The Trip Report Issue 3
Published April 26th 2023
In this third issue of The Trip Report. We look at new evidence that shows early Europeans consumed psychoactive drugs 3,000 years ago. Uruguay’s National Party Filed a Bill to ‘decriminalise’ 'natural psychedelics', and finally. The US State of Oregon issuing additional Psilocybin cultivation licenses.
New Evidence Shows Early Europeans Consumed
Psychoactive Drugs 3,000+ Years Ago
The first story we’ll look at this week comes from a small cave in the southwestern region of Minorca, one of the Spanish Balearic islands. The cave known as ‘Es Carritx’ was first discovered by spelunkers (individuals that enjoy exploring caves) back in 1995. The cave is thought to have been used as a burial and ritual site for 1,000 years during the Bronze Age.
Archaeologists investigating the cave found over 200 intact burials near the entrance of the cave dating back to around 1,600 BCE. They also found many objects deeper in the cave including six wooden boxes, four horn containers, and a comb amongst other artefacts.
Researchers from the University of Valladolid would later surmise that “Some individuals reluctant to abandon ancient traditions, concealed a collection of ritual objects belonging to certain members of the community, possibly shamans” before hiding the totems “deeper inside the burial ground of the ancestors.”
Upon opening several of the boxes archaeologists discovered an “exceedingly rare” find, 3,000-year-old locks of human hair. The samples were incredibly well preserved and researchers believe they were likely removed during a burial-type ritual performed at the cave centuries ago.
Recently Professor Elisa Guerra-Doce and her team from Valladolid Uni decided to analyse the ancient hair samples including drug testing. After consuming drugs they circulate in the bloodstream where they become constituents in external growth tissues like finger/toenails and hair follicles. Thus allowing it to be detected in dead tissue years after it separates from the host, so to speak.
28 years after the cave was first discovered, the results of the team's investigation were published on April 6th 2023. Despite previous botanical analysis conducted at Es Carritx finding “no remains of drug plants.” The new study found that early Bronze Age Europeans consumed several “highly psychoactive” alkaloids over sustained periods at the site.
The alkaloids found in several of the tested hair samples included the deliriants Scopolamine and Atropine, and the stimulant Ephedrine. They found that “The length of the hair strands and the analysis of segments all along the hair shafts point to consumption over a period of nearly a year; hence, drug intake was sustained over time probably well before death.”
The team believe that all three compounds are likely derived from plants indigenous to the island. The two deliriants Scopolamine and Atropine from ‘Mandrake’ Mandragora Autumnalis, ‘Henbane’ Hyoscyamus Albus, or ‘Thorn Apple’ Datura Stramonium all members of the Nightshade family. While the stimulant alkaloid Ephedrine is thought to come from the plant ‘Joint Pine’ Ephedra Fragili.
Direct evidence for early human consumption of psychoactive plants has previously been discovered by archaeologists in ancient Asia and the Americas. Previous excavations and investigations of ancient sites around Europe have yielded plenty of indirect evidence of early drug consumption. However, this study now confirms the long-held suspicion that early Europeans regularly consumed different psychoactive plants for a multitude of reasons.
The researchers believe that the drugs were consumed for ‘medicinal’ and ‘ritual’ practice but acknowledge that further investigation is required to clarify some lingering uncertainties about the site. It's interesting that many academics and researchers defiantly continue to label the historic adult use of psychoactive drugs in ancient cultures as ‘ritualistic’.
I believe that most of these academics are suffering from the internalisation of decades of state-sponsored propaganda, drug exceptionalism, hindsight bias, and historic presentism. While consuming alcohol, caffeine, refined sugar, and tobacco they produce research papers in which they label ancient drug use as either ‘medicinal’, ‘spiritual’, or ‘ritualistic’.
This is in my opinion, due to prohibition propaganda and the assumption that the adult use of drugs is a uniquely modern phenomenon practised only by lower-class ‘addicts’, ‘degenerates’, and ‘criminals’ in society. This isn’t an isolated issue in the realm of academia. This institutional ignorance permeates throughout the entire field of scientific human enquiry and the endless intellectual pursuit of truth.
The homogenising of human experience by medicalising and pathologising historic and current drug consumption denies the fact that it is our basic right to explore our consciousness, expand our awareness, and experience the profound and the mysterious on our terms.
Uruguay’s National Party Files Bill To ‘Decriminalise’
Clinical Access To Natural Entheogenic Drugs
The second story in this issue comes from Uruguay. Where the smallest of the South American nations ruling centre-right National Party has just filed a new Bill aimed to ‘decriminalise’ clinical access to 'natural' psychedelics in the country.
The Bill led by business mogul turned Senator Juan Sartori seeks to provide limited ‘legal’ access to some natural and synthetic psychedelic drugs that have already been proven effective in the treatment of numerous mental health conditions. These include Psilocybin, Psilocin, Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), Ibogaine, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and Mescaline.
“The different psychic disorders that affect the population are a problem that has to be faced as a State policy. Even more so, considering that these pathologies are presenting more and more in adolescents and young people, which makes the state duty to ensure their health and well-being urgent.” - Senator Juan Sartori
This has incorrectly been reported by several media outlets as a bill to ‘legalise’ psychedelics, however, as you can see above several of those are synthetic drugs. Although that shouldn’t detract from or diminish the positive effects and benefits of consuming those wonderful compounds.
