Biography/Memoir

Black Americans Are Building A Space In Psychedelic Drug Culture After Being Ignored For Decades

…Michael Pollan, Michael Mithoefer, and other white men who are supporting the use of psychedelic drugs to combat mental health issues. The problem goes beyond researchers too: raters (people who subjectively evaluate a patient’s response to a medical treatment); sponsors (an individual, institution, company or organization that takes the responsibility to initiate, manage or finance a clinical trial but doesn’t conduct it); participants — the whitewashing of psychedelic research has, and continues, to omit people of color.

“Psychedelics melt masks and if you’re wearing a mask to protect yourself the very last thing you would want is an experience where the mask is gone,” Powers said. “You’re exposing yourself without protection.” … In taking on this study, she has realized that there’s not an infrastructure for people of color in psychedelic research. The lack of minority participants and researchers is only one part of a larger problem. There’s the lack of raters of color as well as recruitment materials that specifically cater to minority groups. Even payment — commonly a check — can be a dilemma, considering some participants don’t have a checking account. “The foundation that was built for the study really needs to be completely torn down and rebuilt with diverse participants in mind. The problem is that takes time and energy and money so we’ve had to make a lot of compromises to even be able to do what we are doing.”

Original Article (OKPlayer):
Black Americans Are Building A Space In Psychedelic Drug Culture After Being Ignored For Decades
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Biography/Memoir

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Biography/Memoir

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