Legal Aspects of Entheogen Use in the US: Part Two

A note from my last blog: the following was a very important decision in this ongoing conversation, and was only referred to in brief last week as the 'Hoasca case.' 

Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Unaio do Vegetal (2006):

This case highlighted the question of religious freedom to partake in a substance (hoasca) containing a 'drug' prohibited by the Controlled Substances Act (DMT) during a religious ceremony. According to the courts, the government did not pass the compelling interest test, and the right of UDV members to take the brew was upheld.  "UDV argued that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits substantial imposition on religious practices in the absence of a compelling government interest, established their right to use hoasca."(1)

Other things to note in today's discussion:

The Parental Rights Amendment: "The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right."(2)  This has been proposed to include as part of an actual amendment to the constitution.  (See (3) for full text)

Troxel v. Granville (2000): the court concluded in this case that the "Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody and control of their children."(4)  Unfortunately in this case they abandoned the strict scrutiny test that required proof of harm before the government could interfere with parental rights, granting judges the power to decide this on a case-by-case basis.

OK, now that we are back into the legalese somewhat, I will get into some more legal matters from a conversation I had today with a lawyer (L), whose name I am keeping confidential as per her request.  I am paraphrasing her responses here at times, as I did not record the conversation and took notes as fast as I could (but not as fast as she spoke!).  I have also added some information into my comments, to make the flow more cohesive.  In spirit this is pretty much the conversation we had...

H.  First of all, what are we talking about here in terms of parents taking substances that are prohibited by federal law?

L.  This area of law is vast.  The main area is dependency and neglect laws, between state and federal levels.  Every state has a different flavor.  And then there are federal laws...

H.  Have children been taken away for the choices of their parents to participate in ceremonies using a Schedule One controlled substance?

L.  Children have been taken away from even a single use of 'drugs.'  Then there is constitutional law: parents have the fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of their children.  This is a standard to use before the state can interfere.  

In order for a child to be taken from their parent, the parent would have to be found unfit - which is a determination of the Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworker, local to the county where the incident (that brought the parent and child to the attention of CPS) has occured.  The way to get cases brought before a higher court is to then appeal this determination.  

'Drug' use is universally considered to be evidence of an unfit parent.  However with the legalization of marijuana (formerly a Schedule One controlled substance), courts are now considering marijuana use to be more like alcohol use.  The system can't take children away based on allegations that things are dangerous - there would have to be some sort of test proving danger to the child.  However they lump all 'drugs' together:  Using LSD is the same as using cocaine; using psilocybin mushrooms is considered to be the same as using heroin. 

H.  That seems ridiculous (not to mention that I disagree with the entheogens being labeled 'drugs' in the first place!)!  What about inviting a child to come to a ceremony, just to be part of it without doing the medicine?  What about allowing them to take some of the medicine? 

L.  Any 'drug' use in front of a child is held to be a very strong factor in proving unfitness on the part of the parent; allowing a child to use any 'drug' would (in her opinion) be conclusive of being an unfit parent.  I can't imagine a court that would find for the parent in this situation.

H.  What about any cases involving legalized churches that use plant medicines as sacraments?  Have you heard about any cases involving children or parents?

L.  No.  Never heard of a case where a child had been administered ayahuasca and been taken away.  It might be one of those cases where the plant medicine would win, because ayahuacsa and all of its aliases (caapi, huasca, yage, etc) are NOT listed under the Schedule One controlled substances.  DMT, one of the active ingredients in the preparations, is listed, however.  It is a grey area, and the laws around this are written very poorly.

H.  What about my story?  (I invited my underage children to partake in ceremony with me whenever they felt ready - and my daughter chose to do so right before turning 13, and has been attending ever since.  My son came to a ceremony at age 18, but discovered it wasn't really his thing.)

L.  You would have had your kids taken away, and might even have been thrown in jail.  You could have appealed and maybe gotten custody again (due to the fact that we have been participating in a legal church service).  The law is clear that ceremonially (as part of a religious endeavor), taking these medicines is protected.  

Also, there is a supreme court argument that states: "a parent has an unhindered right to inculcate their children in their spiritual practices." (NOTE: Please see (5) for a comprehensive list of case summaries defining the Supreme Court's Parental Rights Doctrine).  (Note: not sure which case states this... I looked but haven't found it yet.)

H.  What about the drug schedules?  Labeling all psychoactive substances as Schedule One controlled substances is completely missing the point on so many levels...

L.  The schedules are arbitrary and capricious, and are regulations at the agency level (H: a regulation is a legal norm intended to shape conduct that is a byproduct of imperfection - written by executive agencies as a way to enforce laws passed by the legislature. (6).   They are arbitrarily written and applied, and are capricious in that they eliminate the proper uses of entheogens, and don't acknowledge the fact that these substances have not been proven to be addictive.  This scheduling closes the door and says that all of these substances are bad, simply out of fear.  Yet we know that entheogens are helpful to many people.  It would be impossible to be addicted to using ayahuasca, for example.   No one would want to or even be able to abuse it...

H: ...because it is quite an ordeal to take it in the first place!  One of my main points here is that these entheogens are not correctly labeled as Schedule One substances, because they don't meet any of the criteria: they DO have medical uses (which would be accepted if research was allowed to continue), they do NOT have a high potential for abuse, and they do NOT cause psychological or physical dependence. That is why I am doing this - I want to be a part of the new conversation about these substances, bringing honest inquiry and science into the fear-based taboos our society has used as a basis for our policy and laws.  I think we need a complete revision of the drug scheduling! 

L.  How could we draft a drug schedule that works?  We should measure the Schedule One drugs based on their addictiveness and destructiveness.  The latter is measured on the social, personal and interpersonal impacts on society.  If you look at alcohol and tobacco, for example - two substances which are legal in this country and which are both psychoactive substances - if these were measured in terms of addictiveness and destructiveness, they would go to the top of the list of Schedule One substances!  Millions of people use them, with incredible negative impacts to society measured in the high numbers of deaths, health care costs, accidents, and so forth (H. and the high cost of alcohol addiction in terms of the psychological and economic detriment to families and children). 

When 'drugs' are involved there is a cultural bias, and a HUGE barrier of fear.  I had that barrier until I tried it (ayahuasca) myself.  Then I realized 'Oh my God there's a whole other world!'  I personally know many lawyers who have participated in medicine ceremonies, but they have to be very secretive about this in their profession. (H: because of the potential ramifications to their professional lives if they were ever "outed.")

 Note: L also has two children, one underage and one legally an adult, with whom she does NOT share about her experiences with the entheogens, despite her feeling that one of them would really benefit from an experience with the medicine.  She fears that if her ex-husband found out what she was doing, he would sue her for custody and try to take her kids away.  