This proposal isn’t a form of ‘legalisation’ as the proposed legislation would remove/reduce the current criminal sanctions for the possession, production, and distribution of these compounds. However, this will only be for ‘scientific and medical-therapeutic purposes’ for individuals with a pre-existing condition through prescription and only under the “strict supervision” of “specifically trained psychiatrists.”
The Bill would still prohibit the advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of entheogenic products in any form of media in the country. It would also keep the current penalties for drivers caught driving with arbitrarily detectable levels of the compounds in their system. It’s not currently clear if personal possession, production, and distribution will be ‘decriminalised’ under the proposal.
This isn’t the first time the South American nation has legislated a change in its drug laws. Back in 2013, it became the first country in the world to ‘legalise’ cannabis. Although in practice it only ‘decriminalised’ a few specific cannabis-related offences in specific circumstances.
Uruguayan citizens and residents registered with the government can lawfully purchase a limited number of cultivars from certain pharmacies, however, this is restricted to 10 grams a week and 480 grams a year. So-called ‘smokers clubs’ are allowed and can cultivate up to 99 plants for a maximum of 45 members – who are restricted to purchasing just 480 grams a year. The cultivation of up to 6 plants at a time is also allowed but is again subject to the same arbitrary limit of 480 grams a year.
When presenting the bill, Senator Juan Sartori, made some rather naive comments about how this would “guarantee safe consumption" and that "the uncontrolled use and lucrative sale of substances will be avoided which, without medical follow-up, may also involve health risks."
It is worth noting here that the bill’s author, Senator Juan Sartori, is a Uruguayan multimillionaire businessman, son-in-law of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, and co-owner of Sunderland AFC who turned politician in 2020. His investment company manages a fund with a multitude of domestic assets including agriculture, energy, real estate, cannabis, and more recently psychedelics.
In the previous story, I assert how a kind of drug exceptionalism and confirmation bias is increasingly pathologising human drug consumption. However, I do wonder if there is an additional element that I failed to consider. What if the increased prevalence, acceptance, and promotion of ‘medicinal cannabis’ and ‘psychedelics’ in academic, business, and political circles is the neo-liberal establishment attempting to weaponise them to try to save capitalism?
Think about it for decades they have proclaimed that individuals that suffer mental distress as a consequence of institutional classism, social inequity, and massive wealth inequality have a mental health disorder. They have pathologised poverty rather than acknowledge and accept its role in creating and worsening it.
I suspect the establishment may have discovered that if you can temporarily relieve the continuous stress caused by an individual's environment through these compounds you can stop them questioning it and thus challenging it. Or perhaps this Huxleyan dystopian nightmare is just my distrust and paranoia manifesting itself, who's to say?
Oregon Issues Additional Psilocybin Cultivation Licences
The final story we’ll be looking at this week comes from the West Coast US State of Oregon. Where the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) and the Oregon Health Authority have issued an additional two Psilocybin manufacturing licences.
As we discussed in the inaugural issue of The Trip Report Oregon rubber-stamped the approval of its first Psilocybin cultivation licence to Satori Farms PDX LLC Last month. The day after the second manufacturing licence was issued to Satya Inc. A company that in their own words ‘intends to become a global leader in the psychedelic treatment space.’
“It’s hard to describe how thrilling this is, we are among the first group of applicants to be fully licensed to grow Psilocybe Cubensis for legal consumption in Oregon. We believe we are among the first to ever be granted this privilege on earth, in history.” - Andreas Met, Satya CEO
Although I can understand the Satya CEO's excitement and enthusiasm. I cannot help but feel that calling it a privilege glosses over the brutal history of colonialism, cultural erasure, and the legacy of the war on drugs.
"We lease a 100+-year-old barn to conduct our business. It's really cool to take something that old and revitalize it so we can help provide legal access to something that has been used since ancient times. We need to remember that the barn was built on land used by Indigenous people for generations before the barn was built. We need to acknowledge that fact and pay respect and homage to the people that were here before us." - Andreas Met, Satya CEO
While I recognise and appreciate the company’s ‘Land Acknowledgement’ statement and social equity plan attempts to address some of these issues. It still feels to me that the ‘legalising’ of any previously lawfully restricted compound for profit, while the average individual remains criminalised for doing the same, is just an extension of the most pernicious and predatory aspects of prohibition.
As of the writing of this blog, the US state of Oregon has now issued three cultivation and three facilitator licences. There have not yet been any laboratory and service centre licences granted by the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS). This means that none of the 'Psilocybe Cubensis', currently the only strain of psychoactive or ‘magic mushrooms' approved by the OPS, produced by licensed manufacturers can be used in licenced services.
“Many applicants are working through complex issues, such as working with their cities and counties on zoning or ensuring the proposed premises meets requirements. 'We are prioritizing applications in the order received and working to provide site inspections for those that are ready.” - OHA spokesperson Afiq Hisham
Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) expects licensed service centres to open and licensed facilitators to begin providing services in the Autumn. I cannot find any details on the company granted the third licence at this time.
Written for TheSimpaLife.com by Simpa
