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The Psychedelic Content Creators Pushing The Culture Forward
The psychedelic space has catapulted from decades of underground obscurity into the global limelight over the last decade, thanks to high-profile clinical research and corresponding mainstream media coverage touting the potential medical benefits of molecules like psilocybin and MDMA, among many others.
A nascent “Psychedelic Industry” has emerged on the heels of the cultural and scientific establishment’s embrace of these compounds, while primetime coverage from Oprah to Anderson Cooper and every major news platform in between has been devoted to them.
And yet with years of mainstream media coverage and clinical phase drug development, it’s in fact a homegrown, decentralized network of online psychedelic content creators that have stepped in to contour and balance the narrative through first-person storytelling, DIY tutorials, and Gonzo-style advocacy built for virality and community-first education.
While traditional journalistic practices ostensibly require the reporter to remove their biases and perspectives in the course of covering a subject or story, influencer culture prioritizes the inverse – it’s precisely the anecdotal evidence and unique, unfiltered biases and insights that make the content resonate with audiences.
The psychedelic content creator community has found strength in numbers and emerged from the woodwork one post at a time to form a global network of creators providing real-world data points about psychedelic use in the 21st century that are grounded in lived experience and not hermetically sealed off clinical investigations.
The influence that these content creators have had on shaping the current state of psychedelic mainstreaming can not be overstated; they collectively have registered billions of views across platforms, and whereas the first wave of western psychedelic culture in the 1960s was entirely subject to government-directed mainstream coverage as part of a tightly controlled “official narrative,” the psychedelic zeitgeist we find ourselves in today is being shaped by a multiplicity of independent storytellers drawing from a deep well of lived experience.
Although a query for “Psychedelic” in the TikTok search bar will yield zero results, go down any mycology or psychedelic content rabbit hole on the app and you’ll see an endless scroll of creators and faceless accounts teaching you how to cultivate your own mushrooms, sharing the virtues of “Lemon Tekking,” or giving harm reduction tips to maximize benefit and mitigate risk when embarking on a psychedelic journey.
The irony is not lost on me that a generation subjected to prohibitionist “Above The Influence” anti-drug advertising campaigns churned out an incalculable number of literal drug influencers.
Has anyone done a campaign called “Above The Influencer” yet? It would be so Meta.
Speaking of Meta, what a clown show. If someone wants to post a sponsored ad for a traphouse chocolate made of research chemicals scooped up off the floor of a psychedelic industry trade show afterparty, that’s perfectly legal somehow, but God forbid someone with a PhD share best practices on mycelium tissue transfer in front of a flow hood.
Content creators have had to get scrappy to stay alive while navigating the often ambiguous and seemingly arbitrary community guidelines and content policies of the various social media platforms where they share educational and advocacy-focused videos and memes. From diversifying across platforms to having multiple backup accounts, these creators have defied the odds and evaded censorship, deplatforming, and mass reporting of their accounts to stay influential and to counter the narrative around psychedelics in society. Psychedelic content accounts for billions of views across social media platforms.
From TikTok to YouTube to Instagram to newsletters and podcasts, psychedelic content creators upload thousands of hours of content each week that drives the culture forward, byte by byte. Ironically, LinkedIn has become perhaps the most tolerant platform for psychedelic content creators in light of bans elsewhere – remember, it’s not trapping if you’re wearing a suit in your profile picture. TikTok has a built-in virality feature that functions essentially like a slot machine – you get a taste of virality and then spend the rest of your waking hours chasing it. This means that creators can and do often go viral overnight and can rack up a following in the hundreds of thousands, only to be deplatformed in the near future – it happens so often that it’s seen as a rite of passage in the space.
The creators listed below have been making consistent and dedicated quality psychedelic content for years, in most cases, battling deplatforming, censorship, and social stigmas. Others are newcomers who have brought a well-researched and exemplary quality to their consistent output.
If you were an anthropologist from Mars who knew nothing about psychedelics in the 21st Century, queuing up this feed of content creators in your algorithm would put you on the fast track to being an informed and empowered member of the ever-expanding psychedelic community.
When the aesthetic of most psychedelic news coverage feels stymied by realpolitik and state-sanctioned rhetoric, these psychedelic content creators and influencers make education and advocacy accessible in personalized, vibrant, and creative ways for a growing global audience.
There’s always going to be a sense of incompleteness when aggregating a compilation of creators as this list attempts – cries of “you missed xyz!” are inevitable, and often justified. And yet, this is the most comprehensive and complete overview of the psychedelic content creator ecosystem that exists to date.
So here’s to the ones that don’t fold when the digital overlords crack down – who pop up again and again like a flush of cubensis in a DIY monotub ready to turn on the world.
William Padilla-Brown has had an immense influence on DIY psychedelic and mushroom culture over the last decade. “Permaculture Papi” is a beacon to the art of self-mastery and spiritual growth through reclaiming connection to entheogens and traditional plant and fungi knowledge and running a co-op style business.
