PORT TOWNSEND PSYCHEDELIC SOCIETY
Mission: Our mission is to provide a platform for community dialogue and organization by expanding access to education regarding the healing and self-
explorative potential of entheogenic plants and fungi, as well as their safe and responsible use.
Tel: 123.456.7890
WHAT ARE ENTHEOGENS?
Psilocybin
Native to the Pacific Northwest, psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychoactive compound found in fungi from all around the world. It acts on the brain through changes of perception, cognition, and emotion. Numerous studies have shown the positive potential these treatment avenues have in addressing depression,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, and end-of-life anxiety. Psilocybin has also been shown to provide greater access to memories and emotion, and to produce important insights that help provide perspective around life meaning.
"Connecting to the sacred within"
Ayahausca
"Vine of the Souls"
Ayahuasca is a powerfully sacred brew that has a long history for the indigenous peoples in the Upper Amazon (Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia). It is made from the banisteriopsis caapi vine and psychotria viridis leaves. It's potential therapeutic properties include treating addiction, depression, anxiety, and suppressed memories and trauma.
Mescaline
The psychedelic compound mescaline is found in the San Pedro and Peruvian Torch cacti. These medicines have been used for thousands of years among indigenous groups in North, Central, and South America in religious ceremonies. It's potential medicinal use is treatment of alcoholism and depression
Entheogens are a class of naturally occurring psychoactive substances that are used in religious, shamanic, and spiritual contexts that produce non-ordinary states of consciousness, psychological, and sometimes physiological changes.
Why Decriminalize?
Under the Controlled Substances Act (1970), entheogens are categorized as a Schedule I substance, meaning that it is classified as having a high potential for abuse, no medical advantage, and a high risk of creating severe psychological or physiological dependence.
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We, as the People of the City of Port Townsend, ask the City Council to remove criminal and civil penalties for entheogenic substance use and possession.
We make this request for several different reasons:
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We believe in the potential of these medicines to help address the current mental health crisis in the U.S. There is substantial research indicating the high potential of entheogenic substances, including treatment of addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
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We do not believe in fighting the War on Drugs. We envision a society that does not criminalize and isolate its drug users, but instead meets them in readily accessible spaces of connection, integration, and healing.
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We do not believe in our current system of incarceration. No one should go to jail, lose their children, lose their job, and lose their citizen’s rights for attempting to access the potentiality of using entheogenic plants and fungi as therapeutic tools. As a Schedule I substance, simple possession can lead to heavy fines, felony charges, incarceration, and other life-altering consequences. As the tax payers for the City of Port Townsend, we ask that our resources not be allocated for pursuing criminal charges against the possession of these substances.
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We believe in the freedom to explore our connection with nature. Connection to the natural world is an inalienable human right; one that is not only a law of nature, enforced by our physical dependence on the natural environment, but also through the development of our spiritual well-being.
Cities Who've Successfully Decriminalized
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Social & Cultural Ethics
Safe and Responsible Access for All
We value the health and safety of our community and advocate for access to the documented potential entheogenic substances have in addressing many psychological and physiological ailments that plague our people. We believe in the basic, inalienable human right to a direct relationship with nature, including growing, using, and sharing natural entheogenic plants and fungi. And while we believe individuals have the right to access these plants for any use they choose, we especially emphasize the basic rights of people to use them for religious freedom, personal healing, and self-exploration.
In decriminalizing entheogens, it is not our intention to appropriate any spiritual, religious, or cultural traditions of North, Central, or South America's indigenous people. We do, however, recognize the sacred knowledge and methods brought forth from these practices and lineages and encourage knowledge exchange programs between traditional indigenous wisdom keepers and contemporary cultures on entheogenic practices. We also encourage individuals drawing from any tradition to do so with respect and gratitude, giving credit to their source.
It is our hope, though, that with the decriminalization of these natural medicines, we will come to understand the advanced knowledge these cultures and peoples have cultivated living in connection with the land.
