Alas, it was my own mistake as I tried to scroll up and accidently pushed one of the hyperlinks in my browser. :roll:
Attempt #2.
Things I've tried:
Together with some others I set up a foundation aimed at furthering research into psychedelics and the psychedelic experience (
http://www.stichtingopen.nl, there's an english equivalent of most sections). We organize talks by researchers in this field, for example Jeremy Narby, who gave a talk about his ayahuasca research for about 150 students, and Valerie Mojeiko of MAPS who talked about the MAPS sponsored research of psychedelics in end-of-life anxiety patients and how they went about to do this. The talks were a big success, but I had the impression that only those people came who were already interested in the subject. Our next lecture will be on ibogaine in the treatment of addiction and I hope that more people who don't have any idea about psychedelics will come, just to spark some enthusiasm or have a good debate about both our and their misconceptions about drugs. We plan on inviting some people who have their jobs in the regular addiction-treatment facilities in Amsterdam to argue about whether or not iboga could be helpful. We are supported by some of the big names in the field, and a lot of people think we are doing a good thing, but from being close to the action I've noticed not a lot of things are going on.
Things that failed:
The foundation exists for 1 year now. We have managed to do a lot, but mainly we've been preaching to the choir, as it is hard to attract people with no genuine interest in the subject to our lectures. There has been no research that we could either help or fund as we currently don't have any money. It is very hard to do shit on your own and most of our peers are more interested in their own personal development than actually helping us gain knowledge about drugs and spreading clear information. We are trying to set up a database of all psychedelic research but find it is very hard to organize and evaluate all this material. Some material can be found very easily, other promising articles were published in obscure journals that no university holds in their collection. There is a huge academic taboo on psychedelics, and even those professors that support our cause are hesitant to be on something like a board of recommendation (very useful for getting funding). I am frustrated by how hard it is to get things done and have come to realize that it is partly because we are only working on one part of the problem. There are still bigger problems, mainly those concerned with the druglaws that withhold us from achieving better results. Science is dictated by the law, censured by it and this is a bad thing, especially if people hurt themselves and others because they don't know anything about these substances.
About GOD's strategy:
I think part of why it has been so silent is because you have a lot of experience (more than most of us) and thought about it for about as long as most people here have conscious memories off. It is hard to see the things you have forgotten, because we weren't there from day one.
That being said, there are of course ways to refine this strategy. The education part is really important, because ultimately we need to change public opinion about drugs. Well, not exactly change the opinion as show how their opinion is shaped by propaganda, offer clear and balanced information and let them change their own opinion without interfering. I think another valuable addition would be for psychonauts to sign up at the organizations that provide drug information to teens. I had this guy from the police who basically told us that heroin is bad and therefore all drugs are bad, so nobody believed him. If we can show real results and speak from experience, we can reach these kids easily and possibly save lifes. I think schools are willing to cooperate on this one (at least here in the Netherlands they are), because they see that the current strategy doesn't prevent people from trying drugs and our alternative would reduce a lot of harm. Information should be clear, concise, true and well written. Anything that sounds like hippyshit or even the exact opposite of the current drugpropaganda is doomed to fail.
I like the idea of a festival, but it has to be organized locally. Right now we are spread all over Western Europe (right? or are there any North-Americans here?), which makes it hard to get things together. I am sure I can find some people here who are willing to help. We have this legalize movement that is basically a lot of hippies smoking weed in the streets once a year, but I think they would be interested in being part of our strategy once we convince them that there is more at stake and they should focus on law/education as well. I know some people there, so I can ask around. This should be done by everyone here, so we cover at least some countries and can inspire others in other countries to do the same.
Demonstrations can be good if they are fun to go to. Otherwise you just get a bunch of anarchists and cryptocommunists that are against everything and take 'action' (=do nothing) for a living. So I agree with GOD.
I am very interested in the way laws work and how we can turn things around. The legal strategy is something that needs thinking about, as right now we just hire some big law firm to handle cases, but we need to combine this with lobbying. We need to see what we are up against, namely big Pharmaceutical Companies (who have money like water, have managed to shape public opinion for decades and don't want cheap alternatives for their expensive 'medicines') and a holier-than-thou-morality in politics that prevents fringe ideas to enter the mainstream. We need to turn things around and let them play by our rules. Collective action is the way to go and I am currently looking at strategies to achieve change collectively. We have to study history and why the current laws are in effect. We have to study how laws can be changed, how we can show that the laws don't change a thing in the real world except make things harder for any civilian.
Civil disobedience can be very effective. But this requires some people to take a hit for the team. The first 100 people who take acid in front of a policeman might be arrested. If we organize a festival or something we should be careful that nobody overdoes it and dies or hurts himself or others, so there is no reason for the police to crack us down. We have to have a drug emergency team that knows their shit and can help in case of both psychological and physiological crises. If you attract unexperienced people to a festival like this, it can backfire if you don't take precautions.[/url]
