I watched a National Geographic video the other night in which a frog swallowed a poisonous newt: after a minute or two the frog died and the newt crawled out of the corpse and went about its business. I also just finished re-reading Brave New World after thirtysomething years. I read as much as I… Read More Are psychedelics a poisonous newt?
I’ve been waiting for the current moment – the moment in which systemic psychedelic legalization is actually possible – for thirty-one years, and working on it with the tools available to me for a little more than twenty-eight. There are others who have been waiting, working, preparing for decades longer than I have – a… Read More It’s one big mistake
As I read it, New York’s new cannabis legalization law will allow the state government to license local governments to participate in the legal cannabis market by cultivating cannabis, manufacturing cannabis products, selling them at retail, or engaging in any of the activities for which cannabis licenses will be availability. In other words –if I’m… Read More New York local governments as participants in the cannabis economy
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).
“How are you going to be a part of the paradigm shift instead of a deadweight on it that is trying to pull it down into this capitalistic, ‘cannibalist’ morass?“ Here is the second part of a conversation recorded on March 2, 2021, wherein my colleagues Courtney Barnes, Ariel Clark, and Nicole Howell discuss matters… Read More For-Profit Actors in the Psychedelic Economy, Part II
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
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
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