topic of psychedelics and identity politics is important at a time when public assumptions about psychedelics are transforming.