North Star Project stands in solidarity with black communities. Black lives matter. The murder of George Floyd by police sits along with many murders, including Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and Breonna Taylor, as a blight on the American promise of freedom.
The systemic racism that perpetuates these killings also economically, structurally, and politically disenfranchises black indigenous people of color (BIPOC). For four hundred years white American culture has resisted facing this shadow. Millions of lives and families have been broken along the way. Until this shadow is faced, this country will never heal.
Psychedelic commercialization must not reproduce the same power structures that have brought about this moment in our country. It is not just capitalism. It is not just patriarchy. It is white power. Cannabis licenses are being given out in states still holding black and brown people in prison for marijuana offenses. Commercial cannabis licensing and policy decisions are not inclusive, with 'social equity' programs failing black and brown entrepreneurs in major cities like Los Angeles.
Today the leaders of psychedelic business are mostly white as well. The vast majority are men. It is to this fact that North Star Project points when we say the people with the most structural power have the greatest moral responsibility to make change. Words are not enough. Solidarity must go hand in hand with action.
Some practical considerations for psychedelic businesses around racial justice: Education:
We can start by collectively affirming as an organization, as a field, and a society, the fundamental truth that black lives matter. So long as that freedom for life is denied, the American Dream will be a broken promise.
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Cited Resources:
The systemic racism that perpetuates these killings also economically, structurally, and politically disenfranchises black indigenous people of color (BIPOC). For four hundred years white American culture has resisted facing this shadow. Millions of lives and families have been broken along the way. Until this shadow is faced, this country will never heal.
Psychedelic commercialization must not reproduce the same power structures that have brought about this moment in our country. It is not just capitalism. It is not just patriarchy. It is white power. Cannabis licenses are being given out in states still holding black and brown people in prison for marijuana offenses. Commercial cannabis licensing and policy decisions are not inclusive, with 'social equity' programs failing black and brown entrepreneurs in major cities like Los Angeles.
Today the leaders of psychedelic business are mostly white as well. The vast majority are men. It is to this fact that North Star Project points when we say the people with the most structural power have the greatest moral responsibility to make change. Words are not enough. Solidarity must go hand in hand with action.
Some practical considerations for psychedelic businesses around racial justice: Education:
- The War on Drugs is deeply intertwined with psychedelic history. One of the most unethical things a psychedelic business could do is to structurally perpetuate systemic oppression for the sake of profit
- This starts with a commitment to researching and understanding disparities in health outcomes for communities of color vs. white communities, as well as asking hard questions about the implications of the organization's strategy and business model
- It is not enough to seek the voices of black and indigenous people of color. Those voices must be heard. What matters is structural power: governance accountability
- Companies can ensure that real organizational decision making authority, such as C-Suite leadership and board seats, is wielded by black and indigenous people of color
- Reciprocity is about building deep relationships rooted in efforts to understand, studying and respecting the traditions, and healing open wounds
- Companies and individuals can commit a percentage of earnings and/or other resources, to support black and indigenous communities of color who have carried psychedelic traditions or been most structurally impacted throughout psychedelic history
- Companies can also engage in dialogue to seek input as needed to make changes to their business model or approach based on the feedback from these groups
- Conference organizers, media platforms, podcast hosts, event coordinators, and others building platforms across psychedelics have an opportunity and obligation to raise marginalized perspectives and build power and influence for marginalized voices by committing to an ethos of representation for black and indigenous people of color in their work
- The War on Drugs is a national disgrace. It has cost trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, and millions of broken families, while leading to militarization of the police, mass incarceration, and criminalization of black and brown bodies. It has categorically failed to achieve its intended results
- It is time to end drug prohibition regulations and laws, which cause as much, if not more, societal harm than the drugs themselves
We can start by collectively affirming as an organization, as a field, and a society, the fundamental truth that black lives matter. So long as that freedom for life is denied, the American Dream will be a broken promise.
