The 2023 reMind Psychedelics Business Forum was held Nov. 28-29, 2023, at the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. More than 30 expert speakers presented the latest insights and information in the field of psychedelics with the goal of advancing this emerging industry responsibly and ethically. The videos of the sessions are now available online.
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Two highly respected thought leaders in psychedelics kicked off the reMind Psychedelics Business Forum with an in-depth fireside chat that explored the indigenous histories with psychedelic medicine, the current status of indigenous human rights, and what every psychedelic professional and entrepreneur needs to know about these sacred medicines to shape better business practices.
The session, titled “The Hopeful Convergence of Indigenous Rights and Modern Industry,” featured Ricardo Baca, CEO and Co-Founder, Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency, and Julia Mande, Facilitator and Co-Founder of A2C / Common Field. The conversation explored everything from reciprocity and benefit-sharing, to the cultural differences between cannabis and psychdelics, to specific actions the business community can take to ensure an equitable industry.
“Reciprocity isn’t charity, reciprocity is relational, and conceptually it is a consensual and mutually beneficial. To have mutual benefit there needs to be agency between both parties and a balance of power. Right now where we are as a global society is there is an imbalance of power,” Mande said. “Indigenous wisdom keepers keep these medicines alive, and we are learning from Indigenous technologies like ceremonial practice. Reciprocity is honoring what has been shared.”
The pair also addressed why synthetic psychedelics should bear the same cultural considerations as natural psychedelics.
“Why should people working in ketamine consider the same kind of indigenous issues that they are asked to consider when working with peyote and ayahuasca?” Baca said. “I first wanted to share this, as written by some of our friends over at MAPS, as they helped introduce Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas: ‘With psychedelic plants, there is a tangible relationship between ourselves, our act of consumption, the histories that have made this act possible, and the ecological, cultural, and material cost of that medicine making its way into our hands. Even when using a synthetic psychedelic, or any other synthetic product, that relationship is further obscured, but it is still there at its core.’”
Watch the complete Fireside Chat…
More about our speakers:
Ricardo Baca is a 20-year veteran journalist and drug policy architect. He was appointed The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor in 2013 and founded news vertical The Cannabist, where he extensively covered the advent of the U.S. adult-use cannabis market and related issues around the world, as seen in the feature documentary Rolling Papers. Ricardo launched Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency in 2016 to work directly with business leaders in cannabis, psychedelics and spirits. In 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Ricardo to the state’s first-ever Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to policy development around the state’s eventual psychedelics framework.
Julia Mande is a catalyzing facilitator for awareness-based systems change. She works with leaders to align strategy with values. Through Adapt to Complexity (A2C) she provides generative solutions to complex socio-environmental issues. Julia works with purpose-driven founders to launch and develop programs for meaningful social impact and has implemented programming in emerging sectors advancing soil health, plant medicine, conscious leadership, and decentralized management. Julia is a first-generation American, born in New York and raised in Zimbabwe, a daughter of emigrants from Morocco and the Jewish Diaspora.
Two highly respected thought leaders in psychedelics kicked off the reMind Psychedelics Business Forum with an in-depth fireside chat that explored the indigenous histories with psychedelic medicine, the current status of indigenous human rights, and what every psychedelic professional and entrepreneur needs to know about these sacred medicines to shape better business practices.
The session, titled “The Hopeful Convergence of Indigenous Rights and Modern Industry,” featured Ricardo Baca, CEO and Co-Founder, Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency, and Julia Mande, Facilitator and Co-Founder of A2C / Common Field. The conversation explored everything from reciprocity and benefit-sharing, to the cultural differences between cannabis and psychdelics, to specific actions the business community can take to ensure an equitable industry.
“Reciprocity isn’t charity, reciprocity is relational, and conceptually it is a consensual and mutually beneficial. To have mutual benefit there needs to be agency between both parties and a balance of power. Right now where we are as a global society is there is an imbalance of power,” Mande said. “Indigenous wisdom keepers keep these medicines alive, and we are learning from Indigenous technologies like ceremonial practice. Reciprocity is honoring what has been shared.”
The pair also addressed why synthetic psychedelics should bear the same cultural considerations as natural psychedelics.
“Why should people working in ketamine consider the same kind of indigenous issues that they are asked to consider when working with peyote and ayahuasca?” Baca said. “I first wanted to share this, as written by some of our friends over at MAPS, as they helped introduce Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas: ‘With psychedelic plants, there is a tangible relationship between ourselves, our act of consumption, the histories that have made this act possible, and the ecological, cultural, and material cost of that medicine making its way into our hands. Even when using a synthetic psychedelic, or any other synthetic product, that relationship is further obscured, but it is still there at its core.’”
Watch the complete Fireside Chat…
More about our speakers:
Ricardo Baca is a 20-year veteran journalist and drug policy architect. He was appointed The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor in 2013 and founded news vertical The Cannabist, where he extensively covered the advent of the U.S. adult-use cannabis market and related issues around the world, as seen in the feature documentary Rolling Papers. Ricardo launched Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency in 2016 to work directly with business leaders in cannabis, psychedelics and spirits. In 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Ricardo to the state’s first-ever Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to policy development around the state’s eventual psychedelics framework.
Julia Mande is a catalyzing facilitator for awareness-based systems change. She works with leaders to align strategy with values. Through Adapt to Complexity (A2C) she provides generative solutions to complex socio-environmental issues. Julia works with purpose-driven founders to launch and develop programs for meaningful social impact and has implemented programming in emerging sectors advancing soil health, plant medicine, conscious leadership, and decentralized management. Julia is a first-generation American, born in New York and raised in Zimbabwe, a daughter of emigrants from Morocco and the Jewish Diaspora.