His online influence has extended into numerous high-profile IRL projects and events, including the annual Mycofest mushroom and arts festival that he produces in his home state of Pennsylvania. This high school dropout has lectured at major universities and been platformed on some of the most prestigious stages in the world, making regular appearances at Telluride Mushroom Festival and traveling internationally for keynote appearances and to lead mushroom cultivation workshops.
Josie Kins is a widely respected psychonaut artist and advocate who has turned heads with their ultra-realistic DMT visual AI hallucinations. Josi produced the live visuals for the comedy sets I did at Meow Wolf this year as part of the PORTAL takeovers. They have a strong cult following across multiple platforms and have stunned audiences in packed rooms at the SXSW and Psychedelic Science conferences in addition to their 115k subs on YouTube.
Mikaeal de la Myco is one of the most prolific online creators focusing on entheogens and traditional matriarchal knowledge involving mushrooms and other natural medicines. While her Instagram (@mamadelamyco) is currently in “Meta jail,” her advocacy continues unabated on TikTok for her 212k followers. In particular, Mikaela’s willingness to put herself out there in service to women and mothers has filled a huge gap in the plant medicine advocacy world and shown a rare temerity and resolve.
Accordingly, she’s no stranger to having her work suppressed and deplatformed online, yet has shown remarkable resilience in navigating the often arbitrary and demoralizing realities of digital censorship. If anything, her profile and influence have only grown with each attempt to minimize her online presence; when Meta bans her, she shows up on the psychedelic industry’s biggest stages and in mainstream media and research projects.
Emily Eaglin is the one-woman production studio behind the powerhouse Chrysantilus media empire. Chrysantilus stands alone in terms of production value, effusive hosting, and ability to be on-trend and consistently high quality with her output. She’s caught the attention of major comedians and producers, and has a pilot with Hannibal Buress to show for it.
She has grown to over 200k followers on TikTok through her frequent “Bubble Rave” livestreams, showcasing a harm reduction-focused and wildly entertaining style while racking up collaborations with major brands like Minnesota Nice Ethnobotanicals in the process.
Gabe Hardie creates educational content with a humorous flair. Through The Launchpad Podcast, Gabe has played a huge role in destigmatizing the Amanita muscaria mushroom. This psychoactive fungus is legal in 49 states and virtually every country, yet it has suffered from years of misinformation and confusion regarding its modern practical use outside of traditional ethnomedicine.
Alli Schaper is the creator behind the iconic mushroom brand Supermush and the host of the Into The Multiverse podcast. She is also one of the founders of Microdosing Collective, and brings a professional and polished yet approachable and relaxed aesthetic to her psychedelic content that has reached millions around the world.
Basidium Equilibrium brings over a decade of mushroom cultivation experience to the myco creator community and has numerous online tutorials and educational videos, getting into the nuances and highly specialized skills of working with mushroom genetics and fruiting mushrooms.
Fungstrate is an all-killer, no filler creator mainly focusing on content related to sterilized grain production for optimal mushroom yields. His down-to-earth style makes it feel like you’re in the garage with him dialing in moisture content and getting hands-on experience bagging your own grains. Also, look for off-the-cuff takes about the dynamics of the DIY myco industry – spoiler alert, don’t start launching grow courses and selling them online when you just learned how to cultivate from a turnkey grow bag a few months ago.
She Grows Fungi is a premium mushroom genetics and lab workflow content creator who posts primarily on TikTok after multiple Meta account restrictions. She has racked up over 30 million views across her mushroom content and is a great source for connecting with myco content.
Ashley from Boomer Shroomer has created some of the most visually compelling psilocybin mushroom content on the internet, racking up hundreds of millions of views with her signature Boomer Shroom inflatable monotub mushroom grow timelapses. A single one of her timelapses has garnered 76 million views on TikTok, and anyone with a feed curated to mushroom content has likely come across her content. The timelapses are genius in their simplicity, execution, and viral potential while bringing home mushroom cultivation education to people from all walks of life – because, let’s be honest: Who doesn’t love seeing a bumper crop of fungi fruiting in fast forward, caps spreading, veils breaking, and all?
Ash Ritter is an herbalist with a deep reservoir of fungal educational content spread across multiple platforms. In particular, her content on the mysterious Amanita muscaria mushroom merits recognition as some of the most thoroughly researched and exhaustively compiled content on the ethnomycology (folk traditions) and chemistry of this psychoactive fungus.
Brent Pella is a comedian and psychedelic content creator beloved for his portrayal of music festival wooks and the spiritually lampoonable. He nails the festival bro archetype and has successfully crossed over from online content creator to network television actor, scoring 500 million+ + views and being named a “Creator to Watch” by the New York Comedy Festival, among other accolades.
