Support Psychedelic Justice
We know that psychedelics can be life-changing tools that can help people lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives. They help us understand how changing ourselves – and the world around us – is possible.
The time has come for people who care about psychedelics to step out of the shadows and bring our voices to the table.
We believe people who use psychedelics shouldn’t be vulnerable to criminal punishment – and ultimately we want to build a world where legal psychedelics make sense.
Sign up to receive action alerts and news about psychedelics.
Psychedelic Justice Campaign
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is working to protect – and expand – the safety, wellness, and freedom of people who can benefit from psychedelics.
Goal One: Exposing and overcoming ongoing barriers to scientific and medical research.
The potential benefits and risks of psychedelics need to be better understood, but the drug war and its ideology continue to drastically limit the scope of scientific research. That’s why we’re working to shift decision-making authority away from law enforcement, while empowering health and science experts.
What You Can Do
- Take Action – Urge the Trump administration to reform or eliminate the DEA
- Read the DPA/MAPS Report - The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding and Rejecting Science (PDF)
Goal Two: Changing the conversation about how psychedelics are perceived and managed.
Public support for legal access to psychedelics remains low due to unsubstantiated myths that are vestiges of the drug war. That’s why we’re working to educate the public about their histories, traditional uses, and clinical findings.
That’s also why we’re working with universities, festivals, nightlife venues, and other institutions to end zero tolerance policies – and to instead promote harm reduction and benefit maximization measures, such as drug checking and onsite peer counseling services like MAPS’ Zendo Project.
What You Can Do
- Get the Facts – Learn about LSD, psilocybin and MDMA
- Read the Blog – Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New Study
- Watch the Video – A panel of experts discuss Are the Party Kids Any Safer Yet? EDM Festivals, the Music Industry and Harm Reduction at DPA’s 2015 Reform Conference
- Watch the Video – What Can Psychedelics Teach Us About Drug Use and Addiction? from DPA’s 2013 Reform Conference
Goal Three: Eliminating the role of criminalization in psychedelic drug policy and repairing the harms of psychedelic prohibition.
Let’s face it – the prohibition of psychedelics is a legacy of colonialism, racism, and the repression of indigenous cultures. This legacy continues today, with thousands of people every year getting handcuffed, arrested, branded for life as criminals, and serving time behind bars simply for using or possessing a psychedelic substance. These people are more likely to be young, non-white, and socioeconomically marginalized than most other people who use psychedelics.
At DPA, we’re working to end arrests and criminal penalties for people who use or possess psychedelics and other substances – a step several countries like Portugal and the Czech Republic have taken with enormous success – and to scale back draconian prison sentences for people convicted of making or selling them.
We’re also exploring and evaluating small-scale models for legally regulating psychedelics outside of medical contexts, while supporting the protection of people who use psychedelics as part of a religious or spiritual practice.
What You Can Do
- Read the Blog – Using Psychedelics Shouldn’t Be a Crime
- Read the Article – DPA’s Ifetayo Harvey on Why the Psychedelic Community is So White
Thanks to our work, drug policy has changed as quickly as any other issue in the U.S. over the past decade.
Together, we can live to see the day when people who use psychedelics are no longer criminalized, stigmatized, and made to live in fear of sharing our full truths.
Related Resources
DPA Blogs
- Be Honest, is your Psychedelic Use Purely "Sacred"?
- Ibogaine Treatment Expanded in Brazil: Will the U.S. Take Note?
- Why is the U.S. Disregarding Plants Like Iboga and Kratom in the Fight Against Overdose and Addiction?
- RIP Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: “Godfather of Ecstasy” and Drug Policy Reform Pioneer
- Oliver Sacks Used LSD Legally – Is the Drug War Preventing Great Discoveries?
Videos & Podcasts
- The Psychedelia Podcast: Interview with DPA’s Jag Davies
- DPA’s Jag Davies on “Envisioning Success: What Does the End of the Psychedelic Criminalization Really Look Like?” at Horizons 2016
- 2015 Reform Conference Panel: MDMA and Other Psychedelics: What Does Legal Access Look Like?
- 2013 Reform Conference Panel: What Do Psychedelics Have To Do With Drug Policy Reform?
- 2013 Reform Conference Panel: Communications Strategies: Psychedelics as the ‘New Pot’?
Articles
- DPA’s Jag Davies in the Spring 2017 MAPS Bulletin: How Do We Repair the Harms of Psychedelic Prohibition?
- Op-ed by MAPS’ Rick Doblin and DPA founder Ethan Nadelmann: The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding and Rejecting Science
- LSD Now: How the Psychedelic Renaissance Changed Acid (Rolling Stone)
We know that psychedelics can be life-changing tools that can help people lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives. They help us understand how changing ourselves – and the world around us – is possible.
