Mother Earth provides us with healing medicines that have impacted cultures and individuals for millennia, but due to the mainstreaming of psychedelics, some of these medicines are experiencing a conservation crisis, particularly with Peyote and iboga. When I encountered this idea, it took me aback – it was something I never truly considered. Issues of conservation are widespread in nature, even with potable water, why wouldn’t this be the case with psychedelics?

Let’s start with peyote. Peyote's natural range of distribution is located in the Chihuahuan Desert. Native people in and around the Chihuahuan Desert region have used peyote for at least 6000 years for it’s rich alkaloid content, including mescaline. With as many as 57 alkaloids present in any given specimen, peyote has been a staple used medicinally as a panacea by natives. It is a “free medicine” Native Americans have traditionally used because it grows wild and is a rich source of many beneficial alkaloids. The market for peyote has expanded drastically in recent years and the “free medicine” has been exploited on an industrial scale. As a result, peyote has been overharvested and is now on the vulnerable species list with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Follow for more information, visit: http://www.cactusconservation.org/CCI/CCI_Home.html

And now, on to iboga. Ibogaine is the naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in a number of plants, principally in a member of the Apocynaceae family known as iboga. The primary method of production of ibogaine is through extraction from this plant source, which is endemic to the tropical rainforests of the Congo Basin in Equatorial Africa, principally Gabon.

Recently there have been reports that iboga may be threatened in this natural habitat, and that access has decreased for traditional knowledge holders. If these reports are verified, the ramifications could be far-reaching, including considerations for the future availability of some aspects of ibogaine therapy, as well as for Gabonese culture.

Follow for more information, visit: https://www.ibogainealliance.org/iboga/sustainability/

By drawing attention to these problems, we can find and support solutions. Here are a couple. 

Sponsored by Dennis McKenna’s foundation Symbio Life Sciences, Radical Medicinals, LLC seeks to develop new and natural methodology to produce clinical grade compounds from plant sources. Their technology allows them to produce the plant and its compounds in a way that shortens the production cycle from seven years to one month, minimizing the ecological pressure from overharvesting the plant in its natural habitat. 

Follow for more information: http://www.symbiolifesciences.com/

Lastly, Dawn Davis, a tribal person belonging to the membership of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, and is currently a Ph.D. student in the Water Resources Program at the University of Idaho with an emphasis in Law, Management and Policy, discusses techniques on approaching peyote sustainability from an Indigenous ecological perspective.

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