May 2021 - Decriminalize Nature

This letter is written in response to the “Open Letter to the Psychedelic Movement” released by the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Communication Committee on May 7th, 2021.

First, I’d like to thank IPCI, NCNAC, and the many others, including leaders of the Wixarika and Raramuri communities in Mexico, who have been working on this critical issue for many years. As an organization, Decriminalize Nature is young— only two and a half years old, so I honor the long trek of IPCI and NCNAC and the many indigenous people of the Americas who have fought for the survival of their traditions and cultures.

My own grandmother, Maximiana Ximenez, an indigenous woman, was born and raised in a small adobe shelter with a thatched roof on the margins of a small town in rural Jalisco, donde viven los indios (“where the Indians live”) as the townspeople would say. To raise my father as a single mother, my abuelita washed clothes at the river, and lived a very humble life. My father worked a small plot of land in his beloved land in the Autlan Valley, 3 hours east of Guadalajara near the Rio de Tonaya. My earliest memories are of going to the river with my grandmother, or of tagging along with my father to his sun-drenched corn field. As the descendent of indigenous ancestry from the Chihuahuan desert and the Autlan Valley of Jalisco, I understand the importance of fighting for the protection and preservation of ancestral ways–for the deep connection to land and the rhythms of nature from where ancient wisdom emerges. May the Condor rise again.

Second, I honor all people who seek a path toward salvation of all of humanity, and are choosing the Good Path. We are, indeed, at a critical time in history where our future is unclear. For the first time in the history of humans, we are becoming aware that we are not only the cause of the potential demise of our species, but also of much of the plant and animal life on Earth. So many compassionate people are desperate to find solutions and willing to sacrifice so much to preserve life on this planet. I honor all of these people, be they from Europe, African, Asia, the Middle East, or throughout the Americas.

The work of IPCI and NCNAC to help find solutions to the potential extinction of peyote is important. Peyote is a key ally in our collective struggle to awaken the masses from the fear-based slumber of disconnection from ourselves, each other, and nature. So, we are very eager to hear the plan to save Peyote from extinction, given that most of the natural preserves of Peyote, revered by the Wixarika and the Raramuri are in Mexico, and most of the use is in the United States, largely by members of the Native American Church (NAC). From December 2020 to February 2021, we encouraged the formation of a Blue- Ribbon Task Force to study ways to save peyote from extinction as part of the CA state-wide effort to decriminalize entheogens.

But we understand the IPCI and NCNAC did not support this public process and discouraged its formation. We are eager to understand why they believed it was not a good idea to bring together indigenous leaders from various tribes in California, the US, and Mexico; conservation biologists; leaders of IPCI and NCNAC; policy makers; botanists, biologists, climatologists, and others to openly study ways to ensure peyote does not go extinct, while still honoring indigenous rights and rituals with Peyote. As background, the sponsoring legislator of the DN resolution in Oakland is of Yaqui Ancestry, his wife is from the Tigua (Ysleta) Tribe—both tribes from Peyotegrowing regions. Sixty percent of our board is indigenous, and 50% of our Council of Elders are indigenous or directly affiliated with a tribe that uses peyote.

My own ancestry is indigenous from the Autlan Valley of Jalisco, a region where the people likely used peyote, before colonization wiped out many of our ceremonial customs. As the chair of an organization whose mission is to decriminalize entheogens, and to work in collaboration with the local indigenous communities who steward the species and habitats where entheogens grow, I relate that we are simply asking for clarity on behalf of our base, which includes many indigenous people throughout the United States and Mexico, on what the plan is for preventing extinction of a plant that is sacred to so many land-based people of the Americas.