Jacob is Oklahoma’s #1 mushroom educator via the platform Oklahoma Fungi and has been making YouTube and online content about psilocybin mushrooms for over a decade. He has produced a series of incredibly successful live events that unite the online creator and home mycologist communities, and is beloved by all in the myco community.
If I didn’t know anything about the psilocybin mushroom space and wanted to get connected to educational material and practical knowledge in an accessible and professional manner, I’d start by tapping in with David Poplin of Humboldt Mycology. David was one of the first guests on the Mycopreneur Podcast over 4 years ago, and educated a broad audience of mycophiles on how psilocybin mushroom potency testing using an HPLC works. His ability to translate complex scientific processes into digestible phrases for people without a lab sciences background is just one of the many reasons why David has become an invaluable contributor to the psychedelic content space and more.
Monica Cadena is a California-based creator who focuses on psychedelics & sexuality among other topics of liberation through her Sacred Alchemist profile on Instagram. Her work has been widely recognized and her online content has inspired a community of activists and entheogenic advocates to challenge dominant narratives and stand up for the rights of the marginalized in the context of psychedelic corporatization and mainstreaming.
Mike Rosenstein and Donick Cary
The team behind the smash hit Have A Good Trip: Adventures In Psychedelics on Netflix is also active in producing content online and helping to platform and accelerate independent creators in the psychedelic space. Have A Good Trip has been one of the most important contributions to today’s era of psychedelic mainstreaming, as this style of intimate celebrity storytelling about their mind-expanding experiences has helped destigmatize psychedelics for millions of people around the world.
Myco Chanel brings elegance and sophistication to mushroom education and advocacy through her work blending nightlife, dance, and mushrooms.
Alex and Maga from Aleacion FUN are rising stars in the psychedelic content world, with particular regard to their Spanish-language educational videos about microdosing psilocybin mushrooms and Amanita muscaria.
First launched in Argentina a few years ago, they have branched out to have a presence in multiple countries and last year produced a series of professionally shot and edited mushroom microdosing educational content that they’ve made available for free across their social channels.
Anthony Sabia is the producer and community steward of Shroomski, an online and in-person hub for visionary art and psychedelic artists. He connects and accelerates mushroom entrepreneurs and artists through the Shroomski nexus, and has established the platform as a powerhouse in independent psychedelic media.
Red Headed Yeti is a psychedelic content creator on TikTok who covers a wide array of trip tips, drug chemistry, and harm reduction insights for his audience. He was recently deleted at over 300k followers and sprang right back to digital influence like nothing happened – he’s currently sitting at 50k followers on the app. Such is the way of the psychedelic Yeti.
Sam Douglas is an Australian psychedelic ethicist who is one of the few people devoting ample consideration and tasteful curation of content focusing on the ethics of the emergent psychedelic industry. Through his newsletter “The Ethical Trip” and associated social media profiles, he brings a flair for humor and a biting investigative journalistic aesthetic to hold accountable the powers that be as they attempt to create an industry around psychedelics.
Mattha Busby is a journalist and content creator who creates short-form content investigating stories ranging from music festival drug testing and harm reduction sites to allegations of abuse in underground communities, among many other topics. He covers the psychedelic field and community globally and often engages with the darker side of psychedelics in a capacity that many proponents of these drugs are unwilling to investigate.
Joe Moore is one of the Founders of Psychedelics Today, the planetary leader in psychedelic media and education. The Psychedelics Today podcast has been downloaded over 3 million times and has a broad reach in terms of the content under its umbrella, ranging from live interviews with experts in the emergent psychedelic field to nuanced coverage of different psychedelic substances and beyond.
Cesar occupies a unique content creation niche that has lent to his rapid growth and success as a psychedelic creator. His primary audience is people over 55 years old who want to learn about microdosing, as well as Spanish language content. A native of Colombia who worked as a producer for CNN for 25 years, Cesar brings a wealth of professional production experience and storytelling chops to his channel Cultivating Wisdom.
Ray Orraca is a staple in the visionary art world, known primarily for producing countless psychedelic art events from his home base at Moksha Arts in Miami. His approach to content creation is one of platforming and accelerating both up-and-coming visionary artists and established heavyweights. His network of visionaries and psychedelic community stewards bridges generations of pioneers, activists, and brilliant thinkers and is a one-stop shop for due diligence on the past, present, and future of psychedelic creators both online and offline.
Ireri Monter of Symbiosis Viva La Fungi in Mexico City is one of the most influential and active mushroom content producers and educators in the sprawling megametropolis of almost 20 million people. She was recently deplatformed from Instagram for reasons known online to the robot censors, but continues to make an outsized impact in her contributions to growing the mushroom community one online post and in-person workshop at a time.
