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The Political and Social issues - with Peyote Conservation (biocultural) beyond Native peoples
Pharmaceutical companies work with synthetic and plant-derived mescaline and how this may impact practitioners.
The IPCI Board of Directors has chosen to focus on the conservation of peyote explicitly. We do not take a position on the use of or legalization of synthetic mescaline which is derived from a lab and never extracted from Peyote. We do not believe any extraction of peyote should be legalized. We do not engage with pharmaceutical companies that are working with mescaline either.
We believe that in the United States or abroad all effort should be aligned with the concept laid down by the United Nations worked on by Indigenous leaders for over 30 years. It states that any business making a profit off of a synthetic molecule that is made from a medicine should be sharing its profit back to the Indigenous stewards of that medicine. As important as this is, IPCI is not receiving any funds from companies in this manner.
As interest in so-called “psychedelic” medicines continues to grow in mainstream society this continues to put pressure on the biocultural conservation of peyote. The IPCI Board of Directors tries to bring the message of Indigenous medicine sovereignty to this community through public speaking and engagement.
Relationship to the Decriminalization and Drug policy reform Movements
As IPCI implements strategies for an abundant future for peyote we have to take into account the ecological, cultural, and political considerations. The peyote policy and regulatory frameworks impact our ability to access medicine in a sustainable way and work to regenerate and reconnect both the native habitat and peyote communities. Our position and strongly considered belief is that Native Americans and Indigenous Peyote Peoples need to take the lead on setting any policy and regulatory frameworks. Mainstream society can honor that leadership on these issues.
Thus IPCI leadership does not recommend including peyote and efforts that are more generalized across medicines but rather allow changes to emerge from Indigenous cultural perspectives.
There are a number of issues with the current regulatory framework, we are working to look at how non-federally recognized tribes are ensured their access.
IPCI has engaged in some requests for education of mainstream society as they engage in policy and is in support of this process. Please read our statements made and endorsed by IPCI. *some of these statements are historic documents