History of the drug war, colonization & racism

By Psychedelic Seminars

Part 1 of a series on Psychedelic Community & Racial Justice.

The killing of George Floyd has once again put the spotlight on the ongoing systemic issues of racial injustice, police violence, and criminalization of marginalized BIPOC communities. The psychedelic community must stand in solidarity with wider activism for collective liberation, including and extending far beyond ending the war on drugs.

Where do we go from here? How do we build a better, more equitable and caring future?

First we'll look at the history to understand how we got to this moment and how we can advocate for policy that repairs the harms of the past, from colonization to the drug war and modern policing.

Camille Barton (they/them) is an artist, writer and somatic educator, working on the intersections of wellness, drug policy and transformative justice.

Neill Franklin is Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP, formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) and a retired Major of the Maryland State and Baltimore City Police Departments. Following the tragic murder of his close friend, Corporal Ed Toatley, while making an undercover drug buy, Neill resolved to reform failed drug war policies.

Mohawk Greene (they/them) is an Outreach Coordinator for DanceSafe, President of New York DanceSafe, and the Technical Program Manager at NEXT Distro.

Moderator Kwasi Adusei is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and the Founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York, out of which he developed a local psychedelic harm reduction organization.

Full recording available here.