It’s time for a deep dive into the future of psychedelics. On Friday May 7th, we’re organizing our first webinar with a lecture from Jerónimo M.M. (ICEERS Foundation) who has for the past twenty years studied traditional uses of ayahuasca and challenges related to the integration of psychoactive plant traditions outside of their countries of origin.

Psychedelics exploded into the western consciousness in the mid-20th century. They bring great challenges for our cultures and for our legal systems, now largely at a loss when faced with the prospect of integrating practices that include spirituality assisted by substances – or prescription drugs with powerful psychoactive effects.

Prohibition has failed and is therefore wavering, but far from ending the challenges associated with them, ending the prohibition of psychedelics will make many of those challenges more visible. The problem behind prohibition runs deeper than some restrictive laws – it is the problem of a culture that does not quite know how to handle psychedelics and has little in its traditions or rule books to help our culture accommodate these practices. Medicalization is one possible avenue for utilizing psychedelics, but is at best a partial solution.

With so many unanswered questions we can, and we should, start envisioning a post-prohibition world. There’s much to learn from traditions that have formed a functioning relationship with psychedelics. In addition to that, we need to forge pathways of our own.

Set on May 7th, 7PM GMT+3, the webinar contains the lecture and a discussion with audience questions. For members of the Association for Psychedelic Education & Culture, the event is free of charge (if you’re a member, we’ve sent you a registration link). For others the attendance fee is 5 €. You can buy tickets on our web store.

Jerónimo M.M. is an ayahuasca community activist and independent researcher. He works as Social Innovation Coordinator for the ICEERS Foundation (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service) and is a founding member of the Plantaforma (Platform for the Defense of Ayahuasca). For the last 20 years he has travelled extensively through South America, researching a broad range of Ayahuasca practices, and has lectured internationally on ayahuasca tourism and the appropriation of indigenous knowledge; for the last 5 he has devoted most of his energy to image a post prohibition world where ritual practices with psychoactive plants are integrated.

Brief English info on our organization here.