We look forward to working in support of a sound plan to protect peyote from extinction and that honors all indigenous people who have built spiritual and cultural practices with peyote. Until then, we hereby present our own working plan to help protect peyote from extinction– for full public review and comment and encourage all to offer their feedback. May Spirit guide, Carlos Plazola, Chair Decriminalize Nature National Board

DN National Board Statement on Peyote Conservation

For Public Circulation

Decriminalize Nature Releases Working Plan to Prevent Peyote Extinction Policy recommendations designed to prevent extinction of Peyote, honor Indigenous rights May 6, 2021–Under increasing threats from mining, agribusiness, land development, ecotourism and poaching in the United States and Mexico, the survival of the revered medicinal and mystical peyote cactus has reached a critical tipping point. A broad spectrum of scientists, including those at the Cactus Conservation Institute (CCI), now acknowledge that it is only a matter of time before this slow growing cactus ascends to the top of the list as an endangered species that will soon become extinct in its natural habitat unless strategies for its protection and regeneration are immediately implemented.

In a recent analysis conducted by CCI (a non-profit organization which has been studying ways to preserve and protect the wild habitat of endangered cacti, including peyote, in the deserts of the southern US and northern Mexico), CCI concluded that up to 261 green houses would be needed to meet the increasing demand for peyote for use by the more than 500,000 current estimated members of the Native American Churches in the United States. https://cactusconservation.org/2021/03/26/number-of-greenhouses-required-to-grow-a-million-peyote/

Many of the millions of peyote plants collected each year to serve this growing demand are being harvested from wild habitats in both the US and Mexico, thus increasing the imminent threat of extinction in the endemic growing regions. Because the growing cycle of peyote in its natural habitat can take 7-12 years to mature into a size large enough for harvesting, immediate action is needed to plant enough seeds to rehabilitate depleted areas and create many more cultivation sites to satisfy the demand in due time. Decriminalize Nature’s National Board thus strongly recommends the following to prevent the extinction of peyote in its natural habitat and ensure its long-term survival. DN offers this as a working plan, and is soliciting feedback from others concerned about depletion of peyote in its natural habitats. Decriminalize Nature Policy

Position:

1. Cultivation of Peyote by members of Federally Recognized Tribes and Native American Churches should be immediately decriminalized and removed from DEA oversight and regulations, increasing the ability of tribes and churches to choose this means of decreasing demand on the limited natural habitats.

2. Decriminalization of Peyote for personal cultivation for non-Indigenous should occur immediately to reduce the demand for the cacti that are extracted from Indigenous sources and habitats for the peyote trade.

3. Peyote in its natural habitat should be available only for Indigenous communities and poaching should continue to be penalized. Decriminalize Nature Policy Position: Whereas, indigenous people of the United States and Mexico have suffered from persecution of their spiritual ceremonies for over 400 years, and Whereas, the Wixarika and Rarmuri, of what is today known as Mexico, have had a direct cultural relationship with Peyote for at least 5,000 years, and Whereas, Peyote has been used by indigenous peoples of the Unites States in the area now known as the southern border of the United States for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and

Whereas, there has long been an alliance in the Americas between those known as the Wixarika of modern day Mexico, and the indigenous people of what is now known as the southern United States in sharing of Peyote ceremony, and Whereas, the lands and peyote gardens of the Wixarika are under severe threat from mining, agribusiness, land development, and legal and illegal poaching of Peyote, and Whereas, the natural Peyote habitats of southern Texas are also under threat from land development, grazing, and legal illegal poaching of peyote, and Whereas, it is estimated that up to 500,000 members of the Native American Church use peyote at least once a year, creating an intense pressure to cultivate peyote to meet demand that far outpaces available supply, and Whereas, in 2020, peyote consumption was decriminalized in Oregon via Measure 110, causing greater threat to the sacred plant, and Whereas, an analysis by the Cactus Conservation Initiative found that as many as 261 large peyote growing greenhouses are needed immediately to prevent wild peyote from going extinct; Now

Therefore, Be it Resolved that Decriminalize Nature advocates that Cultivation of Peyote by members of Federally Recognized Tribes and Native American Churches should be immediately decriminalized and removed from DEA oversight and regulations, increasing the ability of tribes and churches to choose this means of decreasing demand on the limited natural habitats.

Be it Further Resolved that decriminalization of Peyote for personal cultivation for non- Indigenous should occur immediately to reduce the demand for the cacti that are extracted from Indigenous sources and habitats for the peyote trade. Be it Further Resolved that Peyote in its natural habitat should be available only for Indigenous communities and poaching should continue to be penalized.