DeVannon Hubert is a podcaster and drug policy advocate. In one of his books, Sex, Drugs, and Jesus, he opened up about his experience growing up between Texas and Louisiana - where he was incarcerated for drug charges. His insights on racist drug policy in the South highlight the need for urgent drug policy review and access to harm reduction measures.
Uniquely and innovatively, DeVannon explored his identity by combining mainstream society's concepts of sacred and immoral values. Host and founder of the podcast “Sex, Drugs, and Jesus”, DeVannon breaks the taboo on the war on drugs, sexual preferences, and religion. He opens an alternative path to discuss healing with psychedelics and advocates for progressive drug policy review.
DeVannon describes his book and podcast “Sex, Drugs, and Jesus” as a memoir of self-destruction and resurrection. Talking about the convergence of sexuality, drug use, and Christian belief is a way to advocate for mental health, especially because many folks with these life priorities can be marginalized or demonized by their lifestyle. Listen to DeVannon's theory about the connection between sex, drugs, and Jesus:
As a Black person living in the South, DeVannon was stopped, followed, and harassed by police department officers. In one of these profiling practices, he was incarcerated for violation of controlled substance prohibition. During this unpleasant ordeal, DeVannon reflected on police brutality, police corruption, and the targeting of people of color. Further, he compares drug policies in Louisiana and Oregon. Liberation priorities transform our experience of existing societal behaviors that are considered taboo, such as drug use and prostitution:
The war on drugs targets people of color. The church can demonize drugs and their users through its ideology. DeVannon discusses how drugs can be used to heal social trauma through psychedelic therapy. MDMA, ketamine, marijuana, and mushrooms brought many folks to jail and are now treated as psychedelic paths to potential psycho emotional bliss. New drug policies, however, need to integrate those grassroots activists who were first to advocate for drug liberation. Folks like DeVannon are unlikely to join the billion-dollar psychedelic industry after legalization. Most of the existing liberalized legislative frameworks exclude access to people with previous criminal records.
Drug policy review is not only about the decriminalization and legalization of drugs. Progressive policies must address the diversity of the psychedelic industry and the inclusion of people of color in harm reduction measures. After traveling to Latin America, DeVannon witnessed how cartels and police could have unwritten agreements allowing access to drugs even under prohibition. These agreements can reduce violence between law enforcement agents and drug dealers. Despite not being a legal measure, these agreements are common in many geographies. This is evidence that the war on drugs is motivated by structural racism, not public health concerns.
After a trip to Oregon, DeVannon was inspired by local drug policies. Measure 91 legalized cannabis products, which must be tested, sold in an approved display, and labeled properly. Measure 110 decriminalized all drugs and provided support for recovery and addiction treatment. DeVannon concluded by sharing his idea of fair drug commercialization paradigm, one that breaks with vocabularies of war and the demonization of drugs.
Oregon
Land of green forests and green herbs, Oregon is often in the news when discussing drug policy. In 2019, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission announced that the state produced twice as much cannabis as people were using . That year Oregon made almost $116 million in tax revenue from cannabis - a resource used to support education, public health, and governmental agencies. The infographic below contains information about drug policy in Oregon.
Oregon is the only state where the rate of arrests for people of color is disproportionately lower than the arrest rate for the overall population. People of color represent 8% of Oregon's population and made up 7% of marijuana arrests in 2019. As the numbers show, it is not a diverse state. The racial imbalance is also reflected in access to legalized entheogens, defining who has access to the now legal substances.
Other odd numbers in Oregon that reveal the impact of Measure 91 (the ballot bill that legalized Cannabis for adult use) are the sales by county. In 2021, Malheur County alone sold $111 million in recreational and medical marijuana . This is not surprising considering that Malheur County has less than 32,000 people and borders Idaho - a state where marijuana is illegal for medical and recreational use. Idaho arrests people of color for marijuana possession twice as frequently as whites.
As observed, Oregon's review of drug policy encompassed sales logistics, lack of diversity in advisory boards, and lack of representation of people of color in the psychedelics business. We interviewed three drug policy advocates in Oregon to discuss these and other topics. The following sessions will explore drug policy review with Dr. Rachel Knox and safe access to psychedelics with Evan Segura and Gabe Kates-Shaw.
Health Equity
Dr. Rachel Knox, MD, MBA, is a cannabinoid medicine specialist and clinical endocannabinologist trained in family and integrative medicine. She works with her family to advance education in cannabinoid medicine and practices.
