🫠 Psychonaut POV

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that thought about forming a sovereign nation. We got as far as “legal psychedelics for all”… but then running a country seemed kinda hard. 🤷

Marlena Robbins has spent years trying to get the government to stop sidelining indigenous voices on psychedelics. New Mexico's medical psilocybin program might be her big break. Now she's helping 23 tribal nations figure out what to do with it.

We asked Marlena how New Mexico's psilocybin rollout could impact indigenous communities, why past attempts to engage tribal leaders about psychedelics have failed, and what’s missing from psychedelic education for everyone.

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How did you first get introduced to psychedelics? Was plant medicine part of the community you grew up in?

My earliest memories of learning about psychedelics came from my mom when I was nine or 10 years old. We'd go on these long walks throughout Window Rock, Arizona, where I'm from, and have open conversations. She was very honest with me. Once she told me about her first time doing acid. She described washing her hands and the water looking like mercury. That image stuck with me.

I never thought I would try mushrooms, let alone be in this field researching them. But they came back into my life in my mid-twenties after I became a mom myself. At the time, I was in an American Indian Studies program learning about historical and intergenerational trauma. I wanted to understand how to heal—not only myself but my family, too. My partner sent me some information about Maria Sabina and later brought mushrooms to me. I remember that night, it was between doing mushrooms or going to the movies. I chose the mushrooms, and they brought me here.

Mushrooms are not a part of my Navajo lineage. In the modern psychedelic movement, the frame of reference for psychedelics on the reservation is Peyote, even though the use of the term “psychedelics” is disrespectful to describe Peyote. I grew up listening to Peyote songs on the radio and hearing about the Native American Church, but I'm careful not to speak on it because I haven't developed a relationship with that medicine.

New Mexico's Medical Psilocybin Act passed in April. What impact could it have on tribal communities?

I think New Mexico is primed for tribal engagement. There are 23 federally recognized tribal nations in New Mexico, and the state has a fairly healthy relationship with them. The way the Medical Psilocybin Act is worded is fairly vague. I think they left it that way so rules and regulations could be formalized through their advisory board, which has one dedicated tribal advisory seat.

The advisory board has already begun meeting, and Dezbaá Henderson was selected for the tribal advisory seat. She's a Native actor, massage therapist, and long-time New Mexico resident. I've worked with her before on a short film project. There will also be a tribal advisory subcommittee, which hasn't been selected yet. We'll have to wait and see what kinds of voices and expertise are represented.

The history of tribal nations in the Southwest carries a lot of different burdens, such as trauma, depression, addiction, and under-resourced behavioral healthcare systems. This legislation opens doorways for these communities to explore different pathways for healing, workforce development, and culturally aligned care if they choose.

But these 23 tribal nations are not a monolith. Each one has its own language system, government, and forms of ceremony. Maybe we’ll see a hybrid model of psilocybin therapy emerge that integrates culturally informed ceremonial models with Western therapy mechanisms. Whatever happens, the program will need to be adapted by each community, for that community.

The difference with New Mexico’s psilocybin program is it's explicitly medical, unlike in Oregon or Colorado. The legislators want licensed healthcare providers to administer the medicine. But I think there needs to be room for traditional practitioners, too. To be licensed through a psychedelic-assisted therapy training program is different from being a traditional practitioner with certain knowledge bases in a particular culture. Traditional practitioners are held accountable by their community.

Plans are forming for New Mexico’s 23 tribal nations to convene this summer in response to the Medical Psilocybin Act. What needs to happen at that gathering?

This convening would be an opportunity for tribal leaders to come together, without external pressures, to assess the Act on their own terms. It'll be a closed-door gathering—only tribal people, no legislators or other stakeholders. We want tribal members to feel safe speaking candidly without anyone there to influence the conversation or drive an agenda.

Leading up to the convening, we'll have bi-monthly to monthly virtual information sessions where researchers, scientists, and traditional practitioners talk about psilocybin. We’ll cover how it's used in ceremonial, recreational, and therapeutic contexts, as well as the learnings from clinical trials. We want tribal leaders and members to come in as informed as possible.

My goal is for the tribal nations to take an informed stance. One might say, “Yes, we're ready. We have the infrastructure for psilocybin-assisted therapy.” Another could say, “No, this isn't our medicine. We have other priorities.” Another could say, “We're curious, but we need education.” This convening will help uncover where each group is on that spectrum and what information they need.

What's important to me is that ultimately the decision about how to engage with psilocybin is up to the tribal nations themselves. It shouldn't be imposed. It should be an option they can choose.

Where have federal and state governments struggled most with tribal engagement on psychedelics? What should states rolling out reform do differently?

State and federal governments consistently struggle because consultation is often treated as notification. Tribal leaders are continuously invited into conversations after key decisions are already made. Once legislation is drafted or rules are nearly finalized, only then the government starts making contact. That's not consultation; that's a briefing. It's not engagement in good faith.

When I did my residency with SAMHSA, we developed a tribal engagement toolkit about the need for early, ongoing, and relational engagement with these communities. Unfortunately, it has not been put into practice yet. The next step would be a “Dear tribal leader” letter reaching out to all 574 federally recognized tribal nations, inviting them to a convening to talk about the psychedelic movement.

I think the convening in New Mexico could be a good model to show other states how to approach these policy shifts. At the federal level, we're going to need to cast a wider net, and it's going to take time to get everybody informed enough and feeling safe enough to talk about psychedelics.

As New Mexico builds out its program, what's on your wishlist? What would success look like?

Indigenous people in New Mexico and across the US need the authority, resources, and time to define their own futures with psychedelics, including the right to say no. These are sovereign tribal nations, so government-to-government engagement needs to happen. If we're not careful, these legislative efforts could accelerate commercialization, misappropriation of indigenous knowledge, and replication of inequities we're already seeing in healthcare. But if we do it right, there's real opportunity here.

Oregon was the first state to implement psilocybin policy, and Colorado learned from Oregon's early challenges. New Mexico now has an opportunity to build on those efforts. In Colorado, the Tribal Working Group brought together official tribal representatives, Native scholars, researchers, and traditional practitioners to offer guidance to regulators. The final report speaks to the depth of care Indigenous peoples bring to discussions of plant and fungi medicines.

Success looks like comprehensive education. We need as much education and information as we can get out there for providers, communities, families, and policymakers about the benefits, risks, and context. There are misconceptions around these medicines, but I also don't want to frame them as a cure-all. We need to be realistic about contraindications and the potential for harm, so that people can make informed decisions about how they want to engage.

Cultivation is a huge factor, too. From an Indigenous perspective, to grow mushrooms is to grow holy children. You create a space for them, talk to them, pray for them, and build relationality into the growth process. Where's the medicine coming from? Who's growing it? Why is it being grown? These questions matter.

In my research on multi-generational perspectives of psilocybin in urban Native communities, older generations often reminisced about having someone to tell them the dos and don’ts when they first encountered mushrooms. They expressed a desire for the newer generations to have similar guidance. That kind of mentorship—that passing down of knowledge—is what we can facilitate now if we approach this new policy thoughtfully and give tribes the space to lead.

Want more from Marlena?

Read the report produced by the Federally Recognized American Tribes and Indigenous Community Working Group in Colorado.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.