Turning trauma into advocacy
It was never about keeping us safe. The war on drugs is about controlling people and making up reasons to criminalize people and profit off of it. Because it was framed as “Drugs are bad, you shouldn’t use drugs,” and “People who use drugs are criminals, people who sell drugs are criminals,” drugs were an easy way to put more funding into police departments. That was the policy in the U.S. and still is.
How can people of color continue to build spaces for healing?
Ifetayo Harvey came to the mushroom ceremony ready to suffer.
When she took mushrooms, it was usually painful, visceral, and visual. Alongside five women of color, she steeled herself to face personal grief and collective wounds. But as the moonlight filtered through the window of the little house in the New Mexican desert, they cuddled by the fire, splashed in the bathtub, and drifted off to sleep.
Innovative Solutions For A Growing Nationwide Mental Health Crisis
Guest host Mara S. Campo, Anchor and Managing Editor at Revolt Black News, looks at the ongoing national mental health crisis and talks to people working outside the box to make a difference.
Celebrating Women in Psychedelics podcast: An Interview with Ifetayo Harvey
Listen to an inspiring interview with Ifetayo Harvey, founder of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective, on the Celebrating Women in Psychedelics podcast with Sonia Stringer.
Many of us are aware of the "war on drugs" and its impact on psychedelic research...
... but you may not know how the family members of those incarcerated have been significantly impacted by these dated and unfair policies.
Ifetayo shares her personal and powerful experience on this topic, how #psychedelics were central to her healing journey, and her advocacy work to change these unfair practices!
Instagram’s Page-Deletions of Black Women in Psychedelic Advocacy
After a year of running her Instagram page, “Black People Trip,” Robin Divine had built up a following of over 3,000. She used her platform to post content and resources about psychedelics and the movement’s intersections with race, building a supportive community for Black people to learn and share. Like many others, she realized that there is a real need to discuss race in the psychedelic community, where racism, like other forms of oppression, is often overlooked.
The so-called “War on Drugs” and its attitudes stem from a deeply racialized history, making it impossible to discuss drugs without discussing race. There is therefore a need for safe spaces, online and in person, for Black people to speak about their substance use. So for months, Divine openly talked about drugs and race on Instagram.
Founding Mothers Podcast Episode 12: Reconnecting With Culture Through Psychedelic Healing
Lorena Nascimento (she/her) is an educator, working with environmental justice, urban forestry, community engagement, and data empowerment. As a geospatial data analyst, she is looking for opportunities that include education, research, and support of new narratives for entheogen accessibility to support equity in the regulation of psychedelics.
In this episode, Lorena and Emily discuss the need for more drug education, how powerful harm reduction can be, using psychedelics as a way to reconnect with ancestors, and cultural appropriation of psychedelic drugs. They also discuss the People of Color Psychedelic Collective and their vision for the world.
You can follow along with Lorena on Instagram or Twitter. You can follow along with the People of Color Psychedelic Collective on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as on their website.
Our recommendation is to watch this webinar first.
Psychedelics Today Podcast ep 355
In this episode, David interviews Ifetayo Harvey: Social media manager for Caring Across Generations and Founder of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective (POCPC), which educates and builds community for people of color who are interested in psychedelics and ending the drug war.
Iheart Media Philly Community Podcast Insight Pt. 1
Psychedelics are reemerging as one potential solution in the treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders. However, the research and use of this approach has largely excluded communities of color. I speak to Ifetayo Harvey, one of the founders of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective about their efforts to educate communities about psychedelic healing and elevate the conversation about the negative impact of the war on drugs for POC.
The Future Of Business And Psychedelics At The California Psychedelic Conference: An Industry Insider Perspective
During the signature Future of Business and Psychedelics panel, industry leaders gave impressive insights into the emerging market.
Mary Sanders on the People of Color Psychedelic Collective and Healing Transgenerational Traum
Mary Sanders is a founding board member of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective, an organization that provides psychedelic education to historically marginalized communities in order to foster empowerment and healing. She is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in exploring the depths of transgenerational trauma and, in her words, peeling off layers of oppression and cultural conditioning. She is certified in psychedelic-assisted therapies and believes that plant medicines can serve as tools to effectively heal trauma.