What a world we live in.  Here is a professional woman who has found a path that helps her to be 'better' in her life, in every way - more conscious, more centered, happier, healthier, lighter (not as burdened) - and she has to live in fear of being discovered in her 'nefarious' activity of taking an entheogen for spiritual purposes.  (Just to be clear - I am also talking about using entheogens in a very strict setting, as part of a church service - not just recreational use by an individual.)   THIS is why I want to write this book.  Entheogen users need to be able to come out of the closet and not be discriminated against, shunned, or prosecuted for the ignorance of the policy- and law-makers who have vilified - and mislabeled - these substances.  It is time to revise the collective thought, and more importantly, the laws around the use of entheogens for spiritual purposes.

My thanks to L for the generous donation of her time and expertise for this interview.   

(1)  http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2005/2005_04_1084

(2)  http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC=DE675888-E60A-4219-8A5E-000083244D13 

(3) http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={4771B53E-D345-4753-BEF4-68C1CA71CE13}

(4)  http://www.oceanetwork.org/currents/Court.pdf 

(5)  http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC=12D52BF9-1D6D-4EEC-B83B-F74B3F91BDF6&Type=B_BASIC 

(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation

Legal Aspects of Entheogen Use in the US: Part One

While I still have not spoken with a lawyer about the legal aspects of raising children in the US while participating in a spiritual path that employs the use of (currently illegal) entheogenic medicines, I want to begin the discussion of this very complex and important topic today with a review of some of the information available online.  I have found a number of valuable online resources from the Council on Spiritual Practices (CSP) (1) and the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE) Entheogens and Drug Policy Project (2).  Numerous other writers have added their perspectives in journals and blogs.

The prevalent attitude on this topic can be summed up as follows: "Unfortunately, the courts and law enforcement in the United States are rarely sympathetic toward the use of psychoactive sacraments."(3)

Questions to answer
1.  What are the existing laws around the religious use of entheogens?
2.  What are the exceptions to these laws - legal churches that use entheogens as sacraments? 
3.  What commonalities do the existing legal churches share?
4.  What do the courts have to say and what is the current legal climate?
5.  What are the legal rights of parents in terms of being able to participate in the religious use of entheogens as part of their First Amendment rights within - or without - the context of these churches? 
6.  What are the legal precedents in terms of children being able to be present at these religious ceremonies?  In terms of children being able to choose to consume the sacraments at their parents' church?
7.  What is the history of legal proceedings against parents who have made religious entheogen use the basis of their spirituality, in particular in terms of custody battles, incarceration, and Child Protective Services?  Are there parents who have (legally) fought for the right to include their children in these traditions?


As you can see there is a lot of territory to cover!
**********************************************************************************
1.  Existing laws around the use of entheogens

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” - First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in this blog,  the following entheogenic substances - ayahuasca, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, ibogaine, and wachuma - contain ingredients that are illegal to possess or consume (wachuma is legal to own but not to ingest) unless you are part of an organized entheogen-based church.  Specifically, the illegal compounds are DMT,  ibogaine, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin, and psilocybin (there are more but for the purposes of this book I am sticking to these few).  (For a discussion about other entheogenic substances, see https://www.erowid.org/entheogens/ or http://entheopedia.org/plants)  These are Schedule One controlled substances, meaning:

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. (4)

2. Exceptions (that I know about - still looking into this topic)
These churches have fought legal battles to protect their religious rights to use entheogenic sacraments: the Santo Daime Church and the Unaio de Vegetal Church (both ayahuasca churches), and the Native American Church (NAC), which uses peyote.  Current law requires members of the NAC to have at least 25% American Indian ancestry, although some churches allow Caucasians to become members. (5)  (Note: I am part of a legal church in the US that uses yagé as a sacrament, but as I have mentioned before, as requested by my elders, the name and members of this church will remain private.)  I also have a local friend who has a church group dedicated to the sacramental use of wachuma, which operates as an official church through the NAC.

3.  Commonalities
In order to become a church that employs the use of an illegal entheogen as a sacrament, in the past, an organization had to prove that the use of the sacrament in question was "...fundamental to the practice of their faith,"(6) and that they were a "REAL" church and not just an excuse for a bunch of people to get together and get high.  This was done in a variety of ways, including proving their use of the sacrament came from a long-standing tradition, with elders and a lineage; condemning the use of their sacrament outside of the confines of their particular tradition (leading to a fairly conservative or fundamentalist perspective); and proving to the satisfaction of the court that the use of the entheogen/sacrament is "...THE CENTRAL practice in the religious life of the group." (6)  This has proven quite difficult to prove, hence the very few numbers of organizations who have done so.

4.  In the Courts:
I am not going to review all of the religious freedom court cases here.  If you are interested in that topic please see The Entheogen Law Reporter - https://www.erowid.org/library/periodicals/journals/journals_telr.shtml; or The Hoasca case - http://www.journalofpsychoactivedrugs.com/Articles/Bullis%20402.pdf; or the countless other references available with the help of google!

However, the Supreme Court ruling in Employment Division v. Smith (1990), where two employees - also members of the NAC - were denied unemployment benefits after being fired for testing positive for mescaline (peyote) deserves special mention.  This case left the religious freedom of entheogenic use in serious question.  From the decision: "Although states have the power to accommodate otherwise illegal acts done in pursuit of religious beliefs, they are not required to do so."  Basically the argument was that a person was not legally able to use their religious motivation to use peyote to defy the state of Oregon's neutral laws against possession of peyote.

This case precipitated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was passed by Congress in response to the needs of the NAC, as an attempt by the courts to restore the meaning of the First Amendment rights that had previously been held up by the courts. (See http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/01/how-rfra-works-explained-in-one-chart/ for a succinct summary of this act).    This law reinstated the "Sherbert Test," the 'strict scrutiny' litmus for whether or not the free exercise clause guaranteeing a person's religious freedom had been violated.  Interestingly, the RFRA was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, who said it is not "... a proper exercise of Congress's enforcement power." (7) As a result, twenty states have also passed State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, to localize legislation.

My friend over at Psychedelic Parenting (http://www.psychedelicparenting.org/) makes a really good point about all this: that while, for example, a born-again Christin can prove their faith by simply affirming that they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and talking about prayer, it is exceedingly difficult for someone to prove that their use of entheogens IS their religion.  As he writes, "...those Americans who subscribe to a personal spirituality involving entheogenic plants often fear to even pass on those values to their own children, for fear that the kids will tell the wrong teacher or friend, and the family will be divided, parents in prison, children in foster care.  Should they wish to have the protection of the law to express their religious and spiritual beliefs, they must first be arrested, and then “prove” to a judge that they are, in fact a 'real religion'." "(Parents) have failed to pass on to their kids the source of their peacefulness, the sacrament that brings them understanding, the font of their joy, simply because they have been rightly afraid of the wedge that the law has put between them and their children."(6)   The prevalent attitude is that people take these 'drugs' to get high.  Period... and despite all evidence to the contrary!  Even 'spiritual' people doubt the use of entheogens as a valid religious path, somehow thinking that people who become more enlightened using 'substances' are somehow cheating the process. 