As a policy and regulatory consultant on cannabis and psychedelics, she advocates for education and research about the health implications of cannabis, psychedelics, and other plant medicines. Through health equity, plant medicines offer the potential to positively impact the total well-being of communities of color .
Dr. Knox belongs to a family of doctors based in Oregon. As an African American woman in the United States, she is part of a group historically targeted by the drug war. The commitment of her and her family to use plant medicine to heal patients and provide equitable access is inspiring.
Cannabis is a plant medicine that can heal trauma, support health treatments, and generate economic revenue. It is common to hear from patients, doctors, parents, and entrepreneurs about the damage caused by misleading information about cannabis in popular culture generated by the war on drugs. Equity must be the main goal of cannabis regulation to address social injustice in historically burdened communities, such as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx folks. Dr. Knox created the Cannabis Health Equity Movement (CHEM) TM as a tool for educating about and exploring the potential for achieving health equity with cannabis. Knox’s idea combines pillars of economic equity, environmental equity, human equity, and social equity in a move towards equity in matters of health and wellbeing.
Health equity is not a medical term; health equity is a term of wellbeing
In Oregon, the war on drugs may be drawing to a close, but the scars of this American nightmare remain. As Dr. Knox states, "there is not a single person in this world who has not been impacted by the war on drugs". The war on drugs is a collective trauma in American history, but for Black identities, the prohibition impacts access to cultural knowledge, such as an awareness of the historical cultivation of hemp. And with Nixon's war on drugs, Black communities became targets of police brutality and prohibition of behaviors and lifestyles. The result of this injustice is a direct impact on the health equity of African-American communities. Even with the shift of Cannabis values for medical treatment and trauma healing, people of color in America might not consider psychedelics as a pathway to health equity.
Dr. Knox participates in many medical, business, and equity boards, including as the past chair of the Oregon Cannabis Commission and a current member of Oregon’s Psilocybin Advisory Board. With progressive drug policies, Oregon can be seen as a narco paradise. However, major challenges in Oregon drug policy include the mental health crisis and the lack of diversity in decision-making positions, such as advisory boards and psychedelic associations. And as Oregon is leading the psychedelic revolution, it is important to discuss diversity and mental health on the path to legalization and liberation. Therefore, other governmental agencies and the third sector can be aware of the existing challenges of progressive policies.
Building community
As discussed in the previous interviews, safe spaces for healing with psychedelics are necessary for the Oregon population. Meet Evan Segura and Gabe Kates-Shaw, who work on bottom-up approaches to educate the Portland community about psychedelics. Their initiative of building a community with psychedelics allows people from multiple identities and backgrounds to connect and share experiences and narratives.
Evan is the president of the Portland Psychedelic Society and Plant Medicine Healing Alliance. He works to legalize and provide access to plant medicine without cultural appropriation. Gabe is a harm reduction and social justice educator in the psychedelic community. He facilitates integration and discussions about mental health in safe spaces for multiple identities.
Portland Psychedelic Society is a nonprofit that educates the community and creates space for psychedelic healing. Despite the progressive policies in Oregon, psychedelic experiences are still taboo in traditional communities. Or, existing spaces for psychedelic conversations can exclude people based on race, gender, and mental capacity. Evan explains the importance of respecting identities in the psychedelic community.
Even after legalization, racism and stereotypes remain in psychedelic communities. This resulted from drug war tactics that incorporated prohibition values into American culture. One example is the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program which used law enforcement agents to educate high school kids about drug use. D.A.R.E. strategies follow the drug war idea to demonize and prohibit drugs, drug users, and plant medicine. Gabe Kates-Shaw started his drug advocacy work with family and friends by explaining the benefits of psychedelics for healing traumas and diseases. When Gabe moved from New York to Portland, he discovered an elevated discussion to educate the community about drugs, to provide safe access to psychedelics, and to make these measures legal.
Conversations about psychedelics break the taboo about drugs and side effects. It is common to hear from people who never experience any drugs about the risks of brain damage. The lack of safe spaces to discuss the effects of psychedelics leads to misinformation. Consumption of alcohol has caused degenerative brain damage for many years, but mainstream society is not worried about brain damage caused by alcohol. Dialogues can break the taboo on psychedelics and tell stories of healing, empowerment, and self-discovery.
