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Formerly the Eugene Center for Ethnobotanical Studies


Pulse of the Plants
 

November 2021

Eight-Fold Path of Ethnobotany

IT'S TIME FOR PSYCHEDELIC SCIENCE TO FACE ITS DMNS

SCIENCE

To link DMN [Default Mode Network] disintegration to a mental state as particular as ego-dissolution is to conveniently ignore years of non-psychedelic research findings.

Returning to psychedelics, to claim that the DMN is the neural seat of the ego — and that its disintegration represents ego loss — is an ambitious reverse inference. To prove its validity, a researcher would have to demonstrate that disintegration of the DMN and ego dissolution correlate 1:1. In other words, if a subject’s MRI scan showed a disintegration of the DMN, then that subject must have been experiencing ego dissolution. Empirically, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It turns out that disintegration of the DMN isn’t specific to “ego-dissolving” drugs like psilocybin. It’s not even specific to hallucinogens.
 

...because the unit of scientific achievement is the solved problem and because the group knows well which problems have already been solved, few scientists will easily be persuaded to adopt a viewpoint that again opens to question many problems that had previously been solved... the bulk of scientific knowledge is a product of Europe in the last four centuries. No other place and time has supported the very special communities from which scientific productivity comes from... Nature itself must first undermine professional security by making prior achievements seem problematic. Paradigms provide all phenomena except anomalies with a theory-determined place in the scientists field of vision. But if new theories are called forth to resolve anomalies in the relation of an existing theory to nature, then the successful new theory must somewhere permit predictions that are different from those derived from its predecessor... this need to change the meaning of established and familiar concepts is central to the revolutionary impact of Einstein's theory... -The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

…PSYCHEDELIC… RUSH
ANTHROPOLOGY

The future of psychedelic therapy is also uncertain. While it seems likely that at least some psychedelic drugs will be approved for certain medical conditions in the years to come, it’s also possible that recreational use could be widely decriminalized or legalized. The status quo could also stay in place.

The companies and people hoping to make psychedelic-based mental health care mainstream say this trend is about far more than just the drugs themselves. A significant number of people oppose even the monitored use of psychedelics, including the 44 percent of Oregon residents who voted against the state’s recent measure to legalize a supervised psilocybin therapy model… There are also psychedelic advocates who believe that allowing companies… to do business will end up medicalizing and driving up the cost of psychedelics, which they think should be freely available.

Throughout his work, French philosopher Michel Foucault dealt extensively with the many uses and deployments of the body. In Discipline and Punish for instance, Foucault examines the practices of discipline and training associated with disciplinary power. In Foucault's view, the key feature of disciplinary power is that it is exercised directly on the body... by subjecting the body and its activities... to constant surveillance (prison, military training, school) and examination (scientific, medical). These processes enable continuous, coercive and pervasive control of individual conduct. As such, the human body is the nexus of a constant struggle between individual and collective, individual and state, private and public. Individuals literally put their bodies on the line, in strikes, in demonstrations and armed conflict, and, with the objective of influencing the mind, the state exacts revenge, or penance by inflicting pain or constraints on the body... one point... where uses and deployments of the body converge with societal interests. This convergence appears to be reflected in the relationship between the terms pharmakon, as drug or magical substance whose use appears to produce effects in or on the body, and pharmakos, the ancient Greek term referring to the victim of a scapegoat ritual. The term pharmakos, symbolising or enacting social control and domination on the (social) body as a rite of purification, punishment and/or dissociation/exorcism, seem particularly suited to describe the medicalisation of a select subset... and particularly... portrayal... as an infectious disease... In this example, medical rationales (interpretations) provide a very basic justification for trampling the rights and liberties of a select group... The above appears to explain why government and state institutions oppose any attempt to re-frame the debate... as a human rights issue. Such a re-framing could potentially undermine the medical justifications for interfering with... private, autonomous choices, and thereby deprive society, or at least politicians [and corporations], of a conveniently powerless scapegoat... who can be blamed for the shortcomings and failures of policy. More, since public policy decisions are increasingly driven by authoritative... scientific data and medical models... criticism of ways those models and data are interpreted and implemented is highly political and could potentially expose how science and medicine are being co-opted to undermine or stifle democratic debate, for instance, by excluding or discrediting some sectors of society from participating in decisions about their own rights and concerns. As long as the public accept medical interpretations that collapse the spectrum... they are likely to condone punitive measures that deprive... liberties. Public support for such policies relies heavily on faith and in their medical necessity... [understanding this] may well provide an empowering and inspiring framework for effective harm reduction without the apparent drawbacks in terms of interference with human rights, expenditure, etc. -Entheogens, Society & Law: Towards a Politics of Consciousness, Autonomy & Responsibility by Daniel Waterman

