In this session, leading psychedelic attorneys Courtney Barnes, Ariel Clark, and Nicole Howell discuss ways of proceeding from a decriminalized nonprofit market for psychedelics to a net-positive legal market with for-profit actors. The topics of discussion include specific proposals for laying a proper foundation for the eventual entry of legal for-profit actors into the psychedelic… Read More For-Profit Actors in the Psychedelic Economy, Part I

Thanks to Larry Mishkin for inviting me to join him, Rob Hunt, and Jim Marty on The Deadhead Cannabis Show (with Dan Humiston behind the auditory scenes).

In this episode I host William Leonard Pickard for a discussion of drug epidemics and how the recent re-popularization of psychedelics may manifest – for better or for worse – as corporate interests manufacture new analogs and as rates of use increase generally. Leonard is a former drug policy researcher who studied at the Kennedy… Read More Drug Epidemics, Psychedelics, and Possible Happy Futures: a conversation with William Leonard Pickard

On December 17 attorney Courtney Barnes of Barnes Caplan LLC joined me to discuss psychedelic law reform efforts taking place in Oakland in 2020 with an eye on state-level reform in 2021. We began by discussing the status of the Oakland Community Healing Initiative (OCHI), which would build on the decriminalization resolution passed in June… Read More Attorney Courtney Barnes on the status of the Oakland Community Healing Initiative and the effort to enact reform legislation in California in 2021

I’m very happy to present a conversation with Sam Chapman, the Campaign Director of the “Yes on Measure 109” campaign, and Dave Kopilak, Esq., the primary drafter of the initiative that became Oregon Measure 109, for a discussion of how the campaign to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy was conducted, the elements of the bill, and what… Read More Legalizing Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy: insider tips from the Oregon campaign

There are Oregon voters who oppose Measure 109 on the grounds that it is not true progressive psychedelic policy reform. It does not provide for decriminalization of any activity (cultivation, possession, or use of psilocybin) except what is permitted to manufacturers, treatment centers, and treatment providers who are licensed by the state and to patients… Read More Oregon voters, the world is depending on you

In anticipation of the vote this coming Tuesday on Oregon Measure 109, attorney Graham Pechenik and I discussed whether patent law gives the right to “own” a psychedelic molecule, what Compass Pathways’ patent means, and how patent law might interact with a state law legalizing manufacture and supervised therapeutic use of psychedelic substances. (To skip… Read More Who owns psychedelics: patents and state therapeutic access laws

No, I don’t mean that Decriminalize Nature DC is doing anything to harm the psychedelic movement. I mean that by eliciting the first serious response from a prohibitionist it has taught an important lesson. See my commentary at Lucid News.   

A few days ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Courtney Barnes, Esq., an associate at the law firm Vicente Sederberg, about the draft ordinance she prepared on behalf of Decriminalize Nature Oakland. Everything happening now is an open-source uncontrolled policy experiment: federal intransigence continues to cause the drug control structure to crack as… Read More Keeping ahead of the corporate interests: attorney Courtney Barnes discusses Decriminalize Nature Oakland’s proposed new ordinance