The time has come for people who care about psychedelics to step out of the shadows and bring our voices to the table.
We believe people who use psychedelics shouldn’t be vulnerable to criminal punishment – and ultimately we want to build a world where legal psychedelics make sense.
Sign up to receive action alerts and news about psychedelics.
Psychedelic Justice Campaign
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is working to protect – and expand – the safety, wellness, and freedom of people who can benefit from psychedelics.
Goal One: Exposing and overcoming ongoing barriers to scientific and medical research.
The potential benefits and risks of psychedelics need to be better understood, but the drug war and its ideology continue to drastically limit the scope of scientific research. That’s why we’re working to shift decision-making authority away from law enforcement, while empowering health and science experts.
What You Can Do
- Take Action – Urge the Trump administration to reform or eliminate the DEA
- Read the DPA/MAPS Report - The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding and Rejecting Science (PDF)
Goal Two: Changing the conversation about how psychedelics are perceived and managed.
Public support for legal access to psychedelics remains low due to unsubstantiated myths that are vestiges of the drug war. That’s why we’re working to educate the public about their histories, traditional uses, and clinical findings.
That’s also why we’re working with universities, festivals, nightlife venues, and other institutions to end zero tolerance policies – and to instead promote harm reduction and benefit maximization measures, such as drug checking and onsite peer counseling services like MAPS’ Zendo Project.
What You Can Do
- Get the Facts – Learn about LSD, psilocybin and MDMA
- Read the Blog – Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New Study
- Watch the Video – A panel of experts discuss Are the Party Kids Any Safer Yet? EDM Festivals, the Music Industry and Harm Reduction at DPA’s 2015 Reform Conference
- Watch the Video – What Can Psychedelics Teach Us About Drug Use and Addiction? from DPA’s 2013 Reform Conference
Goal Three: Eliminating the role of criminalization in psychedelic drug policy and repairing the harms of psychedelic prohibition.
Let’s face it – the prohibition of psychedelics is a legacy of colonialism, racism, and the repression of indigenous cultures. This legacy continues today, with thousands of people every year getting handcuffed, arrested, branded for life as criminals, and serving time behind bars simply for using or possessing a psychedelic substance. These people are more likely to be young, non-white, and socioeconomically marginalized than most other people who use psychedelics.
At DPA, we’re working to end arrests and criminal penalties for people who use or possess psychedelics and other substances – a step several countries like Portugal and the Czech Republic have taken with enormous success – and to scale back draconian prison sentences for people convicted of making or selling them.
We’re also exploring and evaluating small-scale models for legally regulating psychedelics outside of medical contexts, while supporting the protection of people who use psychedelics as part of a religious or spiritual practice.
What You Can Do
- Read the Blog – Using Psychedelics Shouldn’t Be a Crime
- Read the Article – DPA’s Ifetayo Harvey on Why the Psychedelic Community is So White
Thanks to our work, drug policy has changed as quickly as any other issue in the U.S. over the past decade.
Together, we can live to see the day when people who use psychedelics are no longer criminalized, stigmatized, and made to live in fear of sharing our full truths.
Related Resources
DPA Blogs
- Be Honest, is your Psychedelic Use Purely "Sacred"?
- Ibogaine Treatment Expanded in Brazil: Will the U.S. Take Note?
- Why is the U.S. Disregarding Plants Like Iboga and Kratom in the Fight Against Overdose and Addiction?
- RIP Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin: “Godfather of Ecstasy” and Drug Policy Reform Pioneer
- Oliver Sacks Used LSD Legally – Is the Drug War Preventing Great Discoveries?
Videos & Podcasts
- The Psychedelia Podcast: Interview with DPA’s Jag Davies
- DPA’s Jag Davies on “Envisioning Success: What Does the End of the Psychedelic Criminalization Really Look Like?” at Horizons 2016
- 2015 Reform Conference Panel: MDMA and Other Psychedelics: What Does Legal Access Look Like?
- 2013 Reform Conference Panel: What Do Psychedelics Have To Do With Drug Policy Reform?
- 2013 Reform Conference Panel: Communications Strategies: Psychedelics as the ‘New Pot’?
Articles
- DPA’s Jag Davies in the Spring 2017 MAPS Bulletin: How Do We Repair the Harms of Psychedelic Prohibition?
- Op-ed by MAPS’ Rick Doblin and DPA founder Ethan Nadelmann: The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding and Rejecting Science
- LSD Now: How the Psychedelic Renaissance Changed Acid (Rolling Stone)