Drug Policy & The People of Color Psychedelic Collective: Episode 48, The Psychedelic Entrepreneur Podcast
Ifetayo Harvey is the founder and board president of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective and is an outspoken advocate and writer in the drug policy reform space. She built a platform for folks of color to learn about and create community around psychedelics. She’s also Social Media Manager at Caring Across Generations. Prior to joining Caring Across Generations, Ifetayo worked at the Drug Policy Alliance for five years because of her passion for ending the war on drugs. Ifetayo comes from a family of seven children raised by her mother in Charleston, South Carolina and has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in history and African studies.
A Beginner’s Guide On How To Safely Do Magic Mushrooms As A Black Person
As magic mushrooms continue to be decriminalized in the U.S., here’s everything you need to know about doing them for the first time.
Sluts and Scholars podcast with Nicoletta Heidegger ep 198 with Ifetayo Harvey
Ifetayo Harvey of the POC Psychedelic Collective joins in for a conversation about psychedelic assisted therapies as well as her own experience with the war on drugs and plant medicine. We cover drug policy reform, cultural roots of psychedelic medicine, harm reduction, and Ifetayo's own healing experiences.
Founding MOthers Podcast Episode 12: Reconnecting With Culture Through Psychedelic Healing
Lorena Nascimento (she/her) is an educator who works in environmental justice, urban forestry, community engagement, and data empowerment. Originally from Brazil, Lorena moved to Portland, OR, to pursue a Ph.D. in Urban Studies. In her dissertation, she described the Western criminalization, acculturation, and cultural appropriation of Black and Indigenous values regarding cultural ecosystem services.
In this episode, Lorena and Emily discuss the need for more drug education, how powerful harm reduction can be, using psychedelics as a way to reconnect with ancestors, and the cultural appropriation of psychedelic drugs. They also discuss the People of Color Psychedelic Collective and their vision for the world.
Podcast: People of Color and Psychedelics with Ifetayo Harvey & Mary Sanders, LCSW
“This conversation with Ifetayo and Mary touches on many of the important topics in the intersection of the unique experiences of people of color and the use of psychedelic medicines. One immediate concern which has begun to be discussed more openly is that of POC representation in psychedelic spaces. Ifetayo and Mary both discuss this issue, mentioning how representation is especially crucial for something as vulnerable as psychedelic experiences, where facilitators are responsible for navigating a wide range of emotions which naturally arise in a ceremony or therapeutic setting. Having someone from one's own community in these spaces can facilitate healing, as there is less anxiety around needing to explain specific experiences or trauma.”
Will Oregon’s Psilocybin Program Solve the Racial Inequities that Cannabis Did Not?
“There’s this three-month warranty on how sad you can be after someone dies…” she said, “after a certain point, you’re expected to move on.” Psilocybin “magic” mushrooms have helped her acknowledge that these memories still affect her. “It was therapy for me because I got to release all those emotions I was hiding.”
Mushrooms have also helped Harvey find laughter when she needs it. “It makes you feel good about yourself… For a lot of folks, joy is not a feeling they feel often.”
Pavini Moray’s BeSpoken Bones Podcast: The stigma of drug use and blackness
Ifetayo Harvey, Founder of the POC Psychedelic Collective, speaks about drug use, slavery, vulnerability, depression, and the epidemic of untreated trauma that people are trying to address and self-medicate.
Amplify #10 Ifetayo Harvey - Marketing Coordinator Drug Policy Alliance - WOOP INterview
“And that was also the first time I started writing publicly about my experience of having my father incarcerated for a drug offense. So I wrote about that in a few publications, an op-ed called "Children of Incarcerated Parents Bear the Weight of the War on Drugs". And then a few months later, the DPA invited me to speak at their conference at their opening plenary in Denver, Colorado and I didn't know what I was getting myself into.”
Will Oregon Be the First State to Legalize Access to Magic Mushrooms?
“Specifically around ballot measures,” she adds, “I do not think that they should be doing legislation around Indigenous medicine without Indigenous people leading that charge. Because to me, that is just the replication of colonialism in a lot of ways.”