To close for the day, on the topic of the political climate of the use of entheogens, and in response to many of my friends' genuine concern in regards to my using my own name on this project (and their fear of repercussions), here is a quote from Martin Ball (see also http://www.entheological-paradigm.net/).  I couldn't have said it better myself:

“The State has the power to destroy your life. There’s absolutely no question about that, and so the state is incredibly dangerous in that sense. And it’s vindictive, it’s misguided, it’s built on illusion upon illusion upon illusion. The problem is that these illusions can still come to get you, even if they’re illusions. It’s a difficult call that ultimately people have to judge for themselves. But the other side of that is this: If no one stands up, nothing’s going to change. Someone’s got to do it. Personally, reality is more important than anything I might want to protect, such as my own personal well-being or comfort, so I’m not going to hide myself in any way. Although there are certain details I’ll avoid discussing on podcasts. But if they really wanted me, the data is all right there. I’m all-in at this point. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and the last thing I want would be to be separated from them, and although prison would profoundly suck, I’m not going to edit myself in order to avoid something that I don’t have any real certainty is actually going to happen. Reality will always win, eventually.” (8)

I will be posting more, sooner than next week, I hope (I mean... I intend!).

(1) http://www.csp.org/society/docs/telr-free_exercise.html
(2) http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/proj_entheo.html
(3) Stuart, R.  "Entheogenic Sects and Psychedelic Religions." http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v12n1/12117stu.html
(4) http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/21usc/812.htm
(5) http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v12n1/12117stu.html
(6) "Religious Freedom in a Post - "Burwell v. Hobby Lobby" World." http://www.psychedelicparenting.org/?cat=7
(7)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Freedom_Restoration_Act
(8) Interview with Martin Ball.  Psychedelic Parenting.  http://www.psychedelicparenting.org/?cat=7

Movie Reviews and more...

I have decided to organize some of my 'offline' research that is currently filling many notebooks here in my office, starting with the reams of notes I have taken from relevant movies.  This information has been baffling me in terms of how to synthesize and distill the important bits while letting the rest go, kind of like panning for gold dust in a very muddy river.. Anyway here goes! My comments are going to be kept in parentheses, to distinguish them from the information I am reporting from the films.  

Neurons to Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines, (2013): directed by Oliver Hockenhull
(Through a series of interview with leading experts in their respective fields, this film discusses five medicines of interest to psychedelic research:  LSD, Cannabis, Psylocybin, MDMA, and Ayahuasca.)

" The film explores these socially taboo substances as adjuncts to psychotherapy, as crucial but neglected medicines, and as technologies of consciousness. ""...Neurons to Nirvana looks into why our society has created such a social and political bias against even allowing research to continue the exploration of any possible positive effects they can present in treating some of today's most challenging afflictions."(synopses both written by anonymous) (1)

"This film does not endorse, intentionally or otherwise, the use of any medicine of substance outside of legal, traditional and bona fide therapeutic contexts."

"In the popular press, hallucinogenics have been portrayed as a recreation, an escape, or as a dangerous invitation for abuse, but there is another side to the story... The truth is that more people die from taking simple pain relievers than from all illegal drugs combined, ...and almost none are due to psychedelics."

LSD
In the 50's, there was great hope that LSD might revolutionize psychiatric care.   After it became popular among young people, the feeling in the 60's was that things were getting out of control, and there was a need to 'put the genie back in the bottle,' to restore social control which seemed to be on the verge of breaking down.  "You do see out of the box with LSD," and so people started questioning the war in Vietnam (and other societal 'norms' having to do with racism, sexism, etc).

One researcher, Dr. David Healy, said, "...to ban a (medicine) you have to paint it as having extreme dangers linked to it."  (This is the essence of the societal taboos we see in place against anything that alters consciousness in unpredictable ways.  Alcohol, tobacco and coffee all alter our consciousness, but they are accepted because their effects are known - even though people can get hooked on these.  The main danger of these substances was the (unfounded and completely unscientific) fear that people would get hooked or addicted to them.  Secondly, the media hyped up fear that taking these substances would lead to people completely losing control and going insane.  This campaign of fear worked, and laws and restrictions started being imposed on this entire category of substances, leading to a complete ban on all research.)

How does LSD work?
Serotonin is part of the neurotransmitter system which modulates or regulates all other systems.  All senses except smell go through the thalamus, the gateway to the cortex, which is what puts your reality together.  LSD resembles serotonin in its effects on this system, and psychedelics stimulate connections between the emotional and the behavioral aspects of the brain, leading to understandings, insights, epiphanies, shifts in awareness, unitive states: these are all due to the serotonic connections.  In addition, the part of the brain that regulates information uptake - or the screening out of so much of what we experience - this is turned off.  Psychedelics are psych-integrators.  They change serotonin inhibition so that you 'get it all,' (all of the sensory data available to the brain instead of the censored version.)  As Ram Dass says (about unity states), "There is no other.  It is all one."

Psilocybin Mushrooms
Another researcher, Dr Steven Ross, MD, from NYU, is using mushroom therapy in the treatment of cancer.  He has found that in both the short term and over time, people with cancer who have undergone therapy with psilocybin mushrooms have experienced a lessening of anxiety.   People who came to the study were normal people looking to get through the suffering they were experiencing.  

Rick Doblin, PhD helped create the Good Friday experiment, which aimed to answer the question "Can (using) psilocybin catalyze a religious/mystical experience?"  The answer?  Unequivocally yes!  Here are a few quotes: "The experience that day demonstrated to me the reality of God's presence in all the world... I would say yeah, it did change my life."  "When you have this unitive mystical experience, because it's unitive, you identify with people who you might normally not... there is this core element that binds us together."   (It helps us to identify with "other" deeper than all the limiting/defining terms - gender, race, age, sexual orientation, nationality.)  Roland Grifftihs, PhD, reported that "...the experience at it's core is more real, and more true, than everyday waking consciousness."  "Most people are still endorsing that this experience is among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their entire lives." 

This mystical/transcendent/transpersonal experience can now be studied, scientifically.  (Dennis McKenna).  "We are just relearning how to let it be OK to call these kinds of experiences real," says Kathleen Harrison, MA, director of Botanical Dimensions.

MDMA

(MDMA, street named Ecstacy, was a legal drug until the 80's.  Today one of the main issues with it is that kids get it off the black (illegal) market - they are going to use it regardless of its legality - but black market ecstasy is often very impure, cut with heroin, speed, and other substances.  And kids don't learn about using these substances in a safe way due to prohibition (and the mentality that teaching abstinence is the only proper approach to these substances.  In my opinion that's about as rational as telling a bunch of horny teenagers not to have sex.  A few might listen - but most of them are going to ignore you and think of you as an old prude - and then go and do what they want without any kind of supervision or instruction from their elders.)