Melissa from Twisted Tree Nursery plays an integral role in connecting and accelerating the mushroom advocacy space on multiple online and IRL fronts. One of their standout contributions to the content landscape came in the form of their “Vote Mushrooms 2024” satirical campaign. They produced a range of flags, apparel, fliers and more and distributed them to trippers across this great land to stand in solidarity together and ‘Wake Up America’ as the subtext to the slogan reads. I can’t be the only one who considered actually writing in ‘mushrooms’ at the ballot box.
Lady Hyphae makes psilocybin mycelium cultures look good – like, really good. In addition to having a feed filled with the most beautiful thick white strands of hyphae you’ve ever seen, she also showcases lab workflow by pouring agar plates in front of the flow hood to down-tempo vibe music. It’s a very meditative watch, and it’s for a good cause: growing mushrooms.
Broke Boy Mycology
Broke Boy Mycology is the people’s mushroom cultivator and educator – his content showcases a passion for mycology while demonstrating the accessibility and utility of the craft.
PGT is one of the OGs in the online mycology community creator space. With almost 200k subs on YouTube and a high degree of respect across the myco community, this content creator and educator continues to create turnkey mushroom cultivation tutorials and has a substantial influence on the evolving home mycology and psychedelic ecosystem.
Spore Daddy runs a TikTok channel educating people on how to kickstart your mushroom cultivation and entrepreneurial journey. He caught my attention in a big way with his recent ‘grow off’ against the Mexican Mycologist on TikTok. In a bid for the most punk rock thing I’ve ever seen in the psychedelic content world, these two creators go head to head, fruiting mushrooms out of the detritus of civilization. Spore Daddy started his process attempting to colonize and fruit psilocybes out of an old iPhone, a condom box, and a Nike shoe. This is the antithesis of the ultra-sterile and conservative legacy media coverage of clinical trials and FDA approval of psychedelic drugs – this is psychedelic content for the people.
Mexican Mycologist has been turning heads across social media with his experiments growing fungi out of everyday items like old Nike shoes, a Capri Sun box and even a bible. He makes home mycology fun and approachable, eschewing the traditional ultra-sterile lab approach for something that people without an ounce of lab experience can appreciate and connect with.
The Flying Fungi is usually out in the woods in a Speedo, picking mushrooms and waxing poetic about the good life free of societal constraints. He has been a community builder and connector in the mushroom space, advocating for microdosing education and bringing a wild spirit to the home mycology movement.
Adam Miezio is the lead content creator and curator for Global Psychedelic Week, and publishes psychedelic content with a number of different independent publications. He brings an eloquent writing style and well-traveled world-view to his content production.
Hamilton Pevec is a mushroom aficionado’s mushroom aficionado and a filmmaker’s filmmaker. He brings a wealth of experience in the video production realm and deep knowledge of the global mushroom industry to create compelling documentaries and informative videos about mushrooms, such as the extraordinary Psilocybe azurescens or the GABA system interacting biochemistry of the psychoactive Amanita muscaria mushroom. His deadpan delivery style and well-researched videos make him one of the go-to resources for mushroom educational content online.
Mahesh brings a well-rounded and digital native approach to high-quality psychedelic content production. Drawing from his experience working at the world’s foremost psychedelic lab while an undergrad in college, he brings a rare combination of clinical experience and Gen Z content savvy to the psychedelic influencer world. He also has a good handle on sound design and production chops, setting a high bar with both the legitimacy of his information and the quality of its delivery.
Rome Shadanloo is the driving force behind Mycology Psychology, an online educational community focusing on best practices and honorable approaches to microdosing mushrooms Rome draws from her background as an actress in Hollywood to create captivating and engaging content around mushrooms and to connect people to a community of like-minded seekers and practitioners devoted to learning about and sharing the gifts of the mushroom.
Kat Wash makes standout psychedelic advocacy and educational content with a personality that pops. Her videos ooze personality and fun, and make you feel like you’re having a casual conversation with her backstage in the green room after one of her famous DJ sets. Kat makes psychedelic content for people who like to dance and party responsibly – (one more line here)
Inoculate The World has been creating online myco content for years and has become the industry standard for clean and viable spores. They have a wealth of mushroom educational videos and content scattered across numerous platforms and have been a major benefactor in growing the home mycologist movement internationally.
Colin Wells is a creator known for his in-depth work focusing on veterans and psychedelics. Through the Veterans Walk and Talk online and in-person community, he has helped countless veterans access education and content related to taking control of their own healing journey by building a relationship with mushrooms and other psychedelic medicines.
Henry is the proprietor of Tricycle Day, one of the foremost psychedelic newsletters in existence today. He infuses a much-needed element of humor and memeology into his coverage of psychedelic science, culture and industry, and has garnered a devoted following of more than 75,000 readers in the process. Tricycle Day showcases an alternate approach to content creation and audience building in the era of social media bans and censorship; as the saying goes, “Don’t build your castle on rented land” – as such, Tricycle Day has managed to continue growing and prospering beyond the dictatorial purview of Meta and the overreach of social media bans.
