A few weeks ago, I had a casual conversation with my friend Amber, saying we should get together sometime and talk about psychedelics. It somehow escalated and turned into a panel last night, here in Taipei, with Zoe Lee, a green haired attorney that is part of the Green Party here in Taiwan, and a couple other professionals who work remotely in the US cannabis industry.

We ended up talking about plant medicines, psychedelic science, cannabis advocacy, therapeutic use of CBD, and breaking the Asian cultural and generational stigma around drugs and plant medicines. Due to the severity of the drug laws here in Taiwan, the topic has been taboo, and many people in the audience commented that this is probably one of the first conversations that has been held publicly around the topic.

Much of the crowd was comprised of COVID refugees, and everyone seemed engaged. Many of us ended up hanging out until almost midnight, engaged in conversations. Decriminalizing drugs seems to be the only compassionate way to stop punishing people for seeking to cope with internal pain and trauma. Education about the true nature of plant medicines seems to be a better solution for creating better societies than optimizing AI algorithms (though paradigm shifts in that area are necessary as well.)

Since I hosted the Clubhouse room, “Asian Americans and Psychedelics” with Jade from MAPS and Serena from the Plant Medicine Law Group a few months ago, the undercover psychonauts from the Asian diaspora have been emerging from the mycelium network.

It feels like collecting Pokémon, and building a truly special community.