MDMA is not an hallucinogen.  It floods the brain with serotonin and decreases anxiety, making it a good catalyst for psychotherapy.   Most scientists in the field insist that more and immediate clinical research is needed!  One such researcher says, "There is no other drug like this one.  It floods the brain with serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, making it an immediate acting depression and anti-anxiety drug.  There is no other known immediate acting, non-sedating, anxiallytic (reliever of anxiety).   This substance has been helpful in the treatment of PTSD, where the normal problem is too much anxiety or too much emotional numbing.  MDMA helps people revisit the trauma in a therapeutic way, and face their fears without being overwhelmed, while t the same time maintaining an emotional connection.  MDMA also enhances oxytocin, which is involved in bonding and empathy."

We need to be able to do clinical research on this in order to fully understand the risks and benefits. 

Marijuana
(This medicine has been known to reduce anxiety, promote sleep, and help with Parkinsons, Alzheimer's, nausea, arthritis, cancer, glaucoma, and childbirth.  Marijuana IS medicine - and yet it is still regulated as a Schedule One Controlled Substance, which means there is no scientific evidence that it has medical benefits. This is FALSE.  Requests to conduct studies determining its medical benefits have been denied - and then the government claims that there are no studies proving any health benefits!) "It's beyond hypocrisy..." says one researcher.

"Tobacco is the only substance that we sell in the US that when used as directed causes death.  Shouldn't we be incorporating tobacco into our drug policies?"

Some people feel that the reason these medicines are villainized is that they constitute the ultimate threat: they have the ability to 'break consensus trance' (under which our culture lives).  "It's not marijuana, the mildly mind-altering substance.  It's marijuana, the antithesis of the state..."

"It's a tragedy that our youth can only get that type of marijuana (high THC).  It can be a real problem for kids taking these substances without the proper set and setting.  There's a lot of learned knowledge that can be more readily be passed on in a regulated system.  On one hand we decry the scourge of drugs, then on the other hand we medicate the kids instead of dealing with their bad behavior, to control them,  instead of parenting, etc, basically teaching them to turn to drugs for every problem.  Then they find out that the drugs that are prohibited are much more effective than the prescription ones, so of course they use them!"  (This is a paraphrase)

Kathleen Harrison, from Botanical Dimensions, says, "Not all the rules are here to protect us."

To sum it up: "We fund studies on harm - we don't fund studies on benefit."  (In other words, studies showing the negative effects of these substances would probably be funded - studies showing the positive benefits are not even considered.  I remember reading about a doctor in England who carelessly remarked that more people have died from tobacco and alcohol use in one year than from marijuana in the entire record of human history - and he was ridiculed and threatened with the ruin of his reputation, just for speaking his truth!)

Ayahuasca/Yage

Jeremy Narbe talks about how the knowledge of these sacred plants came from the hallucinations of their shamans.  Dr Gabon Mate (accents on the a and e) talks about plants as teachers.  "Plants have substituted biosynthesis for behavior. They can be used to form a symbiosis between humans and plants." (Dennis McKenna) 

Ayahuasca has become popular in the Western world, but it is definitely not a party drug.  It is not anything you would do lightly.   No one uses this medicine frivolously (since it can make you suffer from extreme nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and can cause you to have to look at the darkest aspects of your psyche). Many people agree that this medicine has to be used respectfully, in a safe set and setting.   "But after it happens there's a kind of a clarity and lightness that's powerful, because what 's being purged are psychic contents you've been holding onto.  You're purging anger; you're purging pain; you're purging some false story about the self." Dr. Mate.

SSRI's - (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) - feel good drugs.
(These were included here to show the difference between taking a medicine like ayahuasca and a drug like Prozac.)
"The idea that we can medicate ourselves into a state of happiness encourages drug dependence and also people not to examine the foundations of the problems that make them feel bad in the first place because you can simply mask the symptoms."  Companies are not interested in something that can be given one or two times with huge (beneficial) effects.  "All these substances (peyote, LSD, marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, etc) are in the public domain and so can't be patented.  Prohibitive substances (like SSRI's) bring in much more money.  The government stance is if we can't patent it, let's prohibit it.  This creates a black market and it helps some people make a lot of money."

Gillian Maxwell, Keeping the Door Open, says these substances - medicines - are the antidote to the lack of meaning (in our culture).   Medicines: let's explore what I am, and let's understand it.  Drugs: let me get out of this reality. 

These drugs are misclassified as being addictive.  They are actually more helpful in curing addictions (one study of 2000 alcoholics were treated with LSD and 45% of them stayed off alcohol after 1 year - AA only has an average 10%  sobriety rate after one year.)(2)

The research and study of these substances has been completely shut down, not based upon scientific evidence but based on a prohibitic policy, and "...despite the evidence that these substances have been used for medical purposes for tens of thousands of years, ...because of government regulations, we're denying major aspects of our population access to medicines that they dearly need." 

It is possible and it would be interesting to use (psychedelics) not just for disease states but for the exploration of one's consciousness, for spiritual exploration, to enhance spiritual growth and empathy, to be better people.  "We are potentially the salvation of the planet and also potentially the destruction of the planet." Terrence McKenna.

"We're talking about transformation at every level: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual."

"In order to use these medicines you have to be 'rebel' enough against the taboo to look at the taboo, and the whole nature of a taboo is that it's an area of culture where we are told 'don't look there, it's not good to even look there.'" Kathleen Harrison

(If you are still reading, you can see why I am quoting so much from this movie! Good stuff, good information.  I will have to review it again to get the manes on some of the other quotes.  After they introduced a person one time, they didn't put up their name again - and so I have some quotes whose authors I have missed.  Will fix later.)

Ayahuasca - Vine of the Soul (2010): directed by Richard Meech
Kenneth Fupper talks about the globalization of Ayahuasca.  He says users are not criminals associated with illegal drug use.  Over the past 10 years thousands have tried this, and their spirituality and healing has been excised.  "Our culture is empty - it doesn't give people what they really need."  This medicine, "...can open up energetic barriers to help one live more optimally."  Another quote, "You just know that you are connected to something larger."

Religions demand faith.  But with ayahuasca you don't have to have faith - you have direct experience of the divine.  "Learning through plants is a cultural tradition that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years."  "It is a very powerful medicine that has to be placed and used in a proper way.  If not, it can create a psychological shock that can leave a trauma.  "Addiction is trying to complete yourself from the outside, to fill the void."

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the film: "Mysterium Tremendum - the feeling of being at one with the universe.  Religions say that this is not for the ordinary person.  But ayahuasca says no - it is!"  "It was the most spiritual thing I have ever felt in my whole life."   "I felt a kind of love I have never felt in my life."  "That literally broke me open - annihilated me..."  "It allows you to have a second chance at being yourself."  "It is very much about love.  Period."

DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010):

DMT (dimethlytriptamine) has profound effects on human consciousness.  it is 2 steps away from tryptophan, one of our amino acids.  All organisms have this plus two enzymes that lead to the DMT molecule.  Graham Hancock reports, "No one knows why it is there - why is it in our bodies/mammals/plants?"

Dennis McKenna says, "Wake up you monkeys - you are really screwing things up!" (I don't remember the reference for this quote but include it here as a bit of comic relief!  I am sure he was referring to the fact that the use of DMT is said to (potentially at least) expand one's consciousness into a unitive state, where 'we' realize in a profound way that everything in existence is connected, or is ONE - and then, presumably, with this consciousness we (humanity) could stop raping, plundering, killing, and ruining everything on this planet and instead use ALL of our resources to work together to reestablish balance and (possibly) avoid the impending apocalypse.  Just sayin'...) 

Jeremy Narby, PhD, has this to say: "With the help of two concepts which are traditionally opposed - science and spirituality - we humbly reintroduce psychedelics back into the cultural dialogue."  (What a quote!)

DMT is said to foster the entering and exiting of the soul from the body, much in the same way as fasting, chanting, meditation, and near-death experiences.  It is the active ingredient in the Ayahuasca brew, made available to digest by the addition of a plant which inhibits the body's naturally occurring MAO inhibitor.

So why is it and other substance like it illegal?  "In the Western world, we value alert problem-solving consciousness; a production and consumption mentality only.  We allow drunkenness as a respite but stigmatize and condemn other states of consciousness that don't conform to this." (paraphrasing here).

Daniel Pinchbeck, author, says that the era of the 60's was a failed initiation attempt.  People wanted to push to a new level of consciousness but there were no elders, no medicine men, etc (no one but the blind leading the blind.)

There is a part of the brain that is keyed to trigger and mediate the experiences of the transcendent -   the pineal gland - which some say is the interface between Spirit and matter.  In our culture, we have severed our natural connection with Spirit (and with the natural world).  We need the help of these plant teachers at this time to reestablish our natural wisdom: to investigate the biological basis of moral and ethical behavior; to better understand the universe (in all its dimensions); to discover new forms of medical treatment (free from greed, bias and fear/propaganda); to have life-changing spiritual revelations; and to use these natural tools which offer us the ability to seek greater knowledge.

"What we are looking for out there... is really in here... (pointing at brain)."  (We have to evolve in consciousness if we want to change the world - that old Einstein quote about how you can't correct a problem in the level of consciousness in which it was created...)

(My main take-aways from watching these three films: 1.  There are a LOT of very intelligent, knowledgeable and educated people in this country and in the Western world who are devoting their lives to scientifically studying these medicines despite the prohibitive laws, fear-based propaganda, and the potentially career-damaging jeering of their peers.  2.  There is a wealth of already amassed scientific evidence that in the very least supports further scientific study of these medicines and clinical trials to create viable treatment options for the diverse groups who would most benefit from their use; 3.  While many people include LSD, MDMA, and marijuana in the discussion of entheogens, in my personal definition, I only include naturally occurring, psychoactive plant-based substances.  So even though marijuana is naturally occurring, and while I believe it to have tremendous medicinal benefits, I am not including it in the scope of my book, mostly because in my experience with those who use it , it seems to often be (psychologically) addictive in nature, and also I do not have any traditional elders from whom to learn its proper use.  LSD and MDMA are both synthetic substances, and are therefore excluded from my considerations for the book.  Finally, I am debating about including psilocybin mushrooms in the book. Although they are entheogenic and completely natural, I do not know of any traditional ceremonies or elders who can teach me to use them properly (I have heard the Huichol in Mexico use them, but have not had the opportunity to participate there with that tribe).  Most of the mushroom experiences I know or have heard about range from a person taking some and going into nature alone, to taking them with a group of friends, to going to see a Dead show and partying and dancing their asses off.  I have experience with all of the above - and none of it compares to the intentional purposefulness of taking an entheogen for spiritual growth.  AND at the same time I did grow from my mushroom experiences, unguided and seat-of-the-pants as they were. So the jury is still out on that one;  4.  Things in this country are changing in respect to the legitimacy of studying and even using these medicines... (but not fast enough for me, I might add!), and the field of psychedelic research is gaining proponents, momentum, validity, and profound results.  May it continue to be so!)


(1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2195566/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
(2) "The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous." The Atlantic.  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/

Entheogens: Wachuma (San Pedro) and Ibogaine

Switching gears, and going for a more strictly research-based post this time.

The San Pedro Cactus, aka Wachuma, Huachuma, Achuma

The San Pedro cactus, named after a Christian Saint who holds the keys to the gates of Heaven (Saint Peter) (1), is a plant native to the high altitude regions of the Andes, primarily in the countries of Peru and Ecuador.  Known as Wachuma, Huachuma, or Achuma to natives, it contains the alkaloid mescaline, the same entheogenic substance found in the peyote cactus, of which it is in the same family.

The earliest images featuring use of this plant medicine come from Peru, between 4000 - 3,500 years ago (2, 3), after which there are many examples, featuring both male and female healers and animal helper spirits, such as the jaguar, deer, snake, and condor.   

Among healers San Pedro is also known by the name "El Remedio," the Remedy, since it can "... help us to let go of the illusions of the world."  (3) As one author relates:

     "Cactus ceremonies are held today for the same reasons as ever: to cure illnesses of a
     spiritual, emotional, mental, or physical nature; to know the future through the prophetic
     and divinatory qualities of the plant; to overcome sorcery or saladera (an inexplicable run 
     of ‘bad luck'); to ensure success in one's ventures; to rekindle love and enthusiasm for life;
     and to experience the world as divine."   And "...those who drink it can heal, discover their
     divinity, and find their purpose on Earth."(3)

One of the authors (3) interviewed a female shaman, Lesley Myburgh (known as La Gringa, "the outsider woman") who has led ceremonies with San Pedro for almost 20 years.

'"It is a master teacher", she says. "It helps us to heal, to grow, to learn and awaken, and assists us in reaching higher states of consciousness. I have been very blessed to have experienced many miracles: people being cured of all sorts of illnesses just by drinking this sacred plant. We use it to reconnect to the Earth and to realize that there is no separation between you, me, the Earth, and the Sky. We are all One. It's one thing to read that, but to actually experience this oneness is the most beautiful gift we can receive."'

