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veggie

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The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture 2
#28557997 - 11/27/23 06:20 AM (1 month, 30 days ago) |
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The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture November 27, 2023 - Baptist News by Kaleb Graves
The Psychedelic Renaissance has arrived.
From Blue states like Oregon and Colorado to conservative stalwarts including Utah and Texas, bills to make psychedelics legally accessible are spreading quickly.
Stereotypical drugs from 1960s and 1970s counterculture like magic mushrooms, mescaline and LSD are numbered among these substances, along with relative newcomers like 5-MeO-DMT and 2C-B.
The flood of interest in these substances is primarily derived from their demonstrated potential to treat mental and physical illnesses including PTSD, depression and addiction. However, there is another element involved in their popularity as well. Psychedelics have a reputation for inducing powerful spiritual experiences.
In both clinical and recreational settings, psychedelic drugs set into motion the “trip.” Ingesting these substances can cause ineffable changes to one’s senses, cognition and sense of self that resemble mystical experiences. Indigenous cultures have used psychedelic substances like magic mushrooms and peyote to interact with spiritual realms for thousands of years, and spiritual experiences continue to be relevant in medical research today.
Spiritual experiences
In one Johns Hopkins study, more than two-thirds of subjects said their psychedelic trip was one of the top-five most important spiritual experiences of their lives. This has led some psychedelic researchers to hypothesize that mystical experiences are not just a byproduct of the psychedelic experience. They are the means by which psychedelics heal.
To someone who never has ingested psychedelic substances, the testimonies or “trip reports” of these experiences may seem unbelievable. The first effects of a moderate or high dose psychedelic trip are subtle. Colors become more vivid, synesthesia begins and time becomes distorted. As the psychedelic trip progresses, all-encompassing hallucinations of changing colors, shapes and sounds may emerge. Within these vivid altered states of consciousness, people have reported meeting Jesus Christ, traveling on cosmic journeys of flying through heaven, visiting infinite Buddha-fields, and a variety of other ineffable occurrences.
These overwhelming psychedelic trips have the capacity to shake up our core religious beliefs about the world. A Johns Hopkins survey of psychedelic users found belief in the afterlife and spiritual beings like angels increased by about 30% after a powerful trip. Belief in panpsychism, the idea that all the universe has capacity for or contains consciousness, nearly tripled.
Political displacement
But spiritual beliefs are not the only aspect of one’s identity that could be altered by psychedelic encounters. Our political philosophy, the beliefs we hold about how to best construct a society, can be altered as well.
Of course, a renaissance is a rebirth, the renewal of something lost. Our own 21st century Psychedelic Renaissance is a partial rebirth of the 1960s and 1970s in America. At that time, these drugs were associated with a counterculture of sexual revolution, radical Leftist politics and a general distrust of traditional authority.
As other Christian advocates and I have discussed the Psychedelic Renaissance in church settings, I have noticed something is missing. Christians do not yet recognize the potential political displacement that can emerge from psychedelic use.
Psychedelics are only one aspect of a far larger cultural shift already occurring. A walk through stores like Urban Outfitters or Five Below demonstrates youth culture is returning to the symbols and aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s. Instead of creating new symbols, it is easier to return to symbols that came during a previous period of widespread sociopolitical upheaval. Instead of free love, the chatter is about polyamory. Instead of a war abroad stealing young American lives, the national tragedy is routine mass shootings.
Psychedelics were a common way to engage with this social destabilization 50 years ago. Since more than 8% of young adults report past-year psychedelic use, they may be such a force today.
While some studies have demonstrated a weak link between psychedelic experiences and anti-authoritarian attitudes, there is no evidence psychedelic experiences can change one’s political affiliation directly. However, it may be that psychedelics can open someone to radicalization within a familiar ideology.
Studies have demonstrated psychedelics may increase one’s openness to new ideas and concepts. Moreover, the previously mentioned Johns Hopkins survey about changes in metaphysical beliefs includes another relevant point: 36% of respondents said the psychedelic experience led them to believe “there is a hidden or deeper purpose to life and all of existence about which many people are unaware.”
