Below is my formal comment I submitted to the OHA. Please email publichealth.rules@dhsoha.state.or.us to submit your own written comment by 5:00 p.m. PDT on April 21, and if you can, also sign up to make direct verbal comments on April 18 and 21. Also, please click this link to join an event the Portland Psychedelics Society is hosting at 6:00 p.m.
Category: Featured
Support CA’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Act and SB 54!
Our world is in a rapid state of change, both culturally and physically. Our planet’s life-giving cycles of carbon, water, and nutrients, and the living systems that depend on them, are under threat worldwide. We need to lower our consumptive impact on the planet – especially from global CO2 pollution and generation of waste – use our natural resources wisely,
Let’s Strategically Raise the Minimum Wage for All Workers—with Paid Overtime for Farmworkers
In 2016 I authored an article titled “Raise the Minimum Wage Now! With a Smart, Fair, Incremental and Regional Approach,” where I stated with regards to the federal minimum wage (emphasis added) that: When a person working 40 hours a week can’t cover the basic costs of living, there’s something deeply wrong with our economic system.
5 Policy Changes to Transform Public Safety that are not “Defund the Police”
As we’ve grappled with recent discourse around solutions to the epidemic of police violence that overwhelmingly affects people of color, we—as the leadership of Dr. Bronner’s—have discussed whether “Defund the Police” is the right message for our company. What does “Defund the Police” mean exactly? How will it be interpreted by our customers? Is there consensus within the company around “Defund the Police” as a policy and message?
Psychedelics at a Crossroads: We Need Constructive Not Extractive Capital
In her recent thoughtful and well-researched article for Vice, Shayla Love asked, “Is it possible to create an ethical psychedelics company?” A lot of focus in the psychedelics space over the last few months has centered around the unethical behavior of select companies—David himself has weighed in. Our take is that it’s not only possible to create an ethical psychedelics company,
Acting Against Hate Towards Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
This statement was initiated by Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) employees at Dr. Bronner’s along with our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) taskforce. Reports of anti-Asian hate crimes rose nearly 150% in America’s largest cities last year, reflecting a growing trend of discrimination against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Covid-19 pandemic. This week alone,
Sounding the Alarm on Compass’s Interference with Oregon’s Psilocybin Therapy Program
It’s time to publicly call out the for-profit psychedelic pharma company Compass Pathways, for their monopolistic and shady behavior. This Vice article, “Can a Company Patent the Basic Components of Psychedelic Therapy”, details their recent attempts to patent a clinical setting with mood lighting, soft furniture, subdued colors and a good sound system. This was after they tried to patent psilocybin synthesis in a way that would occupy the field and prevent awesome nonprofit drug development companies like Usona and B-more,
Dr. Bronner’s Supports Menstrual Hygiene in Rural India
Imagine being a young girl growing up in rural India. Your family is poor. Your father is a farmer and your mother is a housewife. You want to go to school and break out of the cycle of poverty. But then, you menstruate for the first time, and people tell you that it’s better to stay home during “that time of the month.”
My Life-Saving Ayahuasca Journey: Healing the Warrior Within
by Jesse Gould
As the sun started to rise, I woke up covered in sand and bug bites, hungover, and overflowing with anxiety; I had spent the night on the beach. It was the morning after Thanksgiving and my whole family was in town. The dinner had gone well, fueled by good friends and family, old stories, and,
The Unified Field Theory of Psychedelic Integration and Portugal Style Decriminalization
How non-profit psychedelic drug development harmonizes with efforts to decriminalize plant medicines and legalize psilocybin therapy for all; and how all support broad-based Portugal style decriminalization This article, recently published in the 2020 MAPS Spring Bulletin, discusses key strategies in motion to mainstream access to psychedelic medicine and therapy in the U.S.. To introduce the topic in the context of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the urgent climate change crisis we face,