Of course, as with all entheogenic medicines, when the Christian church conquered the Andean territories, they concluded that this sacred plant teacher was a tool of the Devil, used to deceive the ignorant and lead them further into sin.  They tried, without much success, to suppress its use.  Currently, in the US and in many other western countries, it is illegal to extract the mescaline (ie make the tea) from the cactus, since it is a Schedule One controlled substance, unless you have membership in the Native American Church, who have permission to use mescaline in their religious ceremonies. However it is legal to grow the cactus for ornamental purposes.

Ibogaine

Ibogaine is an entheogenic plant medicine, an indole alkaloid,  that comes from a central West African shrub named Tabernanthe Iboga.  It has been used for thousands of years for a variety of reasons, mostly for spiritual development and also to initiate youth into adulthood in rites of passage ceremonies.  In the modern world, since the 1960's ibogaine has gained recognition as an addiction interrupter, helping addicts quit such varied substances as heroin, cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, and methamphetamine.  However it is a Schedule One controlled substance in the US, and so is illegal to use in this country (see below (*)for exceptions).

(Side note: from what I have heard, no one would EVER want to take ibogaine as a recreational substance.  It is reportedly the most intense of the substances I am covering in this blog

The way ibogaine works is that it cleanses the body of the drug in question while at the same time chemically resetting the addictive pathways in the brain, balancing out the different neurochemicals in the brain, such as dopamine and serotonin, setting them back to pre-addicted levels.  After ingestion, the converted ibogaine is stored in fat cells which helps to curb future cravings, also helping reduce depression and negative thought patterns.

On a psychological level, ibogaine helps a person see, examine, and clear the roots of their addiction, leading one author to state the following: "In effect, years of therapy can be replicated in a matter of hours."(4)

Ibogaine has been approved for clinical trials in the US since the early 1990's (*),  but due to lack of funding, the treatment remains largely undeveloped. (5)  The National Institute on Drug Abuse was at the center of these clinical trials in the early '90's, and made the final decision to not continue funding their own protocol.  Interestingly, "Opinions of consultants from the pharmaceutical industry were a significant influence in the NIDA decision not to fund human efficacy trials." (6)

Many private clinics offering ibogaine therapy can be found in Central America and Mexico.  I may be accompanying a friend to one of these in the near future: if so, I will have more first-hand information to report later on! 

(Well, it had been almost 4 hours here at the old computer desk.  Time to go make some kale chips and blackberry cobbler!  See you next time!)


(1) "What is a San Padro Ceremony, or Huachuma?" Gaia Sagrada, http://gaiasagradaspiritualretreatcenter.com/Ayahuasca-San-Pedro/What-is-San-Pedro-Huachuma.php
(2) Samarco, F (trans). " Huachuma, Wachuma, Achuma, San Padro: Cacuts of the Four Winds." El Mundo Magico.  http://www.elmundomagico.org/huachuma-wachuma-achuma-san-pedro-cactus-of-the-four-winds/
(3) Heaven, Ross.  "San Pedro, the Miracle Healer."  https://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/cacti_writings1.shtml
(4) "What is Ibogaine?" http://www.awakeninginthedream.com/ibogaine.html
(5) http://www.ibogaine.co.uk/
(6) http://www.ibogaine.desk.nl/history.html

Collecting the loose ends - and more about addiction

Just want to put this out there - I was away from home, and then house-sitting without internet, for the past 2 weeks, since the last publish date (7/23).  Feeling stressed that I didn't write last week! Today is already Thursday and while publishing once a week at this point seems like a good goal, I am finding it sometimes difficult to maintain.  Also aiming to keep in mind the practice of not entertaining stress in my body, mind or experience.  I choose to relax in this moment.  I choose to accept that my writing could not happen last week, and relax into my knowing that it is all happening in divine timing.  I choose to trust myself to write in a structured way whenever possible, and to accept when that cannot be so.  To those of you who are following this blog - thank you! - and just know that I will do my very best to write something good here every week. 

There are many loose ends in my previous posts: the legal aspects of using Schedule One controlled substances - which is one aspect that will have to wait until I am able to schedule an appointment with a lawyer;  the other entheogens I have not yet written about (San Pedro and Ibogaine); the cultural taboos and vilification of entheogens in general; the possible dangers of using, and misusing these medicines; rites of passage; elders and eldering; and a deeper look at what is known about how these substances do what they do for us.  After clearing up some of these loose ends, I want to take a look at some of the world cultures that use entheogens, specifically looking at how they raise their children around these medicines. There may be a few more subjects arising as this research is completed, after which I plan to begin interviewing people who are raising or who have already raised their children in the US as members of an indigenous spiritual tradition.

Just a note on staying focused: it has been hard these past few weeks to get in the state of mind I feel I need to achieve in order to write.  I have found myself performing avoidance maneuvers - like this morning I was going to focus for 3 hours on writing and instead deep-cleaned the bathroom (it needed it!) and went to work on my other home project an hour early.  Tired myself right out with five hours of labor, troweling concrete onto the exterior and interior walls of our addition/ greenhouse.  Now it is 10 pm, I am beat, and I still have not gotten this blog written.  I feel like I am falling short.  Just admitting this in writing feels like a good step.  However I will not be satisfied until I get into some real content here.  My coach, the one who initially advised me to start this blog, recommended I write (or research, or focus on this project) from 9-12 every Tuesday and Thursday.  Starting next week, I am going to hold to that.  I am definitely a morning person when it comes to thinking!

Before continuing on with my list, I want to share about an article I recently read: "The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered and it is Not What You Think, ",(1) by Johann Hari, author of a book on this subject entitled Chasing the Scream.   In his article, the author mentions some of the drug studies done on rats which seemed to prove that addictions are completely self-destructive, even unto death, and that the "War on Drugs" is completely necessary for our continued survival.  Researchers put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles.  One bottle contained regular water, and the other water with cocaine added.  The rat would quickly become obsessed with the cocaine water and would drink it until it died.  These results seem to point to the fact that access to drugs causes addiction.

Then along comes another researcher, a Psychology professor from Vancouver named Bruce Alexander, who noticed that these rats were all alone in their plain cages with nothing to do all day but take the offered drugs.  He designed an alternative experiment, where rats got to live together in "Rat Park," a special environment where there was stimulation, exercise, games to play, good food, and other rats to hang with, as well as regular water and cocaine water.  Lo and behold, the rats in Rat Park did not drink the cocaine water very much, consuming less than a quarter of the amount that rats in isolation drank.  And they did not get addicted!  According to the article, "Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. It's your cage."

The prevalent view in our culture on addiction has been that people get addicted because drugs 'hijack their brains.'  But with these studies, and further studies showing that even addicted rats can stop using the cocaine water if they get moved into Rat Park, the view of addiction as the result of chemical hijacking is coming into question.  The new paradigm looks at the bigger picture, seeing that the addict is not finding what they need in their life to be happy and fulfilled, like the rat in the barren cage. What is needed is a new cage (aka environment).  And what many people are starting to realize is this new 'cage' needs to be one where bonding and deep connections are made.  Professor Peter Cohen, also quoted in the article, says people will connect with whatever they can.  If there isn't a person or people available to connect with, the addict will connect with a drug, or with a behavior, searching for that (missing) comfort and sense of belonging..