Once one has seemingly encountered God or entered the heavens, it is hardly surprising they decide there is more to life than building an investment portfolio so they can comfortably retire and die in a nursing home. After such experiences, one may begin seeking this deeper purpose to life in radical groups that defy conventional norms beyond mainstream institutions.
This is especially the case for recreational psychedelic users, who already are designated as felons by the U.S. government and alienated from mainstream society and organized religion.
Timothy Leary
Psychedelics were intricately linked with American counterculture elements ever since Timothy Leary, the self-proclaimed “High Priest of LSD,” encouraged young hippies to “turn on, tune in and drop out” of mainstream society in 1966. Instead of the traditional path, Leary said people should explore communal lifestyles, free love and creative protest. Later psychedelic revolutionaries continued to foster this anti-establishment political and religious attitude. Some, like legendary psychonaut Terence McKenna, even preached of an inevitable apocalyptic showdown with an oppressive, closed-minded federal government in which the forces of the loving, peaceful counterculture would win.
This does not mean psychedelic epiphanies always led to peace, love and understanding. They also can lead to terrorism and hatred.
In late 1969, the Leftist terrorist group Weather Underground began a series of bombing campaigns, including attacks at the United States Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. Two Weather Underground communiques from 1970 mention drugs, declaring “LSD and grass, like the herbs and cactus and mushrooms of the American Indians… will help us make a future world where it will be possible to live in peace. Now we are at war.”
While working with the Black Panthers and a psychedelic group named Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the Weather Underground also was responsible for breaking Timothy Leary out of prison.
Likewise, it is often forgotten that the Manson Family, responsible for the murder of nine people, was a racist and Neo-Nazi political cult, not just a religious one. Cult leader Charles Manson believed he was destined to ignite a race war in America and rise from its ashes as a king over Black Americans. LSD played a prominent part in the cult’s practices, reinforcing the sects’ racist beliefs and actions during Manson’s indoctrination rituals.
Since the beginning of the current Psychedelic Renaissance, we have seen some inklings of this same political extremist phenomenon. Particularly, some white supremacist domestic terrorists have become associated with psychedelic substances.
In 2020, three members of a Neo-Nazi militia called The Base were arrested while trying to synthesize the psychedelic drug DMT. Publicized text messages from a Neo-Nazi member of the Atomwaffen Division, a Manson-influenced Neo-Nazi group, also reveal a specifically religious connotation to psychedelics. While searching through online white supremacist forums like Stormfront, I have found a plethora of hateful ayahuasca drinkers and violent acid droppers.
Of course, these violent or hateful political associations are not an inherent or even particularly common result from psychedelic drug use. The vast majority of psychedelic users, including those who believe in a hidden deeper purpose, do not engage in hatred or violence. Most are part of mainstream religions or eccentric-yet-harmless new religious movements. However, the fact remains that we are in an age of staggering instability and misinformation which fuels escalating ideological terrorism. Without the support of a trustworthy community, those who open their minds to seek meaning after a psychedelic trip may end up under the influence of bad actors.
A Christian opportunity
In the midst of this psychedelics-engendered metaphysical and existential upheaval, Christians have a unique opportunity to offer safe harbor for meaning-seekers. However, we cannot do this by offering the same old solutions to ever-increasing crises. Only extremism can be a rational response to the failures of moderation. The real question, to quote Dr. King, “is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?”
Self-soothing activism and self-congratulating sermons are not nearly enough. In the face of apocalyptic climate change, bigoted militias and the erosion of democracy, we must offer risky action that actually challenges the status quo and empties ourselves of institution-preserving wealth for the sake of the poor and marginalized. To psychedelic subculture and our culture as a whole, the church must offer an extremism of love: a radical Jesus-following counterculture.
Looking to the past, we can find inspiration for present endeavors. The 1960s and 1970s also were marked by a unique kind of Christian counterculture that directly appealed to psychedelic users. For most, this did not explicitly include psychedelics.
Father Daniel Berrigan made his mark through fiery words in “Quotations from Chairman Jesus” and other revolutionary speeches and publications, but these were not mere words. He and the other Catonsville Nine raided a Vietnam draft office and burned their records in the name of Christ’s peace. This action won them the ear of a nation, and it made him a fugitive. Berrigan’s peace signs and cool demeanor in arrest photos would have meant nothing to hippie onlookers without his radical actions and sacrifice.