Taylor Sterling of the renowned Father McKenna account on X has developed a cult following one 40-character tweet at a time – does anyone else still call them tweets as opposed to…xeets or whatever? The account provides actionable intel on pursuits like DMT extraction and functions as a psychedelic archive of sorts via quotes from historic figures in the space and harm reduction tips. Father McKenna was an anonymous account until last year, at which point Taylor shared that “Ayahuasca made me dox myself.”
Tyler from Find The Others makes YouTube videos about psychedelic culture and interviews other psychonauts. He brings a laid-back chillness to conversations about intense experiences and gives trip reports across his online channels.
Chris Pauli of Tryptonics is one of the world’s foremost authorities on elevated natural products testing, including psilocybin mushroom potency and minor alkaloid profiles, as well as mescaline and DMT containing products. He and Tryptomics Co-Founder Caleb King create and share online content related to the mushroom testing space, as well and as part of this have a public leaderboard up online that showcases the testing results from various samples submitted to the Colorado Psychedelic Cup. They’ve recently teamed up with Hamilton Morris of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia fame and have been slow-drip releasing content across Patreon and various social platforms en route to raising awareness about the underground psychedelic product market and understanding the ‘Entourage Effect’ in reference to the interplay of different minor alkaloids across entheogen profiles.
Ian Bollinger is one of the nation’s foremost psilocybin mushroom and natural medicine analytical potency testing pioneers who brings a hard science background to the emerging citizen mycology space. He is one of the leads on the Entheome Genome Project, an organization dedicated to archiving genetic data about the entheogenic plants of the world and providing open access to it. His work has been extensively cited by both underground product formulators and mainstream scientific concerns.
Lee Carrol is a dynamic educator focusing on mushrooms who brings a touch of pizzazz and a nebulous element to his work. As the resident content creator for mushroom industry powerhouse Real Mushrooms, he brings his deep knowledge of herbalism and fungi to timelines around the world on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and more while uplifting the vibe wherever his radiant smiling face registers.
Sharon Dopak creates content primarily on TikTok under the name ‘The Mushroom Nurse’. She brings her professional background of medical science to the creator conversation as an outspoken advocate for the benefits of psilocybin mushrooms, and manages to be both accessible and highly informative while analyzing current events and breaking down clinical research for a broad audience.
Fungi Flows is a mushroom hat-wearing freestyle rapper who drops mycocentric bars from coast to coast at various live events, in the parking lots before and after major concerts and sports games, and on stage at various rap battles and psychedelic conferences. He is truly doing his own thing in a big way and commands attention while spreading the spores of mushroom advocacy.
Ross Dillon is a stalwart in the psychedelic content creation and media space, running the social accounts for the prolific Psychedelics.com for a combined audience of over 600k primarily across YouTube and Instagram. This content empire has been subjected to frequent harassment from the Meta overlords, yet Ross continues to pump out quality work and triumph over any third-party interference, undeterred in executing the platform’s mission to educate, uplift, and inspire audiences around the world with compelling and impactful psychedelic educational content.
Mrs. Vicius is an OG in the mushroom education and advocacy space who played a significant role in helping to get psilocybin mushrooms decriminalized in Hazel Park, Michigan. She has had her Instagram account deleted 11 times as a result of her online advocacy, yet continues to create content and grow the mycelial network unabated.
Soma Phoenix is the creator behind Psilly Girls, a myco content outfit and harm reduction educational outlet. Psilly Girls creates mushroom content on Instagram and TikTok and is often found IRL on the mushroom and psychedelic conference circuit, vending adaptogenic mushrooms and bridging the gap between the online and in-person myco community.
Farmboy Slim is a TikTok creator with a devoted fanbase of over 500k. He brings flair for the dramatic to his content craft through the elaborate costumes and set design that have become synonymous with his output.
Paul Austin was one of the original psychedelic content creators and educators through his platform Third Wave, which has numerous media properties such as a podcast, newsletter, and online community in addition to a robust following across social media platforms.
Willy Myco has consistently pushed the boundaries of psychedelic content creation and educational videos, serving as the initial DIY mushroom education point of contact for many in the myco community. Through his YouTube and Patreon presence, Willy continues to empower a generation of psychonauts with information you won’t find anywhere else. He recently made history as the first person to publish step-by-step tutorials on how to synthesize both LSD and MDMA, going all the way to Pakistan to do so thanks to a government license he was granted there.
The Meddling Mushroom
A humble and down-to-earth educator who has built a respectable following teaching people about home mycology and how to cultivate mushrooms.
Twin Flames Mycology
A myco community creator who posts beautiful flushes of cubensis and exotic mushroom fruits.
Tomas of Hyphae Labs is the creator of the Mycozine, an independent zine that bridges the online mushroom community with a physical zine that goes beyond the realm of censorship and deplatforming. Tomas also hosts frequent lives on Instagram to platform mushroom researchers and entrepreneurs in an effort to continue growing the myco community.