 In the words of the article's author: 
"So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection."

If this perspective were adopted, the treatment for people with addictions would begin with the view that addiction is just a symptom of a much greater issue - and the addiction itself would NOT be the focus of the treatment!  Instead, treatment would focus on teaching people how to find connection and meaning in the world: how to connect with themselves, how to connect with their emotions, how to connect with others, and how to connect with the sacred and discover a purpose for their lives.

This is the essence of the medicine work of which I have been a part for the past 10 years.


(1) http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-likely-cause-of-addiction-has-been-discovered-and-it-is-not-what-you-think/

"But You Can't Give Them Drugs...!" - Part Three

I have to admit, I have gotten a little bit off track for this book in the last few posts.  Understandably so.  The death of Etolie was intense.  Started  a cleanse this past Monday that has been kicking my ass, and it has been hard to be super left-brained, as a result.  But now I feel an even greater need to get this information out into the world.

With this blog I have been working to connect the status quo, the standard Western approach to life, with the subjects of enthogens, and psychological and physical health. The other night I was explaining this project to a friend and said something like "The tendency in our culture is to try to escape and avoid discomfort and pain - at all costs - instead of investigating and opening to it to see what it might have to teach us."  The escape and avoidance are aided in part by culturally acceptable addictions: to alcohol, to screen time, and to sugar, just to name a few.  I want to turn the focus now to the topic of sugar consumption in the US and how it fits into this discussion.

The Age of Sugar?
When I was a kid, growing up in the late 60's and 70's, we would eat Captain Crunch cereals for breakfast, which contain a hefty amount of added sugar (9 grams, for a 3/4 cup serving).  My mom would mix whole milk with non-fat dehydrated milk, half and half, and then add sugar, to save money (and add taste); and we also had a bowl of white sugar on the table, which we added to the cereal at will, by the teaspoon-ful.  I am sure the (Wonder)bread we ate for lunch had sugar in it, not to mention the twinkies and cool-aid, and probably even the mayonnaise; and then for dinner we would have meat, starch, frozen veggies, and, without fail, a sweet dessert.  My mom, bless her heart, was just following the societal norms of the day!  She did her best to feed us well, according to accepted thoughts on the matter.  We never went hungry, and everything we ate was made or prepared with love.  We were also raised up consciously, with limited television time, and constant encouragement to go play outside.  In my neighborhood, the gang of kids who lived there rode bikes, went frog-catching and swimming, played in tree forts, played kick-ball, went sledding, built forts, etc.  In other words, we were active.  We got our fair share of cavities, but all things considered, we were OK.  We were - very luckily - healthy kids.

Americans = Sugar Addicts
Not all kids today have it so good.  Add to the 'normal' sugary diet easier access to unhealthy foods, staying indoors for large amounts of sedentary screen-time, and taking prescription medications from a young age (among other factors), and the equation will equal with over one-third of US kids now being classified as overweight.(1)  But, obliviously, we Americans love our sugar.  The average American eats 130 - 152 pounds of added sugar each year, mostly hidden in processed foods and store-bought drinks.(2,3)  One site reports that the average American consumes 53 gallons of soft drinks a year!(3)  And since these are averages, it means many people drink/eat a lot more than that.  

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) started being added to the modern diet in 1970.  It is given that name to distinguish it from regular corn syrup, which is primarily glucose-based.  Some reports state that the average American consumes over 63 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per year. (4)  As one article stated, "In a sense, sugar (HFCS) is the number one food additive.  It turns up in the most unlikely places, such as pizza, bread, hot dogs, boxed mixed rice, soup, crackers, spaghetti sauce, lunch meat, canned vegetables, fruit drinks, flavored yogurt, ketchup, salad dressing, mayonnaise, and some peanut butter." (5)  So we are inundated with this product, and many are eating it with every meal - yet it is SO new in the scheme of human existence (45 years compared to hundreds of thousands of years!) - I think it is just another example of human hubris on the one hand, coupled with human greed on the other.  We are conducting an ongoing, wide-scale experiment on our species with no knowledge of how it will turn out, all for the sake of making cheaper products (ie making a bigger profit).
    
The Cost - Sugar Causes Disease
Refined sugar consumption has been linked to many diseases:  type two diabetes, obesity, hypoglycemia, hypertension, depression, nervous tension, skin irritation, irritability, violent behavior, and acne.(3)  It also can lead to tooth decay, obviously.  There is something now called "Metabolic Syndrome,' linked to excessive sugar consumption, which "is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes." (6)  Of course, if you look at the rates of obesity in this country, and heart disease, and type two diabetes, you will see a direct correlation between them and the rise of sugar consumption.  Still, websites such as the 'sweetsuprise.com' will argue that there is no correlation between sugar consumption and obesity, just as there is no real difference between eating something containing HFCS and something made with honey.(7)   And that makes me say... really?  I can't even go there with all the ways that that is wrong.  I will just post a few statistics here for the reader to draw their own conclusions:

• 1 can of soda a day = 150 extra calories x 365days/year/ 3500 cal/lb = 15.6 pounds/year! (4)
• 40 grams of sugar a day = 10 teaspoons = the amount in an average 12 ounce soft drink (5) 
• Calorie increase in American diet from 2076 per day in 1970 to 2534 in 2010, an increase of 458 calories. (7)
• HCFS, in particular, does not affect the brain with a satiety response (this is true of all fructose, but when eaten in fruit, for example, the fiber present tells our bodies we are full).  In other words, after consuming fructose you do not know that you are full or even that you have eaten anything.  Meaning, a person can have a 64 ounce soda and still be hungry! *

Sugar is a Drug
Many doctors and researchers say that sugar is more addictive than cocaine, tobacco, or even heroin. (2, 3)   How it effects us is it hooks into the rewards (dopamine) system of our brains.  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that causes euphoria, or extreme pleasure.  Think about a time when you got an 'instant high,' when you won an improbable poker hand, or the boy (or girl) kissed you for the first time - this is dopamine at work.  When a person eats sugar, it can trigger the release of this neurotransmitter, especially when the behavior follows a pattern of abstinence followed by binging .  In the study sited in this article, animals who were exposed to eating high levels of sugar and then deprived of it developed symptoms of withdrawal, such as "...anxiety, chattering teeth and tremors."  Further inquiry showed that just the taste of sugar released opioids in the brain, and that the combination of these and the dopamine reward circuitry led to dependency. (8)

