Health

Last October, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, I held the Open Parliament: Psilocybin and Psilocibes Mushrooms, an Opportunity for Mexico. The objective of this parliament, which was made up of 3 working groups, was to socialize the therapeutic use and benefits of psilocybin mushrooms and psilocybin among decision makers.

During the first table, we had the presence of medical specialists in mental health and psychotherapists, who shared their perspective on the state of mental health in Mexico and the potential therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms and psilocybin. According to the experts, we are facing a mental health crisis and a change of perspective and the adoption of new therapies are necessary to deal with it.

At the second table we had the honor of hearing the voices of Mazatec doctors, who shared their vision and struggle to preserve their knowledge regarding the use of psilocybin mushrooms in their culture and medicine. We were also accompanied by doctors from the Katukina people of Brazil, who highlighted the importance of recognizing, rewarding and taking advantage of the immense wisdom of the original peoples.

The last table had the objective of exploring the necessary mechanisms to establish rules and regulations to support the conservation, research and use of psilocybin and psilocybin mushrooms with a perspective of defending the rights of native peoples and nature.

Now, in follow-up to the Open Parliament: Psilocybin and Psilocibes Mushrooms, an Opportunity for Mexico, I am pleased to invite you to follow through my social networks and those of the Senate of the Republic, the “Intercultural Forum of Entheogenic Medicine”, which will have place on January 24 and 25, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

This space will be an exercise to appreciate the ancestral knowledge of entheogenic medicine in America from different perspectives. In Mexico, these types of substances are classified as prohibited substances, which has limited their investigation, despite being part of the traditional medicine of our indigenous communities and their benefits in the treatment of mental disorders proven by the scientific community.

Through interculturality and multidisciplinarity, we will address the richness that surrounds the ancestral use of plants and mushrooms with psychoactive properties, and that are fundamental to indigenous worldviews in our country and in the Latin American region. We will have the presence of the scientific, anthropological, legal and indigenous community, the importance of giving life to new agreements for the respect, legality and biopreservation of the ancestral knowledge that surrounds said entheogens.

Let us remember that Mexico ranks first in biodiversity of psychoactive flora and fauna, and we must take regulated use, the protection of the ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples, and the promotion of its bioconservation seriously. This is a unique opportunity for Mexico to play a leading role regarding the responsible regulation of psychedelics.

We must always keep in mind that biomedicine and traditional medicine are not two worlds at war, they are worlds that connect and complement each other to achieve the health of the people, the well-being of all.