Pete Sessa is one of the seminal psychedelic cultural documentarians of our time, thanks to his huge library of interviews, keynote recordings, and off-the-cuff content shot at the prolific Cannadelic conferences and events that he produces in Miami and St. Petersburg annually. From unfiltered takes by titans of the modern psychedelic industry like Rick Doblin and Paul Stamets to ‘run and gun’ style interviews with entrepreneurs and activists in their element on the showroom floor, on through recordings of late night afterparty circuit psychedelic comedians and entertainers, the Cannadelic Instagram and YouTube serve as a living conduit to the spirit of the modern psychedelic movement.
Zeus is a PhD candidate at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who creates deeply researched and attention-grabbing content from the frontlines of one of the world’s leading psychedelic research labs. He has a decorated background as a content creator and journalist whose work has spanned numerous high-profile collaborations. If it’s not the bleeding edge of psychedelic culture, it’s not Zeus’ content.
Photo by the one and only Emily Eizen
Stephanie Karzon Abrams is a clinical neuropharmacologist who brings a professional background in the pharmaceutical industry to her content strategy, educating about psychedelic medicines and clinical practice. She frequently breaks down psychedelic research into digestible points that people without a lab sciences background can more easily understand and connect with, and also brings a streak of fun and joie de vivre to her serious scientific content output.
Poppa Cap brings mushrooms and adaptogens into the kitchen with style. As the resident mixologist for Culture Shrooms in Long Beach, California, he creates effortlessly cool content that makes you want to put down the vodka seltzers and pick up the mushroom mojo-infused cocktails.
Jaret has captured the attention and hearts of millions online through his gnostic approach to psychedelic content creation. His content serves as a meditation of sorts and a challenge to the status quo of psychedelic corporatization.
Alex Plesner has grown a niche, albeit global audience and community of highly respected designers, artists, and creative professionals who all congregate around her Psychedelics Design platform. As the producer of various online events and “round table discussions,” her content connects and inspires people to apply their creative skills to designing an intentional and cosmopolitan global psychedelic community.
Daniel Shankin is the wizard behind Tam Integration, a platform for education and community building at the intersection of psychedelics, meditation, and integration. His content has accumulated millions of views across platforms and his online conferences and events have showcased some of the brightest minds in psychedelics.
This feature is presented as a curated editorial by Dennis Walker (@mycopreneur). Views expressed are those of the author.
All photos were provided by the respective creators.
Author: mscannabiz.com
MScannaBIZ for all you Mississippi Cannabis News and Information.
A dozen New York-licensed cannabis dispensaries are taking regulators to court over a screw-up by the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) related to their storefront locations being too close to schools.
The 12 petitioners filed the complaint on Aug. 15 in the New York Supreme Court in Albany County, against the OCM and the state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) over a school proximity correction that the office issued July 28. The correction, which impacts 108 dispensary licensees and 44 applicants with provisional licenses, intends to realign the OCM’s 500-foot measurement guidelines with state law.
Instead of continuing an entrance-to-entrance measurement between dispensaries and schools from the OCM’s erroneous 2022 guidance, the office now plans to measure the buffer zone from the entrance of a cannabis store in a straight line to the nearest property line boundary of a school’s grounds to move into compliance with New York’s cannabis law.
Following the proximity correction issuance, OCM Acting Executive Director Felicia A.B. Reid sent a letter on Aug. 6 to the 152 impacted businesses, clarifying that the 108 licensees may remain open or continue to work toward opening in their current locations as state officials push lawmakers for a legislative fix to grandfather in their locations. The 44 applicants, meanwhile, will need to move locations and will have access to $250,000 each from a $15 million relief fund to lessen their burdens.
Despite the assurance that the 108 licensees can remain put—and even continue to operate while the OCM delays reviewing any license renewals pending the legislative fix—the petitioners are asking the state Supreme Court in Albany to annul the OCM’s revised interpretation of Cannabis Law § 72(6) and declare that their locations remain compliant under a lawful reading of that law as well as the OCM’s 2022 guidance.
The 12 cannabis businesses are also asking that a State Supreme Court judge issue a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the OCM from taking any enforcement actions against them based on the office’s new interpretation of the law, forcing the OCM to instead keep its previous interpretation that regulators used to review and approve site plans to issue licenses.
“Relying on those approvals, petitioners poured their life savings into launching their businesses,” the complaint states. “They signed leases, completed build-outs, hired employees and opened their doors to the public under the state’s very detailed framework. But now, in a complete about-face, OCM incredulously claims it got the law wrong all along.”
Furthermore, the petitioners claim that the OCM changed its guidance based on a new interpretation of the law without any formal rulemaking process or public notice. They argue that the informal rulemaking violates the State Administrative Procedure Act and that state officials arbitrarily redefined their own regulations.
