The North Star Pledge: ethics to guide the psychedelic industry

Created over six months with input from one hundred stakeholders, the Pledge is a beginning: a baseline commitment to put integrity at the heart of our work in the field.

In 2022, North Star systematically engaged 100+ psychedelic stakeholders, including elders, clinicians, investors, and community, to iteratively develop the North Star Ethics Pledge.

As a leader in the psychedelic community I pledge to...

1. Start Within

I pledge to ground my work in the field with work on myself, and to treat personal growth as a lifelong process.

We can lead by example starting with our own self work, centering this practice as core to the professional culture of the psychedelic field.

  • Engage in the work of seeking to understand my full self, recognizing that there are undiscovered biases, blind spots, desires, motivations and intentions that influence my decisions and actions. Work to explore, understand, and resolve these.

  • Where legal and applicable, and with skilled facilitators, I will develop my relationship with the psychedelic compound(s), especially the ones my professional work centers around.

  • Seek mentorship and guidance from people in the field whom I respect, both inside and outside of my network, to seek feedback that will help me grow.

  • Make my commitments to ethical action public to my team, organization, stakeholders, customers or clients, and community.

  • Make a practice around personal growth, using resources like therapy, breathwork, and mindfulness training to continue to go deeper.


Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

2. Study the Traditions

I pledge to grow my knowledge of the history of psychedelics and their many traditions of use, in a good-faith effort to appreciate both the potential of these substances and the conflict and complexity surrounding them.

Psychedelics have a complicated history, spanning many cultures and millennia. That history is full of hope as well as harm. It provides essential context. I will do my best to understand it.

  • Study the history of psychedelics, with the goal of appreciating and understanding the diverse perspectives, especially the ones I am inclined to disagree with.

 

  • Study the history of indigenous use of psychedelics, and listen to the perspectives of indigenous peoples on psychedelic use today.

 

  • Understand the sacrifices in time, resources, and in some cases lives, that made the mainstreaming of psychedelics possible.

 

  • Explore the history of psychedelics in the West, including the scientific research and cultural uses, to understand the controversy around these substances. Consider the lessons that apply today.

 

  • Learn about the history of drug policy, including the history and implications of prohibition, the social and political consequences that continue today, and the drug policy reform movement. I will consider questions around integrity and ethics in the ways my work intersects with this history and with its impacts today.

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

3. Build Trust

I pledge to invest in building trust in my relationships across the psychedelic field, and repair trust where possible.

Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive action. Action creates change. This means change moves at the speed of trust.

  • Learn tools for effective communication, feedback and accountability, and transparency to strengthen trust. Actively solicit constructive criticism and critical feedback.

 

  • Ask myself key questions: How am I building trust across the psychedelic field? Are there relationships I have that need mending? How could I repair them? Are there relationships that I should consider initiating?

 

  • Start from a place of trust and assume best intentions in others. Remain open to difficult conversations and honest dialogue, and refrain from gossip. If needed, l seek third party mediation.

 

  • Take steps to ensure I understand and engage with the people impacted by my work, to be sure I know their perspectives. Keep those channels of communication open where possible.

 

  • Lean into conflict and tension, recognizing them as pathways to growth. Do my best to understand the principle of what someone is telling me regardless of the tone.

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

4. Consider the Gravity

I pledge to consider the implications of the choices that I make, understanding the potential consequences of unethical behavior to individuals, communities, and the psychedelic field at large.

Five years from now it is possible that millions of people have safe, ethical, legal access to psychedelic healing. It is also possible that mistakes, accidents and unethical decisions could reset the regulatory paradigm, halting the momentum toward legal psychedelic access. The responsibility to ensure this does not happen rests with each of us.

  • Put patients first, recognizing the need to make high-quality treatment accessible and affordable for all those who can benefit.

 

  • Study the history, the precarious legal standing, and the enduring cultural stigma of psychedelics. I will ask key questions: What are the implications of unethical action in this space? How can I minimize risk?

 

  • Continue to emphasize the need for centering ethics and integrity in the emergent psychedelic field.

 

  • Study the incentives created by the economic model of my work, and examine the risks those incentives create, making plans to mitigate those risks, and asking a key question: are there ways my work is misaligned with the patient’s interest or the public good?

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

5. Focus on Process

I pledge to make the process as important as the outcome, letting the future I hope to see guide the approach I take in getting there.
It is tempting to put ends over means when it comes to making a positive impact. I recognize that how I do something is as important as what I do.
  • Ask people I care about to hold me accountable to my goal of being a model of ethical behavior

 

  • Be transparent in my thinking around decision making in key areas, creating a window for community input to build accountability.

 

  • Humbly own my mistakes and consider publishing a retrospective on how I intend to do things differently in future decisions and actions.

 

  • The commercialization of psychedelics will call us to make hard choices around ethics. It may come down to the difference between what is right and what is easy. Commit to choosing what is right.

 

  • Present the pledge for discussion at my organization to ask: How are we centering ethics and integrity? Where does our model potentially present risks? Are we satisfied with the way we center ethics in our decision making process?

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

6. Create Equality & Justice

I pledge to actively take steps to make the world more equitable and just.
We want a world that works for everyone. Right now, that’s not the case. We would do well to look for ways to bring about that goal.
  • Examine the places I have personal, organizational, and societal power, and whenever possible use my position to lift others up.

 

  • Empower diverse leadership within my organization.

 

  • Appreciate that everyone’s worldview has limitations, and work to seek out and empathize with perspectives different from my own.

 

 

  • Consider adopting Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) Metrics and work with my organization to proactively report on progress.

 

  • If I have a supply chain, analyze it for sustainability and environmental issues, as well as for ethical employment practices throughout.

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

7. Pay it Forward

I pledge to support the flourishing of the psychedelic field and the communities in which I work, and to give back should my work lead to personal gain.

The field of psychedelics stands on the shoulders of many individuals who devoted their lives to their work, as a labor of love and for the benefit of all, and often with great personal sacrifice. As beneficiaries of this work, we can show our gratitude through giving back to help the whole field move forward.

  • Where applicable, work with my organization to dedicate a percentage of profits to support the people or groups on whose effort and sacrifice the field now stands, such as giving back to Native Communities, and/or supporting the non-profits and universities advancing the field at large.

 

  • Consider committing to the statement on open science, OR, alternatively, sharing my thinking on why I am not committing to it, factoring in the way my decision impacts the field at large.

 

  • Offer time, energy, and resources to support the thriving of my local community.

 

  • Not only seek mentorship, but be a mentor to others and use my learning and experiences to help other people grow.

 

  • Where applicable, share learnings, tools, resources and assets in the public domain in service of advancing the field at large.

 

Each of us will choose how to center ethics in our work in the psychedelic field. The above are possible actions for this principle.

I commit to the practice of upholding the principles of this pledge, to share the values in it with others, and do my part to help build integrity and ethics into the heart of the emerging psychedelic field.

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