Some Christians chose to closely integrate their radical socio-political gospel with psychedelic subculture. In the 1960s, a small group of evangelicals began converting to Christianity after LSD-fueled visions. In 1967, some of these self-proclaimed Psychedelic Christians founded The Living Room, a commune and mission in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Despite its Flower Power reputation, this infamous hippie region was haunted by thousands of isolated young adults facing sexual abuse, drug overdose, food insecurity, homelessness and predatory cult leaders. The Psychedelic Christians intended to intervene in this dark situation.
Unfortunately, The Living Room lasted less than two years before conservative funding dried up as a result of inaccurate, negative press coverage. Yet, this experiment had a profound and lasting impact. Nearly 20,000 people received spiritual and physical care in that short period. Even aforementioned cult leader Charles Manson spent time at the mission before it became quite clear his message was not welcome.
Yet through all this, drug use was still welcome, or at least tolerated. Sharing a social marijuana joint was accepted as a means of outreach. Even as some members began moving away from LSD use in a communal environment, they did not condemn it outright.
‘Extremists for love’
While some may have misgivings about the Psychedelic Christians’ evangelistic model or the Cantonville Nine’s outright arson, these examples should nonetheless spark our imagination. As a result of psychedelic drug use, people are emerging out of the fatal slumber of consumption-driven materialism to ask, “Is this really all there is?”
They cannot quietly rejoin the shambling sleepwalkers on their way to global climate crisis, social disintegration and wasted or exploited lives. While it is essential to wrestle with the theological questions that psychedelic trips may pose, that is not enough. We cannot become “so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.” We must offer a radical Christian ethic of life. We must be “extremists for love.”
One common element of the psychedelic experience is a complete sense of unity and overwhelming love for and from the world around us. That love for our neighbor and creation we call “gospel” is not owned by any cactus, mushroom, or chemical. It is accessible to all through a daily, mundane life committed to our Lord and God Jesus Christ.
Once one has truly known that love, it is etched onto our bones like chisel to tablet or nail to cross, and we cannot continue business as usual. We must speak. We must act. We must show seekers a path worth following.
Kaleb Graves is a CBF minister and educator living in North Carolina. He earned a master of divinity degree from Duke Divinity School in 2023.
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Typerwritermonky
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: veggie] 1
#28559559 - 11/28/23 02:50 PM (1 month, 29 days ago) |
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My friend is a psychedelic head I'm helping guide into how it's properly done, and he's definitely big into the "psychedelic Jesus" stuff. He's not really into the bible, but fully believes Jesus is the son of God and was sent here and really existed and was on this Earth physically. He's pretty progressive as well, so I can definitely see the Christian counterculture working in a positive way if this is how they could be.
But odds are is it won't work out and will be grifted or fucked up in some way. Then again, the Church of Satan does pretty good, maybe a Christian Psychedelic thing could work? Like maybe 2% of christians are actually good people, so if they all got together and just made their own sect that could be a pretty good thing I guess.
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sonoramo
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: veggie] 1
#28560196 - 11/28/23 11:08 PM (1 month, 28 days ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: ...One common element of the psychedelic experience is a complete sense of unity and overwhelming love for and from the world around us. That love for our neighbor and creation we call “gospel” is not owned by any cactus, mushroom, or chemical. It is accessible to all through a daily, mundane life committed to our Lord and God Jesus Christ...
This is a long article and there's a lot to unpack. I'll start with this paragraph near the end.
The plant and fungus medicines don't "own" anything, but they sure make an experience of "complete sense of unity and overwhelming love" much more likely and readily accessible than a "daily, mundane life committed to our Lord and God Jesus Christ." If legalized or decriminalized psychedelics present an opportunity for the Christian churches, they'll have to accept that people returning from an entheogenic experience may or may not connect that experience to Christian practice or beliefs. How they make meaning of the experience can be influenced by set and setting, but it's still highly unpredictable.
Once they realize that psychedelic experiences cause their most dogmatic adherents either drop the dogmatic ideas or wander off to esoteric or individualistic belief systems, most Christian churches will resist any inclusion of psychedelics in their practices or retreat offerings.
