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.
North Star Ethics Pledge
The North Star Ethics Pledge is a first step in the demanding work of shaping the psychedelic industry around psychedelic wisdom.
The purpose of the pledge is to begin the task of creating shared values for the emerging psychedelic field. The pledge can be used as a tool for each of us to set and name our intention for this work.
The purpose of the pledge is to begin the task of creating shared values for the emerging psychedelic field. The pledge can be used as a tool for each of us to set and name our intention for this work.
Step into your power to shape the culture of the field
North Star
Ethics Pledge
Ethics Pledge
The North Star Ethics Pledge is a commitment to a set of principles for individuals working professionally in the field of psychedelics
Principles:
1
I pledge to ground my work in the field with work on myself, and to treat personal growth as a lifelong process.
Start Within
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We can lead by example starting with our own self work, centering this practice as core to the professional culture of the psychedelic field.
Possible Actions:
We can lead by example starting with our own self work, centering this practice as core to the professional culture of the psychedelic field.
Possible Actions:
- 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.
2
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.
Study the Traditions
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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.
Possible Actions:
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.
Possible Actions:
- 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.
I pledge to invest in building trust in my relationships across the psychedelic field, and repair trust where possible.
Build Trust
3
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Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive action. Action creates change. This means change moves at the speed of trust.
Possible Actions:
Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive action. Action creates change. This means change moves at the speed of trust.
Possible Actions:
- 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.
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.
Consider the Gravity
4
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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.
Possible Actions:
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.
Possible Actions:
- 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?
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.
Focus on Process
5
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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.
Possible Actions:
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.
Possible Actions:
- 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?
I pledge to actively take steps to make the world more equitable and just.
Create Equality & Justice
6
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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.
Possible Actions:
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.
Possible Actions:
- 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 signing the equity and inclusion statement.
- 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.
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.
Pay it Forward
7
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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.
Possible Actions:
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.
Possible Actions:
- 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.
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.
Signatory Commitment
Our words matter. Your signatory response is an opportunity to share what matters to you around integrity and ethics in the field - to be published on our platform and hopefully shared across your own.
Response prompts:
Response prompts:
- What does psychedelic wisdom mean to you?
- What is not covered by the pledge that you feel is critical to the culture of the field?
- What does putting this pledge into action look like?
Signatory Response
North Star continues to gather psychedelic entrepreneurs, investors, and stakeholders across the field in dialogue about integrity, ethics and transformational business models for psychedelics.
Many stakeholders have been vocal in a desire for prescriptive ethical standards, and even a certifying seal. These calls provide a working direction for North Star. The nonprofit's role would not to be as the arbiter of such standards, but a steward of the process, soliciting perspectives, considerations, and feedback.
Many stakeholders have been vocal in a desire for prescriptive ethical standards, and even a certifying seal. These calls provide a working direction for North Star. The nonprofit's role would not to be as the arbiter of such standards, but a steward of the process, soliciting perspectives, considerations, and feedback.
What comes after the pledge?
Pledge signatories are key stakeholders with essential input in North Star's work. Signing the pledge provides access to a community of signatories, and signatory-only events and gatherings.
Please be mindful that by submitting an optional signatory response you agree to North Star sharing the response on our website, social media, or materials for the sole purpose of helping to spread awareness about the pledge. Signatories will be added an email list maintained by the nonprofit. You may opt-out at any time simply by unsubscribing.
Please be mindful that by submitting an optional signatory response you agree to North Star sharing the response on our website, social media, or materials for the sole purpose of helping to spread awareness about the pledge. Signatories will be added an email list maintained by the nonprofit. You may opt-out at any time simply by unsubscribing.
The pledge was created over a six month process, with input from more than one hundred stakeholders from the many coalitions in the field.
North Star invites ongoing feedback on the pledge, on the organization, and hopes and fears for the field.
North Star invites ongoing feedback on the pledge, on the organization, and hopes and fears for the field.
How did we get here?
The value of the pledge depends on the effort we make to put its principles into action every day. It does not provide accountability or certify any actor as "ethical."
We can all use our voices, platforms, and influence to center ethics in the professional culture. The pledge supports this work, as a basis for professional engagements, to inform decision making, and to inspire action.
We can all use our voices, platforms, and influence to center ethics in the professional culture. The pledge supports this work, as a basis for professional engagements, to inform decision making, and to inspire action.
Where do we go next?
North Star is a nonprofit committed to a future of worldwide psychedelic healing delivered ethically, equitably, and accessibly within and outside of commercial models. North Star's mission is to center psychedelic wisdom into psychedelic business, to not only radically improve mental health, but to develop the business practices that can serve as guiding lights in the needed transformation of business as a whole.
North Star's Mission:
What Comes Next?
Each of us has the power to shape the culture of the psychedelic field. The pledge is a tool to support that.
To date more than five hundred people have taken the North Star Ethics Pledge. Many simply use it as an intention-shaping document, honing the way they work to show up in the field each day. Some psychedelic organizations are using the pledge as a baseline for a conversation around their own ethical standards. Impact-minded investors are reviewing the pledge with potential entrepreneurs, using the pledge as an entry-point to assessing the character of the kinds of people they may invest in. This is only a beginning.
After taking the North Star Ethics Pledge we invite you to share your signatory response, and use the pledge as a tool to engage in critical conversations about what is truly important in the field. We invite you to get in touch and share your thoughts, feedback, and inspiration with us as well.
To date more than five hundred people have taken the North Star Ethics Pledge. Many simply use it as an intention-shaping document, honing the way they work to show up in the field each day. Some psychedelic organizations are using the pledge as a baseline for a conversation around their own ethical standards. Impact-minded investors are reviewing the pledge with potential entrepreneurs, using the pledge as an entry-point to assessing the character of the kinds of people they may invest in. This is only a beginning.
After taking the North Star Ethics Pledge we invite you to share your signatory response, and use the pledge as a tool to engage in critical conversations about what is truly important in the field. We invite you to get in touch and share your thoughts, feedback, and inspiration with us as well.
