The renewed interest in psychedelic substances has led to a certain conflict between researchers seeking to develop medicines based on them and indigenous communities who have been using them for many years.
On the one hand, scientists are curious about their use in traditional rituals – after all, years of documented use can shorten processes in drug development and proving safety. On the other hand, when a substance becomes a registered drug protected by a patent, those communities may lose access to it, and they also do not always receive sufficient compensation for their contribution to the accumulated knowledge. Therefore it is no wonder that in such communities the secrets are not easily revealed.
Dr. Jishan Chaudhuri, born in Bangladesh and a graduate of Oxford University, seeks to build a new type of relationship with the indigenous communities and cooperate with them in the development of medicines, within the company he founded, Journey Colab.
Dr. Jishan Chaudhary / Photo: Courtesy of Journey Colab
Pay per piece of information
In an interview with Globes, Chaudhuri says that he founded his company “out of frustration about the paucity of tools available in the field of mental health.” Today the company is developing a synthetic version of the psychoactive substance mescaline for the treatment of alcohol addiction.
According to him, from the day the company was founded, he knew that he had to create a new type of relationship with the population that uses mesqueline, the Native Americans in the US and Canada.
“10% of our capital was allocated to a trust fund dedicated to the needs of the indigenous public. We promised this public free use of the drug, if and when it is registered. After we gave these two promises, we opened a dialogue on a different level with the community.”
Every conversation with a native expert on the ritual use of the substance and its results is done for a fee. “Just like I pay my clinical trial manager,” Chaudhuri says.
This model, he says, is relevant to any development of a medicine that is based on plants that have been in traditional use for many years, not necessarily psychedelic substances.
Journey Colab’s liaison to the indigenous population is Sutton King, a social entrepreneur and advocate in the field of health for indigenous communities. Among other things, she advises the United Nations on this issue, and also does not hide her past as a survivor of violence within the family. The translation of her native name is “the woman who came first”, and she is indeed the first to break several paths for her community.
“We need to make sure that the value created in companies like Journey is also directed to the populations that have protected these plants and this knowledge throughout history,” she said recently in a podcast on the subject. “I believe that if these communities had not fought so hard to continue their tradition, we would not have had the field of psychedelia as we know it today.”
She said that from the age of two she learned to dance the healing dances, dressed in a pinecone dress. Since then she knew that her vision was medicine. In high school, she worked for equality and the rights of the community and became a leader, to her surprise, which paved the way for her to study psychology in New York. There she focused on studying the intergenerational trauma of the indigenous community.
Today, she is formulating with Journey Colab the plan to preserve the poetic plant containing mescaline (an important substance in the native ceremonies) and the company’s future contribution, if and when it starts to make a profit, to the community members’ mental health program.
A material with a history of 5700 years
The first evidence of the use of mescaline is thousands of years old. The company called the synthetic mescaline they developed 5700, as the number of years that have passed since the first documented use of the substance.
In recent centuries, use of the material has skyrocketed, says Chaudhary. “These communities were collectively traumatized by their oppression by the new Americans, and they turned to a place of healing with these materials. It’s amazing to see how these rituals improved their resilience. It’s a powerful tool.”
Modern documentation of the use of mescaline in ceremonies began in the 1950s, when Western researchers began to awaken in these communities and undergo psychedelic experiences.
“Since then, much documentation has been made of the use of these materials, among other things by researchers in the academy. In other words, it is certainly possible to claim that their use is backed by research,” says Chaudhuri. According to him, the indigenous communities have their own methods to prevent addiction to these substances, and some of them are effective at least most of the time.
Learn from the community how to use the material
But the therapeutic tool is not the mescaline alone, but the entire ritual, he says. Therefore, the way the material was used was also important to the community. “In the indigenous ceremonies, Maxelin is part of an integrative experience. Our claim, following our conversations with them, is that the material in itself does not create the change, but rather the brain flexibility that enables change.
“There was concern in the community that using a substance without any accompanying human process would be misuse, which could cause harm. Therefore, we decided to develop the product only as part of treatment with a human therapist and community support, and this despite the lack of therapeutic personnel and the high cost of such treatment, which also affects the business models our”.
To date, the company has raised about 15 million dollars, led by Delphi ventures.
Besides patents and FDA restrictions, what else worries indigenous communities about the ever-expanding use of substances that were once unique to them?
“They are worried about blocking their access to the plants and the soil they grow on. Already today this access is at risk. Therefore, even though we produce the product synthetically, we have committed to invest in the preservation of the soil and the preservation of the plant.
“Another thing that worries them, unrelated to mescaline but with a lot to do with mental health, is the very high exposure of these populations to the opiate epidemic. While they usually used mescaline wisely and cautiously in supportive and ceremonial settings, the opiates washed over these oppressed communities and left many victims. Senior The community, who cooperate with me, hope that they will be able to use our knowledge in the field of mental health to treat this as well.”
Dr. Jishan Chaudhary
personal: Born in Bangladesh, graduated in medical studies at the University of Oxford
Career: Founder and CEO of Journey Colab, a company for the development of an anti-addiction drug, based on the psychoactive substance mescaline. He previously served as a research fellow at NASA and an entrepreneur of digital health companies
Something else: Co-founder of Hacking Health, a non-profit organization that promotes collaboration between medical professionals and technologists in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, with the aim of developing solutions for the world of health