Corporate attorney. West Point graduate. Pharmaceutical company representative. Helicopter pilot for the American drug war in Panama. These are not the usual bylines one expects to find in the biography of a man who fights for cannabis legalization and champions the healing power of psychedelic plant medicines, but for Ian Benouis it’s all part of […]

  As clinical trials for MDMA move forward in the hopes of making it an FDA-approved medication for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by 2021, some veterans are taking off to the Amazon to treat their condition with the jungle brew ayahuasca. While the empathogenic MDMA is better known, more common, and less intimidating of an […]

According to the most recent Global Drug Survey, psilocybin “magic” mushrooms are the safest recreational drug on the planet—even less dangerous than marijuana. Yet, despite the fungi’s wealth of medical benefits—including potential treatment for addiction, depression and end-of-life anxiety—psilocybin remains a Schedule I substance in America, meaning the federal government believes mushrooms have no medicinal […]

Information about psychedelic history, science, and culture can be found in movies, podcasts, and on various websites on the Internet (Erowid and MAPS are two excellent places to start), but books remain among the best resources available for expanding one’s knowledge about psychedelics. Over the past ten years, I have read many psychedelic-related books and […]

The lush Pacific Northwest state of Oregon was in the news earlier this month for passing a radical new bill that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. House Bill 2355 will take steps to “decriminalize” hard drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin by reducing sentencing for first-time offenders and expanding access […]

  Shamans of the Global Village is an independently produced web documentary series focusing on indigenous psychoactive medicines and the Western shamanic resurgence. The following is a conversation between the show’s director, artist & filmmaker Niles Heckman, and host and writer Rak Razam. The two created the show together in 2015 and the pilot episode […]