Seven of the 12 businesses suing the state are either open or have received their final licensure to open, meaning the state has assured them they do not need to move locations and can remain open even with expired licenses—the OCM indicated it cannot approve their license renewals until state lawmakers act. However, some businesses fear that insurance companies and banks may refuse to service them if their licenses have expired, even in an interim phase.
“Petitioners face numerous collateral consequences as a result of OCM’s unlawful reinterpretation of Cannabis Law §72(6),” the complaint states. “Specifically, petitioners are required as part of their leases to be in compliance with all cannabis laws. OCM’s arbitrary and capricious actions have placed them at risk of falling into material breach with their lessors and, if allowed to continue, will cause them irreparable harm.”
These seven businesses include: ConBud (Manhattan), The Cannabis Place (Queens), Summit Canna (Bronx), Hush (Bronx), High Fade (Manhattan), Housing Works Cannabis Co. (Manhattan) and Common Courtesy Dispensary (Queens).
Meanwhile, the other five petitioners in the lawsuit are cannabis business applicants who received provisional licenses that are not yet finalized and will therefore be forced to pack up and change locations. These businesses include: Rezidue, Elise Pelka, Toastree, Monarch NYC and Luxe Leaf Boutique.
According to the lawsuit, while each of the five applicants has incurred significant buildout expenses, Rezidue, Elisa Pelka and Lux Leaf Boutique have completed their buildouts and were ready to begin operating upon a virtual inspection and gaining final licensure.
The petitioners’ construction costs ranged from $500,000 to $1,000,000, falling short of the $250,000 available per applicant in the state’s relief fund, according to the lawsuit.
“Petitioners have each expended nearly and in some cases over $1 million in preoperational expenses, and several million dollars each in post-operational expenses in reliance of OCM’s assurances,” the complaint states. “If OCM’s new and unlawful interpretation is allowed to remain in force, petitioners will also lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits and lease termination penalties that cannot be recouped.
“Additionally, petitioners have all executed personal guarantees on their commercial leases, which would not only bankrupt the businesses, but also the individuals who guaranteed these leases.”
The petitioners argue that these expenses represent irreparable harm, which the court has the authority to prevent.
Other arguments the 12 cannabis businesses made in the lawsuit include:
- Retroactively revoking their license rights without notice or hearing violates due process;
- The OCM violated the equal protection clause of the state’s Constitution by revoking their proximity protections and thereby allowing competing applicants to gain favorable locations (in addition to the 500-foot school buffer zone, dispensaries must adhere to bigger buffer zones between other dispensaries).
- By pre-emptively denying licensees renewals, the OCM has engaged in unlawful “taking” without affording the petitioners due process of the law by way of a fair hearing;
- The plaintiffs’ investments have been rendered valueless by the OCM’s retroactive policy change, amounting to a “regulatory taking” under the New York Constitution; and
- The OCM’s new interpretation of the state’s cannabis law as it relates to school proximity requirements disproportionately harms those who were already disproportionately harmed by the drug war, which violates the state’s Marihuana Taxation and Regulation Act (MRTA) provisions to prioritize the inclusion, participation and sustainability of equity applicants.
“OCM’s reinterpreted rule disproportionately harms these stakeholders and licensees and undermines the very purpose of this law,” the complaint states about the latter bullet point. “Petitioners do not come from generational wealth and therefore cannot sustain such a hit. Their lives would be shattered while the OCM simply says ‘I’m sorry.’”
In particular, 11 of the plaintiffs are conditional adult-use retail dispensary (CAURD) licensees who were prioritized by the state because their businesses were owned by justice-involved individuals who reside in New York.
The 12th plaintiff is a social and economic equity (SEE) licensee, a category reserved for justice-involved individuals, minority- or women-owned businesses, distressed farmers, or service-disabled veteran-owned businesses.
“Petitioners would experience harm unlike anything they have faced before and would be relegated to levels of crippling debt, the likes of which they could never escape,” the complaint states. “The purpose of the MRTA was to undo these past injustices, not to exacerbate them.”
Author: mscannabiz.com
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Massachusetts Auditor Notes ‘Violations’ and ‘Mismanagement’ At Cannabis Control Commission
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Supreme Court Gives Marijuana Companies More Time To File Petition In Case Challenging Federal Prohibition
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a request to give marijuana companies suing the Justice Department in an effort to overturn federal prohibition two more months to file their petition with the justices.
Lawyers for the cannabis firms said the extension was needed due to the “significant and complex constitutional issues” that are being raised in the case, as well as the fact that state governments and other experts who plan to file support briefs need more time to “carefully craft their arguments.”
The prominent litigation firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP that’s representing the companies—Canna Provisions, Gyasi Sellers, Wiseacre Farm and Verano Holdings—entered a request for a 60-day extension to submit its writ of certiorari last week. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson approved the proposal on Friday, pushing back the current deadline of August 25 to October 24.
The companies’ request noted that counsel for the Office of the Solicitor General don’t oppose the extension.