Dopamine pathways in the brain are supposed to lead the organism towards a greater chance for survival, which is why we get dopamine released when we eat.  But sugar actually floods the brain with more dopamine than we would get from eating an egg or an avocado - it is what researchers call a "superstimulus."   The affected brain pathways then become 'hijacked' by this stimulus (sugary foods), because it is way stronger that anything we have evolutionarily been designed to handle.(9)

Even worse, both addictive drugs and sugar affect a particular area of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain that shows up in addiction research.(9)  Both drugs and sugar flood the brain with dopamine and lead to cravings when the substance isn't present.  And what the brain is craving is not nutrition, which can lead to satiety.  It is craving 'reward,' the same thing addicts crave.  Tolerance is also part of this cycle, and develops with sugar use as well as with other addictive drugs: you need more and more to feel the same reward.  This is can in part explain the phenomena of binge eating.  Finally, junk food is unhealthy.  Everyone knows it - and yet people still eat junk foods, too much of them, despite knowing better, despite knowing they are probably causing them harm.  This is similar to the smoker knowing that cigarettes will be her death, but smoking anyway: the addiction is stronger that common sense and the instinct for self-preservation.  Many people feel like they can't control their addiction to junk food.  They try to cut back, have irresistible cravings, obsess about it, then binge; then feel bad, set another quit date, try to regulate the behavior, then fail again... and on it goes.  This is exactly what I did when trying to quit smoking - and drinking - and using other substances.  It is the cycle of addiction.  Just add in your drug of choice - including sugar.

All this is written in the hopes of pointing out the ridiculousness of the 'War on Drugs,' all the government's attempts to try to save us from ourselves, to regulate what each one decides to use or abuse... it is a lie.  I am hoping with these points to prove that almost anything we humans use can become a 'drug.'  Some of these drugs in our culture are sanctioned, while others, like entheogens,  are not.  I want to point out the absurdity of the fear of and legal sanctions against some of these substances when sugar abuse harms considerably more people in one year than all of the entheogens' have in their combined history.  One report said a conservative estimate would be 15 million deaths worldwide from sugar-related causes each year. (10) Another said 180,000 worldwide deaths each year just from drinking sugary drinks.(11)  Comparatively, in the US, we also have 430,700 deaths a year from tobacco use; 110,640 deaths from alcohol; 30,575 yearly suicides; and 82,724 people a year dying from complications from taking their prescription medications (12).  However:

"An exhaustive search of the literature finds no deaths induced by sacred entheogens such as Salvia Divinorum and the US Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) records no instances of drug mentioned in medical examiners' reports. Sacred Entheogens or Salvia divinorum alone has not been shown to cause an overdose, death, nor have there been any hospital visits by anyone who has ingested them." (13)

One other source said there were a total of 8 deaths related to marijuana, in all recorded history (and it is not verifiable that marijuana actually was the cause of these death), and one death related to an LSD overdose. (12)  As in, like, ever. 

Just sayin...



(1) http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
(2) Hyman, Mark.  "Sweet Poison - how sugar, not cocaine, is one of the most addictive and dangerous substances."  Daily News, 2/10/14.  http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/white-poison-danger-sugar-beat-article-1.1605232
(3) Walton, Alice.  "How Much Sugar are Americans Eating?" ForbesWoman, 8/30/12.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2012/08/30/how-much-sugar-are-americans-eating-infographic/
(4) Lustig, Dr. Robert.  Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  UCSF's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.http://wellnessmama.com/15/harmful-effects-of-sugars/
(5) Profiling Food Consumption in America.http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf
(6) http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/basics/definition/con-20027243
(7) http://sweetsurprise.com/2013/07/18/blog/The-History-of-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup
(8) A Real Sugar High? https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200301/real-sugar-high
(9) http://authoritynutrition.com/10-similarities-between-junk-foods-and-drugs/
(10) http://www.olsonnd.com/what-kills-more-people-sugar-or-cigarettes/
(11) http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/health/sugary-drinks-deaths/
(12) http://entheology.com/features/annual-causes-of-death-in-america/
(13) http://www.entheology.org/edoto/anmviewer.asp?a=3
* (sorry lost the reference for this factoid.  Will edit when I find it).

Resources and more...

I have been doing a bit more research into groups that already exist in this field, and am excited to share news of a group formed by graduate students from the California Institute of Integral Studies named ERIE, which stands for Entheogenic Research, Integration and Education.  Their goal is to help educate people honestly about entheogens, to counter the taboos and myths surrounding these 'spiritual amplifiers' (as they call them) with real information about their potential benefits and their potential harm, and to aid people in the integration of their experiences with these substances.  From their web site:

     "Entheogen, literally meaning "to generate the divine within," implies a spiritual or ecstatic
     experience and a connection to creative source: a direct connection to consciousness. Entheogenic
     experiences give support for the fundamental right of each individual for cognitive liberty," which
     is defined as "...the right of each individual to think independently and autonomously, to use the
     full spectrum of their mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought."(1)

For some reason I am very inspired today to look up and read about the resurgence of research in this area...

And yet I find I don't have a lot to write about.  I discovered that there are many websites devoted to documenting psychedelic books, entheogenic plant dictionaries, and lists of researchers and publications; I found my way to the New York college that has been conducting addiction therapy using psilocybin mushrooms; I discovered a list of centers that do similar work with iboga therapy; and I looked into continuing education in psychedelic or entheogenic studies.  It was all very interesting... I spent all day reading and taking notes...

...and then I found out that a young man I know, 20 years old, shot himself in the head on this very day.  I found out within hours of him doing it, dropping in unexpectedly to visit my daughter at "the Compound" a local homestead where normally somewhere between 20 and 25 people live, most of whom were friends with this young man.  I arrived to find my daughter, her boyfriend (one of this guy's best friends), and everyone else in shock.  Suddenly everything I have been studying and writing about seems so pointless. "Who cares if people watch 5 hours of TV a day, or if the government has mislabeled these medicines, or how many psychoactive plants there are?  A young man just killed himself!"

He did it in part because he was really drunk, and burned out, as he'd been partying for days with alcohol and cocaine.  He was confused, and it was also really hot today, a record-breaking 106 degrees.  Maybe he did it because it was too hot!  According to his friends he was always saying he was going to end himself.  No one ever thought he would really do it!  Maybe he did it because he had a gun, or he did it because he was in pain and was tired of being in pain. Who knows!  Maybe he did it because his mom died when he was young - or because his older brother committed suicide a few years ago.  Maybe he did it to remind all of us who are left how precious this life really is.   

I am very sad for his family; for his father, for his sister, and for all the friends he had left behind.  It is truly a lot harder for the ones who are left to pick up the pieces.  My prayers are with them all today and for the days to come. 

I wonder if this young man could have been 'saved' if he had chosen to pursue healing with plant medicines instead of his approach, which was to get fucked up and party all the time as a way to escape.  We will never know the answer to that.  I just pray that his spirit finds peace.

(1)http://www.erievision.org/definitions/