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Cited Resources:
- Make No Mistake: Cannabis Equity Can't Wait; Janet Burns; Forbes
- 'This was supposed to be reparations': Why is LA's cannabis industry devastating black entrepreneurs?; Sam Levin, The Guardian
- Boardroom diversity is falling in some of the biggest companies in the US; Business Insider
- Missing pieces report: The 2018 board diversity census of women and minorities on Fortune 500 boards; Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), in collaboration with Deloitte
- A Brief History on the War on Drugs; Drug Policy Alliance
- Race, Race-Based Discrimination, and Health Outcomes Among African Americans; Vickie M. Mays, Susan D. Cochran, and Namdi W. Barnes
- Health Inequality Actually Is a "Black and White Issue", Research Says; Jordan Imhoff, Michigan Health
- Sacred Reciprocity: Supporting the Roots of the Psychedelic Movement;Celina De Leon, Ph.D; Chacruna
- Towards and Ethos of Equity and Inclusion in the Psychedelic Movement; Chacruna
- Militarization fails to enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation; Jonathan Mummolo; PNAS September 11, 2018
- Again Drug Prohibition; ACLU
Our Words Are Not Enough
By North Star Project
North Star engaged over one hundred psychedelic stakeholders, including elders, clinicians, investors, and community, to develop the North Star Ethics Pledge.
The pledge is a beginning - a baseline commitment toward shaping work in the psychedelic field around integrity. The pledge is a tool for naming an intention.
The pledge is a beginning - a baseline commitment toward shaping work in the psychedelic field around integrity. The pledge is a tool for naming an intention.
North Star Ethics Pledge
North Star is 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:
Stay Connected
We invite you to take the North Star Ethics Pledge and to share your own ethics statement far and wide. If you'd like to support North Star - in time, resources, or feedback - please email us, [email protected].
Pledge Creation Process
The North Star team came together after the publishing of We Will Call It Pala. Each of us saw a need to raise a critical dialogue around integrity in the commercialization of psychedelics. We shared a concern that moneyed interests were not only going to take power, but control the narrative. We believed there could be a better way.
Thus began a six month process of community dialogue. It started with a dinner with twenty of the elders we respect and admire most, asking questions around their hopes and fears for this moment in psychedelics, and what they'd like to see done. Similar dinners happened with clinicians and therapists, asking for their perspectives on commercialization and what would support them in this time, and investors oriented around impact. Here a concern was raised of a "nuclear arms race" effect, where unethical actors would have a competitive advantage to seize power, rapidly scale and control the narrative.
During this time gathering perspective, the North Star team was distilling the feedback into categories, the basis for the principles, and researching other examples of ethics commitments across industries and time. From that point forward the pledge went through four drafts, with one on one feedback with dozens and dozens of stakeholders representing different coalitions in the field.
The principles in the pledge, and the possible actions, are generated by the community. We see our role at North Star as stewarding this process, soliciting perspectives, opinions, concerns, considerations and feedback. This is reflected in the framing of the pledge - it is participatory, not prescriptive. It doesn't tell anyone how they have to behave. It invites people into a dialogue with themselves and others around what it means to put integrity at the heart of their work in the field. The hope for the pledge is that it helps people step into their own power in culture shaping, and serves as the foundation of a community that can take an ethics-first, patient-focused approach to safely scaling psychedelic healing.
Thus began a six month process of community dialogue. It started with a dinner with twenty of the elders we respect and admire most, asking questions around their hopes and fears for this moment in psychedelics, and what they'd like to see done. Similar dinners happened with clinicians and therapists, asking for their perspectives on commercialization and what would support them in this time, and investors oriented around impact. Here a concern was raised of a "nuclear arms race" effect, where unethical actors would have a competitive advantage to seize power, rapidly scale and control the narrative.
During this time gathering perspective, the North Star team was distilling the feedback into categories, the basis for the principles, and researching other examples of ethics commitments across industries and time. From that point forward the pledge went through four drafts, with one on one feedback with dozens and dozens of stakeholders representing different coalitions in the field.
The principles in the pledge, and the possible actions, are generated by the community. We see our role at North Star as stewarding this process, soliciting perspectives, opinions, concerns, considerations and feedback. This is reflected in the framing of the pledge - it is participatory, not prescriptive. It doesn't tell anyone how they have to behave. It invites people into a dialogue with themselves and others around what it means to put integrity at the heart of their work in the field. The hope for the pledge is that it helps people step into their own power in culture shaping, and serves as the foundation of a community that can take an ethics-first, patient-focused approach to safely scaling psychedelic healing.
