The psychedelic bar association

North Star Invitation

What is a "Psychedelic Lawyer"?

As an attorney serving the psychedelics field, I pledge to take concrete steps to:

Start Within.

Ground my practice of law with work on myself, and to treat personal growth and evolution of the profession as a lifelong process.

Study the Traditions.

Educate myself on the social, legal, and political history of psychedelics, their many traditions of use, and the forces behind their prohibition.

Build Trust and Act with Integrity.

Foster trust in my relationships across the psychedelic ecosystem by speaking and acting with integrity, and repairing trust where necessary and possible.

Appreciate the Gravity.

Take responsibility for and appreciate that the choices I make as a lawyer reverberate to influence the legal and ethical norms shaping the psychedelic field.

Elevate the Process.

Make the process I engage in when representing clients as important as the business or legal outcome, letting the future I hope to see guide the approach I take in getting there.
 

Embody Equality and Justice.

Actively examine my own conditioning and take steps to undo patterns of systemic racism and injustice.

Engage in Abundant Reciprocity.

Actively participate in the flourishing of the psychedelic ecosystem by understanding and engaging in sacred reciprocity, approaching personal gain with an attitude of abundance and generosity over that of scarcity and hoarding, and taking only what is given.

How the Organization Operates to Implement
the PBA North Star Invitation

Membership Cohorts

Starting Within

Unlike any other bar association, we organize our members into member cohorts of 30 members each who meet regularly to take an intentional, internal look at questions such as:

  • Why are we here working together?
  • What is our collective vision for the psychedelics field?
  • How do we hold ourselves accountable to each other?
  • What are our personal lineages that contribute to our perspective in the field?
  • How do we make our practice of law in the field “soul manifesting” (psychedelic)?
  • How do we help our clients navigate these same questions?

These Member Cohorts provide connection and community for our members to support a new paradigm of thinking, acting, and lawyering. This helps us Build Trust and Act with Integrity to our collective vision as expressed through the PBA North Star Invitation, and invites each of us to look at how, concretely, we each Engage in Abundant Reciprocity. 

Organizational Governance

Elevating the Process

The organization is experimenting with a decentralized form of governance and iterating its internal governance procedures based on engaging in process-oriented decision making at the Board and Committee level. Currently, (1) Committees propose actions that the Board reviews; (2) Board review involves discussion and review of the proposed action or work product against the PBA North Star Invitation principles to determine if the proposed action is not in line with the Invitation or need further process or revision; (3) unless a majority of the Board members vote to disapprove or refer the proposal back to the Committee, the action “passes” Board review; (4) the Passed Action is noted as an action of the specific committee and not PBA as a whole. The Board continues to develop additional processes for internal governance and public-facing statements.

Committee Activities

APPRECIATING THE GRAVITY • ELEVATING THE PROCESS • PURSUING EQUALITY AND JUSTICE

The PBA has six legal subject matter committees:

  • Corporate Forms & Business Practices
  • Intellectual Property
  • Legal Ethics
  • Legalization & Regulation
  • Litigation & Advocacy
  • Religious Use
Members work within these committees to educate themselves and to research and develop work products on the timely issues impacting the legal and ethical norms being created across the ecosystem. Here, we seek to provide legal thought leadership to the burgeoning business and organizational community.

Continuing Legal Education

Studying the Traditions

By bringing legal and subject matter experts to our membership for ongoing continuing education events, we foster a commitment to studying both the traditions of psychedelics and natural medicines and cutting edge approaches to solving the legal hurdles that face clients engaging in the psychedelic ecosystem. Our goal is to train lawyers that give advice based on a deep understanding of the history and lineage of these compounds and plants.

Community Collaboration

Pursuing Equality & Justice • Engaging In Abundant Reciprocity

PBA will directly collaborate with other mission-aligned organizations across disciplines, including cultural and educational associations, medical and therapeutic practitioner associations, insurance providers, federal policy and lobbying groups, and others to help bring justice, equality, healing and reciprocity to the forefront in the minds of lawyers and their clients.

Concrete Committments

Pursuing Equality & Justice • Engaging In Abundant Reciprocity

PBA will dedicate a portion of its gross revenue to supporting psychedelic community organizations.  The Board is engaged in an evaluation and selection process.  Stay tuned for more details.

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Psychedelic substances are largely illegal in the United States under federal and/or state laws.  Manufacturing, supplying, possessing, or using psychedelics may be punishable by imprisonment and/or fines.  The Psychedelic Bar Association does not encourage or condone such activities where they are against the law.  The content on this website does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as legal advice by any person.

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