People of color represent only 8% of Oregon's population. As people of color in psychedelic leadership, Gabe and Evan have learned diverse values in small group conversations. People of color can use psychedelics to connect with their spirituality and heal from stress and trauma. Plant medicine is ancestral knowledge from Black, indigenous, and Latinx groups. The overwhelming white presence in the psychedelic industry can run over the spiritual values of psychedelics through acculturation and cultural appropriation:
- Acculturation = the process of assimilating a unique culture into a dominant culture. Acculturation leads to generalization and erasure of values through time to fit in a dominant culture.
- Cultural appropriation = the adoption of values from unique cultures without proper acknowledgment or context. For example, cultural appropriation can happen by commercializing spiritual practices from a minority group by a larger ethnic group.
Drug policy reform can focus on social justice through reparations. Gabe and Evan stated they "would like to see every last person incarcerated in the state for a drug offense freed immediately." Incarceration removes a person's ability to enjoy life and freedom. Other reparations include the end of discrimination against all drug users, public treatment for traumas and drug abuse, supply of safe paraphernalia, and drug test centers.
Unfortunately, drug users are still seen as lesser people not deserving of care and respect.
Gabe and Evan reflected about how prohibition policies can marginalized bodies and ideologies of freedom. Drugs and sex are huge taboos in American society - but it does not erase these pleasures of society. Americans can buy drugs and pay for sexual content. Legislation on drugs and sex content also varies from state to state. Drug dealers and sex workers are vulnerable to severe punishment. Progressive legislation must not forget the ideology of liberation from drugs and sex started with drug dealers and sex workers breaking the law.
Evan and Gabe pointed out Project Fireside - a psychedelic peer support through a hotline. People can call or text 62-FIRESIDE to debrief a psychedelic experience or to have someone to talk to during a bad trip. Harm reduction measures consider the "Set, Setting & Drugs framework to assess the risks of drug use.
- Set = all factors related to the person consuming the drug, such as the mental and physical state.
- Setting = all factors related to the environment of drug consumption, such as people in the surrounding area, presence of police, and dangerous scenarios.
- Drug = all factors related to the drug consumed, such as dosage, combination with other substances, drug potency, and ways of consumption.
After legalization, harm reduction, safe spaces in psychedelics, and open communication are key actions to educate and build community. Legalizing plant medicine, such as marijuana, ayahuasca, and magic mushrooms takes the lead among American voters. The medical community also discusses the use of ketamine and MDMA for therapy. But many other drugs are ignored by ballots that are part of American society. Drug policy activists like Evan Segura and Gabe Kates-Shaw expect more educational resources, more discussions about safe access to all drugs, and less discrimination among drug users.
Join Us!
This storymap compiled information on crime data, maps, and storytelling to show the scenario of access to psychedelics in America. Some places, such as Louisiana and other states in the South, still have prohibited policies and incarcerate a majority of people of color for accessing drugs. On the other hand, Oregon and other states on the West Coast are pioneers in liberal drug policies. However, the liberation of psychedelics is not a magical potion to end the drug war. After legalization and decriminalization, legislators and the third sector need to work to address social equity, fair access, and safe spaces for the psychedelic community and their realm.
Cannabis leads the path to legalization, decriminalization, and education in drug policy. Observing the pattern timeline of legal events in American states, it starts with decriminalization to medical legalization. Then, recreational legalization boosts tax revenues invested in education, law enforcement, and public health. Later, discussions about equity and diversity come to the table. These discussions can help with the integration of people with drug charges in the psychedelic business and the acceptance of ancestral Black and Indigenous knowledge in plant medicine.
The psychedelic revolution is urgent, and action is needed now! DeVannon Hubert shared that the drug war built a law enforcement culture of targeting, disrespecting, and killing Black people. Dr. Rachel Knox opened a path for drug policy centered on social justice and health equity. Evan Segura and Gabe Kates-Shaw built safe spaces to debrief psychedelic experiences and discuss collective trauma. These activists are changing the narrative of drugs in the United States. Because instead of persecuting people for having drugs in their pockets, the main conversation shifts to why, how, and in which situations drugs are a resource to society.
People of Color Psychedelic Collective wants integration, harm reduction, education, and social justice in the psychedelic community.
POCPC organizes events to educate about harm reduction and existing drug policies. Through art, music, and storytelling events, POCPC creates safe spaces for people of color. In safe spaces, folks can share their experiences and insights about psychedelics. Click on the button below to visit the POPCP website and learn about future events and resources.