...LEARN... LESSONS... THE CANNABIS MARKET

SPIRITUALITY

In medical markets, there was an influx of “cannabis clinics” where practitioners specialized in the evaluation and treatment of patients with cannabinoid therapies. Many of these clinic chains built out expensive clinics resembling luxury medical spas, and later cashed out by selling their business along with their patient and client lists.

In the United States where individual states began rapidly legalizing cannabis for adult use… a more commercial approach to the burgeoning industry… prioritizing product branding, retail experiences, and supply chains… service an entire state’s 21+ population…

Louis Armstrong said, "It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics, dope, and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend." -420 Meditations: Enhance your Spiritual Practice with Cannabis by Kerri Connor

PSYCHEDELICS FOR…[NEURODEVELOPMENT]
MODERN CULTURE

Psychedelics may reopen “critical periods” in neurodevelopment…

A hypothesis puts forward evidence for a model of the co-evolution and advantages to the consumption of psychedelics by humans in pre-history. Four factors may have contributed to the inclusion of psychedelics in their diet: 1) management of psychological distress, 2) enhanced social interactions, 3) facilitation of collective rituals, and 4) enhanced group decision making.

Many counterculture veterans endorsed the notion that the CIA disseminated massive amounts of street acid in order to "deflate the political potency of youth rebellion." These included Beat generation writer William S. Burroughs and White Panther founder John Sinclair. Sinclair agreed that the CIA could have been behind the whole acid movement to dampen the effectiveness of the anti-War movement. "It makes perfect sense to me," he said. "We thought at the time that as a result of our LSD-inspired activities great things would happen. And, of course, it didn't. They were moving that shit around. Down on the street, nobody knew what was going on". Sinclair also said LSD blinded him from seeing that everyone didn't turn on to radical politics from acid. With their assets and growing control over mainstream media, the CIA had the means for many MK-Ultra operations... [And] in 1998, the United States Air Force published an influential report outlining the use of LSD and other drugs as weapons. The author, Air Force Major Mark R. Thomas, provided an extensive bibliography on how these Non-Lethal Weapons have "been a material element of civilian law enforcement for many years". Air Force Major Thomas's report, Non-Lethal Weaponry: A Framework for Torture Integration, summed up the American and global use of non-lethal weapons. It said soldiers might oppose "lethal military force... against [their fellow citizens]." So, "from Seattle to Philadelphia, from D.C. to Prague and most recently Davos, Switzerland, 'non-lethal confrontation' has become second nature to U.S. fighting forces and those inspired and trained by U.S. affiliates." The non-lethal weapons listed in this report included "club drugs" listed as "...Hallucinogens: LSD and Ketamine." It also listed "Calmative Agents: Sedatives, Tranquilizers, and Hypnotics." -Drugs as Weapons Against Us: The CIA's Murderous Targeting of SDS [Students for a Democratic Society], Panthers, Hendrix, Lennon, Cobain, Tupac, and Other Activists by John L. Potash 

IS THERE A DEPENDABLE WAY TO… EXPERIENCE WITH PSYCHEDELICS?

PSYCHOLOGY

Your set and setting greatly influence how and when and where this happens, not always in a predictable way.

Under-dosing (or low dosing), for example, can help you navigate the strange in-between of being neither here nor there, not fully able to communicate with either the sober or altered worlds. Moderate dosing can teach you enormously about your environment, relationships, and emotional processes. High dosing can help you develop emotional adaptability as you navigate feelings like confusion, elation, or fear without being fully able to connect them to lucidity. And ["heroic doses"] can help you identify with your place as an essential part of a whole.

Some might object on the grounds that these educational activities may bias us toward particular expectations that can lead to certain specific types of experiences at the expense of others - yet these arguments are not especially persuasive. The truly psychedelic experience is totally unexpected. Nevertheless, knowing how unexpected it can be may help us to keep our bearings when confronted with it. Will we be ready for the unexpected? -Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies by Rick Strassman, MD, et. al

MUSHROOM RESOLUTION

RELIGION

“Thank you so very much for all of your openness to communicate about this. Under the directive of the city council to educate and gain community support, we have collected over 330 letters of support, of which I have 270 here in my hands, that we’ve been turning into the city council,” Decriminalize Nature Humboldt member Taylor Albamonti, said.