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TheBuddha
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: veggie]
#28560616 - 11/29/23 11:13 AM (1 month, 28 days ago) |
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When I was 18, a profound ego death transformed my life. In that moment, feeling like I was dying, I, then an atheist, began to pray, asking for life if there truly was a God. As time passed and the feeling of death persisted, I accepted my fate, saying my non-verbal goodbyes and letting go. At that moment of surrender, an inner knowing-ness assured me, 'Consciousness never dies, it only transforms.' With that realization, I lost all sense of personal self and merged into God. In this state, I understood that my existence was eternal, beyond birth or death. Jesus appeared in this experience, leading me to explore various spiritual texts, from Christianity to Hinduism through the years. I now believe that avatars such as Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Zoroaster came to elevate human consciousness, offering mankind the potential to reach these higher states.
Regarding religion, One excerpt from a book I have been studying called Eye of the I states that, " There are two sources of error stemming from traditional 'True' religions. The first is simply misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the specific teachings of the original great teacher. Because the original listeners, or followers, were not themselves enlightened, the original teachings were contaminated by their egos. The second and more prevalent gross distortions are spiritual teachings that is what is usually referred to as 'Church doctrine'. These regulations, often in the form of guilt provoking prohibitions, were actually totally made up by church officials and supposed authorities who, in reality, had no claim to authority at all but instead had acquired political power in the structure of the institution at the time."
The above stated is very apparent at higher levels of consciousness as I am sure some of you have experienced through psychedelic means.
All great teachers teach nonviolence, non condemnation, and unconditional love...
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GenesisCorrupted
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: veggie] 1
#28560957 - 11/29/23 03:34 PM (1 month, 28 days ago) |
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I hate organized religion. I would have described myself as being a respectful nihilist. Until I tried ayahuasca… Now I have fully embraced the Taoist I always was. It’s potential for waking people up is the reason why it should be legal right now. It is also the reason why it is illegal right now. Gov does not want people to have an issue with the horrible things that these companies are doing to the earth and it’s people. That’s the only reason I feel like psychedelics have been held back this long.
They are billionaires right now. They don’t want anything to change. Keep your eyes open. Because a scapegoat is coming. Marijuana induced psychosis wasn’t good enough. So they’re going to find something bigger. Or maybe instigate a situation. As long as we keep calling out the propaganda when we see it. We don’t let any of these evil people hold us back from our freedoms anymore. We are on the cusp of an actual spiritual awakening.IMO
Edited by GenesisCorrupted (11/29/23 04:29 PM)
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Holybullshit
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: veggie] 3
#28562327 - 11/30/23 03:33 PM (1 month, 27 days ago) |
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It seems to me like the title has it backwards.
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durian_2008
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: sonoramo]
#28562521 - 11/30/23 05:37 PM (1 month, 27 days ago) |
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Quote:
“Quotations from Chairman Jesus” and other revolutionary speeches and publications, but these were not mere words. He and the other Catonsville Nine raided a Vietnam draft office and burned their records in the name of Christ’s peace.
No one is going to completely unravel his physical reality, to arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is a Maoist or neocon.
Also, religion itself begs questions about the working of miracles that would tend to strike fear into so many captive industries. For instance, what if you suddenly became happy, healthy, needed for nothing, and exalted to the level of judging angels.
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sonoramo
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: Holybullshit] 2
#28563680 - 12/01/23 11:45 AM (1 month, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
Holybullshit said: It seems to me like the title has it backwards.
If by that you mean, "Christianity needs a psychedelic renaissance," that ship sailed long ago. But (to stretch the metaphor) it left with only a few passengers, and it is not visible on the mainstream's radar.
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Terratic
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: sonoramo]
#28567975 - 12/04/23 08:50 AM (1 month, 23 days ago) |
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I used to be in favour of legalization, but I've become less convinced that it's the right move, mainly because we can't agree on what these substances are meant to be used for, and what kind of effect they really have. Insofar as Christianity is concerned, 'pharmakeia' is likely forbidden. The article provides no real answers for these issues.
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GenesisCorrupted
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: Terratic]
#28567986 - 12/04/23 09:02 AM (1 month, 23 days ago) |
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I don’t think anyone should get in trouble for using this stuff. I’m not talking about designer chemicals. But anything that grows out of the ground. No way should people get in trouble. Federal legalization is the only way to stop this pointless drug war.