The brief gave three reasons for the request: 1) the lead attorney on the case, David Boies, is “heavily engaged in previously scheduled matters” before other federal courts, 2) several experts who expressed interest in supporting their lawsuit with amicus briefs have said they need more time and 3) the case involves complex legal issues that require more in-depth consideration.
“This case presents significant and complex constitutional issues concerning both state-regulated marijuana specifically and the authority of Congress to regulate purely intrastate commerce generally,” the filing says. “The additional time will permit counsel to prepare a petition that appropriately addresses the questions of nationwide importance raised by this case.”
That includes “the question of whether [Gonzales v. Raich] was correctly decided,” it says, referencing a landmark 2005 Supreme Court ruling, wherein justices narrowly determined that the federal government could enforce prohibition against cannabis cultivation that took place wholly within California based on Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commerce.
With respect to future amicus briefs the applicants are expecting, they said “counsel have heard from law professors, non-profits, state governments, and others interested in submitting amicus briefs in these proceedings, and several of these potential amici have expressed concern about having sufficient time to prepare over the summer.”
“An extension will provide potential amici adequate time to consider the case and carefully craft their arguments,” the filing says.
This comes about three months after a U.S. appeals court rejected the arguments of the state-legal cannabis companies, one the latest blow to the high-profile lawsuit following a lower court’s dismissal of the claims. But it’s widely understood that the plaintiffs’ legal team has long intended the matter to end up before the nine justices.
“It’s fair to assume that we shall seek Supreme Court review,” attorney Jonathan Schiller told Marijuana Moment in June.
The latest filing concludes by saying respondents “will not suffer any prejudice from the requested extension,” and because “the First Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Applicants’ claims, a brief extension will not in any way alter the status quo of this case.”
While it remains to be seen whether the high court will ultimately take the case, one sign that at least some on court might be interested in the appeal is a 2021 statement from Justice Clarence Thomas, issued as the court denied review of a separate dispute involving a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary.
Thomas’s comments seemed to suggest that it’d be appropriate revisit Raich—a move that could largely upend federal prohibition.
The statement pointed to policy developments since the earlier case was decided, such as the hands-off enforcement approach taken by the Department of Justice as more states legalized cannabis and a congressional budget rider protecting state-legal medical marijuana programs.
“Whatever the merits of Raich when it was decided, federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning,” Thomas wrote, describing the government’s approach to cannabis enforcement as “a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.”
“Though federal law still flatly forbids the intrastate possession, cultivation, or distribution of marijuana…the Government, post-Raich, has sent mixed signals on its views,” the justice continued, saying the situation “strains basic principles of federalism and conceals traps for the unwary.”
Once plaintiffs in the case at hand file their forthcoming petition for a writ of certiorari, it would need needs the votes of four justices to put the case before the Supreme Court.
The initial complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, argued that government’s ongoing prohibition on marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was unconstitutional because Congress in recent decades had “dropped any assumption that federal control of state-regulated marijuana is necessary.”
At oral argument on appeal late last year, Boies told judges that under the Constitution, Congress can only regulate commercial activity within a state—in this case, around marijuana—if the failure to regulate that in-state activity “would substantially interfere [with] or undermine legitimate congressional regulation of interstate commerce.”
Judges, however, said they were “unpersuaded,” ruling in last month’s opinion that “the CSA remains fully intact as to the regulation of the commercial activity involving marijuana for non-medical purposes, which is the activity in which the appellants, by their own account, are engaged.”
The district court, meanwhile, said in the case that while the there are “persuasive reasons for a reexamination” of the current scheduling of cannabis, its hands were effectively tied by past U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Raich.
Meanwhile, amid a series of legal challenges, the Trump administration recently asked the Supreme Court to take up a case on the federal government’s ban on users of marijuana and other illegal drugs from owning firearms and uphold the prohibition, saying it is consistent with the Second Amendment.
Separately at the federal level, a pending Biden-era recommendation to reschedule marijuana to the less restrictive Schedule III of the CSA is remains stalled.
The MAGA world is divided on how it wants President Donald Trump to come down on that proposal, with key right-wing influencers voicing conflicting positions on the issue after the president announced an imminent decision last week.
While Trump endorsed moving marijuana to Schedule III during last year’s presidential campaign—along with cannabis industry banking access and a Florida legalization ballot initiative that ultimately fell short—last week he merely said he is considering the issue, with a decision expected within weeks.
The overall bipartisanship of the issue, however, was also reflected in recent comments from one Democratic and one Republican member of Congress, who urged Trump to federally reschedule marijuana.
A new political committee that shares the same treasurer as Trump’s own super PAC is also pushing the president to follow through on rescheduling marijuana, releasing an ad that highlights his previous endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.
Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel and Philip Steffan.
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Author: mscannabiz.com
MScannaBIZ for all you Mississippi Cannabis News and Information.
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