Decriminalize Nature Humboldt member Taylor Albamonti also thanked the council for its availability to discuss the resolution and pointed to the resolution’s popular support in town. “I understand the concerns of people taking too much and maybe getting overwhelmed by the experience of strong psychedelics, but what we have been doing is trying to teach people how to take these in a good way and in a safe way and with decriminalization, we will have more abilities to teach people how to take these in a good way and provide safe spaces for people to take these...,” Danielle Daniel of Decriminalize Nature Humboldt, said. [With decriminalization, Arcata residents will be able to ingest, gift, gather, grow, and share entheogens without fear of arrest. The resolution declares that the investigation and arrest of people cultivating, purchasing, or using entheogenic plants or fungi will not be a priority for the city and that includes law enforcement... those containing the following types of compounds: indole amines, tryptamines, and phenethylamines... (including peyote & san pedro)...]

What many people find hard to conceive is the notion that intelligence can be a biological thing. After all, we usually think of intelligence as something connected with minds and not with evolving biological material. According to the natural intelligence paradigm... intelligence is essentially a process as opposed to a thing, more like a verb than a noun. It is a process, moreover, involving the manipulation of information. This is done through nerve cells, or neurons, firing and sending signals to one another. But it is harder to appreciate that the bio-logic underlying a neuron is likewise a process. Indeed, all of life - whether a cell, a group of cells, a chimp's hand, or the part of a chimp's brain that governs hand movement - consists of processes involving specific physical and chemical activity. Such astute bio-logical is the intelligence I keep referring to. It is not like there is some vital supernatural force pulling the biological strings, but rather that bio-logic itself is an embodiment of intelligence... Life can thus be likened to a clever verb in action... an oak tree embodies a deciduous strategy in the art of living; a yew tree embodies an evergreen strategy. Each species, family, phylum, and group of organisms represents a different set of strategies and solutions to the art of living, being, and reproduction, which is to say that each represent a different strand of natural intelligence - akin to smart ideas constantly being put to the test... thus, there is a natural intelligence to both their DNA and the biological expression of that DNA... life quite literally learns over time... -Magic Mushroom Explorer: Psilocybin and the Awakening Earth by Simon Powell

…PSYCHEDELICS ACTIVISTS LAUNCH INITIATIVE TO LEGALIZE COMMUNITY-BASED SALES WITH SUPPORT FROM CITY COUNCIL

HEALING

“So, it makes sense that the benefits of the discovery or rediscovery of the healing power of these entheogens by the west are enjoyed first and foremost by indigenous people, communities of color, and local communities, in general.” [said Oakland District 5 City Council Member Noel Gallo].

Building upon the initial Oakland decriminalization of the personal use and cultivation of entheogenic plants and fungi, local lawmakers there approved a second resolution in late 2020 that urges California legislators to allow local jurisdictions to permit healing ceremonies where people could use entheogenic substances.

Nevertheless, the Colonial period demonstrates that it is much easier to win the bodies of the conquered ones than the souls. The Indians were reduced to slavery without great difficulties, but they continued to be encouraged by their idols, hidden within Christian altars at times, and the mushrooms and peyote continued being consumed by thousands of witches (hechiceros) and brujos in the seclusion of their remote mountains, despite the efforts of the clergy and the aid lent to them by the Holy Office. All this seem buried in forgetfulness. References to the mushrooms cease in 1726... the hours of the mushrooms had not yet arrived. In 1936, the engineer Robert Witlaner had given a report on certain species of hallucinogenic mushrooms that were consumed in the Sierra Mazateca, and two years later, in 1938, the ethnologist Jean Bassett Johnson wrote an article published in Sweden about a ceremonial ritual of hallucinogenic mushrooms. These two works, destined for the specialists, passed unnoticed and... -The Sacred Mushrooms of Mexico: Assorted Texts edited by Brian P. Akers

CANNABIS [JAILING]… ANIMAL RESCUE CHARITY VOLUNTEER…
BIOGRAPHY

Quiet spoken lady on disability who volunteered at animal rescue charity & self medicated with cannabis for pain sent to prison for 60 days over 2.5 grams of cannabis…

“Here, in this court, she has run out of road,” [the judge] said. Again another example of a judge completely out of touch as to what is going on in front of him. Happy out to remain ignorant to the fact this lady was using [naturally-occurring psychoactive species] to treat her pain and criminalise her. Meanwhile other patients… have a license for the very same substance to treat the very same issues… [she] was engaged in her god given right to care for herself as she sees fit with a… herb. Claire was harming nobody in what she was doing and having gardaí [ie, police and/or “the guards”] terrorize this lady in her home, while also stealing her medicine is just wrong on so many levels.