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durian_2008
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: GenesisCorrupted]
#28568125 - 12/04/23 11:02 AM (1 month, 23 days ago) |
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Jim Jones had a communist notion of Christianity (before the kool aid).
The neocon churches all have that gold fringed, American flag. (One of my private school mates, the pastor's daughter, is now principle over a military school.)
Bible trivia questions...
What did the Christian God originally say about establishing cities and having royalty, in the Bible?
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Terratic
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: GenesisCorrupted] 1
#28568429 - 12/04/23 02:54 PM (1 month, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
GenesisCorrupted said: I don’t think anyone should get in trouble for using this stuff. I’m not talking about designer chemicals. But anything that grows out of the ground. No way should people get in trouble. Federal legalization is the only way to stop this pointless drug war.
To be fair, there is a compromise with decriminalization vs. legalization. A certain degree of that exists with psychedelics already (i.e., spore kits, san pedro, DMT containing plants, etc.). These substances don't make much money, are physically safe, and incidents are rare. No one will rob you at gunpoint to get a mescaline fix.
Producers of addictive substances are a different monster, though. "Their body, their choice" is all well and good until you realize that people depend on each other for survival, and inevitably impose their will on others when that is threatened. Just imagine if a large percentage of the population became addicted to morphine, and the drug producers decided to withhold their supply for some political purpose. It'd be a fucking disaster.
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sonoramo
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: Terratic] 1
#28569863 - 12/05/23 12:39 PM (1 month, 22 days ago) |
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Quote:
Terratic said: To be fair, there is a compromise with decriminalization vs. legalization. A certain degree of that exists with psychedelics already (i.e., spore kits, san pedro, DMT containing plants, etc.)....
Right now the line of compromise is not in a great place. Any activity toward producing a psychedelic consumable, other than growing the plants or looking at spores under a microscope, is still illegal except in CO and some cities. (In three states, even spore possession is illegal.) That makes it pretty much infeasible for larger religious or spiritual communities to instigate ceremonial use or even develop any kind of ceremony. Ceremonies have to stay underground, and that guarantees that the religious mainstream will never consider them legitimate.
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GenesisCorrupted
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: Terratic]
#28569881 - 12/05/23 12:56 PM (1 month, 22 days ago) |
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If we continue to make “compromises” Then the only people that will be able to produce possess or control these substances will be billionaires. I want to have access to these. I don’t think a company to have a patent on mushrooms…
Federal legalization is the only path forward without hurting lots of people. And taking away freedoms that everyone should have access to.
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durian_2008
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: GenesisCorrupted]
#28569892 - 12/05/23 01:02 PM (1 month, 22 days ago) |
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Quote:
Then the only people that will be able to produce possess or control these substances will be billionaires.
So you do or do not believe in bodily autonomy, when there are claims of social costs, under a declaration of emergency.
What is left to take, after self ownership of one's physical person?
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GenesisCorrupted
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: durian_2008]
#28569906 - 12/05/23 01:11 PM (1 month, 22 days ago) |
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There is somebody who thinks he has patented ketamine.
That person is terrible and has nothing but money on their mind.
Psychedelics should not only be produced and allowed to be possessed by billionaires. I should be able to grow those in my house.
Lobbyists don’t think that’s OK. Because they want to make money.
I want federal legalization. I don’t want those people to make any more money. I want to be able to produce these compounds. They don’t think they should be able to be produced by the average man. They pretend that is because of safety concerns. It is plain greed.
Edited by GenesisCorrupted (12/05/23 01:27 PM)
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durian_2008
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Re: The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture [Re: GenesisCorrupted]
#28570152 - 12/05/23 04:13 PM (1 month, 22 days ago) |
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That's not how patenting works. Assuming that it is not a federally controlled substance or wmd, you can typically use the proprietary info all you want, in private, but have to pay royalties if you want to profit from someone else's R&D.
Quote:
That person is terrible and has nothing but money on their mind.
Probably true of a patent troll, price fixer, or revenuer.
Quote:
Lobbyists don’t think that’s OK. Because they want to make money.
I want federal legalization.
I think of a polity as a kind of muscle that will atrophy and whither away if it is not used.
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