Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines
Nonprofit bridging scientific and indigenous knowledge of psychedelics — emphasizing equity, cultural sensitivity, and the protection of indigenous plant medicine traditions as psychedelic medicine commercializes.
Type: research
Location: San Francisco, California
Membership: Open newsletter; community membership
Venues: San Francisco HQ; national/international events
Activities: Publishing, research, indigenous rights advocacy, conferences, therapist directory
About
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines was founded in 2017 by Bia Labate, a Brazilian anthropologist, to address the gap between the scientific psychedelic renaissance and the indigenous and traditional knowledge systems from which modern psychedelic use emerged.
Chacruna publishes extensively on equity issues: who benefits from psychedelic medicine commercialization, who is represented in clinical trials, and how indigenous communities are affected by the growing global interest in their traditional practices. Their 'Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative' specifically supports indigenous communities and cultural preservation.
The organization maintains one of the most extensive open-access libraries of psychedelic science, policy, and cultural writing available online. Their therapist directory focuses specifically on practitioners with training in cultural competency and ethical practice.
Chacruna convenes conferences and webinars that consistently bring together indigenous voices, clinicians, researchers, and policy makers in productive dialogue.
Why It Matters
The commercialization of psychedelic medicine without attention to its cultural origins, equity in access, and the rights of indigenous communities would be both ethically problematic and politically unsustainable. Chacruna is the organization most clearly holding this space.
Key People
State Legal Context
See current psilocybin laws in California.