Sometimes the experiential exploration of our ancestry takes us into the lives of grandparents now dead or even into the lives of relatives who lived centuries before us... this sense of genetic connection is often described by those who experience it as "primordial," something that cannot be conveyed with words but must be experienced. True ancestral experiences of this kind are always congruent with the racial, cultural, and historical backgrounds of the person through whose eyes we are seeing. -The Holotropic Mind: The Three Levels of Consciousness and How They Shape our Lives by Stanislav Grof, MD

FDA’S [COFFEE FAMILY] KRATOM BAN WOULD HARM THE PUBLIC AND DAMAGE THE AGENCY’S CREDIBILITY

POLITICS

If the FDA, [WHO, et. al] secures… kratom ban, countless people could die by suicide and unintentional overdose… why does the FDA vilify [whole botanical] kratom when so many stakeholders identify deficiencies in its arguments? Could it be that drug companies are commercializing synthetic versions of kratom and banning the plant would protect their interests? Companies with a financial stake in Schedule[d] substances have benefitted from their prohibition. When drug makers gain DEA and FDA permission to commercialize drugs that are otherwise illegal, prohibition shields them from potential competition. It strengthens government-granted monopolies provided by patents and marketing exclusivity… [Now, kratom advocates suggest Washington is behind the World Health Organization’s interest - an attempt to end run the federal regulatory process by taking the international route to finish what it could not accomplish domestically.]

…a causal link between [whole botanical] kratom and death has not been established. In 2019, the CDC analyzed 27,338 overdose deaths that occurred over an 18-month period. Kratom was detected in 152 (less than 1%) of these deaths, but in most of those cases tests also revealed the presence of drugs known to cause overdoses. Only seven tested positive for kratom alone, and the researchers concluded that “the presence additional substances cannot be ruled out.” …through a phenomenon called biased agonism, the mu-opioid receptor causes different intracellular effects when it binds different molecules, allowing opioids and the mitragynines to have different physical effects. Specifically, opioids activate an intracellular signaling protein called beta-arrestin, while the mitragynines do not. This distinction is important because beta-arrestin activity is linked to dangerous side effects of opioids, including slowed, shallow breathing that cannot sustain life. The FDA’s analysis lacks this level of detail. [The FDA recently awarded a $2.3 million contract to Altasciences in Overland Park, Kan., to study kratom dosing to determine its abuse potential. But under the terms of the solicitation, the FDA holds the rights to all of the data and documentation produced by the contractor, which is subject to a confidentiality agreement. Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner during the Trump administration, has asserted that kratom is just as dangerous as opioids, tweeting... that he’s “convinced it’s fueling the opioid addiction crisis.” Gottlieb's claim prompted a swift rebuke from Brett Giroir, former assistant secretary for health and acting FDA commissioner… Giroir rejected the FDA’s recommendation to classify kratom as a Schedule 1 controlled substance because “of embarrassingly poor evidence & data, and a failure to consider overall public health.” Giroir, in a 2018 memo, rescinded the Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendation to outlaw kratom and called for more study and public comment… Giroir… determined that listing kratom as a Schedule I drug would stymie research and potentially steer users toward deadlier options like heroin and fentanyl. Gottlieb didn’t respond to requests for comment.]

Florrie Fischer's memoir of her life [as dependent on true opioids]... is unflinchingly realistic. Images of her scooping up toilet water to prepare a fix in the ladies' room of a Manhattan cafeteria... she used only her own hypodermic needle, felt guilty about her addict's diet of doughnuts, and preferred to tell her mother... that she had cancer rather than admit... turned to prostitution as the cost of her habit mounted... arrested seventy-five times, she spent a large part of two decades behind bars... she was a tough survivor of the streets and the prison system... -Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writing on the Drug Experience edited by Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz

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