Activists March for Cognitive Liberty in NYC and Advocate in San Francisco

A block away from the United Nations, marchers gathered in the streets of New York City to advocate for “cognitive liberty” – the freedom to explore consciousness, including through the use of psychedelic substances. Meanwhile, at the Psychedelic Culture conference in San Francisco, cognitive liberty was also championed on stage as a legal framework for drug law reform.   

The New York City parade took place on April 19, which is celebrated as Bicycle Day to commemorate Dr. Albert Hofmann’s first experience of his creation, LSD, and subsequent journey home on a bicycle. The parade lasted two hours and traveled through the streets of Manhattan to Central Park. The Psychedelic Assembly, a psychedelic community in New York City, organized the event.

Despite the forecast, which included windy, cold weather and hours of rainfall, dozens of people showed up to the initial crowd on 47th Street, including prominent psychedelic advocates such as physician Julie Holland, political candidate Laura Dunn, and prolific LSD chemist Leonard Pickard. 

Shortly after 1pm, co-founder of Psychedelic Assembly, Abby Lyall, addressed the crowd. “We’re here not just to celebrate all that psychedelics have done for us, but also to say that’s not enough, because right now, in the eyes of the law, you are not allowed to heal yourself through psychedelics,” said Lyall. “Even if research says it might help you, even if it grows out of the ground, even if indigenous people have been using it for thousands of years.”

“We’re here to say our minds are our property,” Lyall added to an applause. The crowd followed her into the day’s first rallying cry: “Everyone repeat after me: my mind, my choice.”

Activists Rally The Crowd

Participants at the march were encouraged by the speakers to make their views heard. Holland addressed the crowd saying she had spent days writing a speech for the event which highlighted what the government should do with psychedelics – only for U.S. President Donald Trump to sign an executive order two days before the parade which agreed with many of her recommendations. Holland said she knows the advocates who influenced Trump’s executive order and is “very optimistic.”

“I have been for two days now, kind of trembling with excitement. So I feel good about it,” said Holland who noted that she has been a psychedelic activist for 40 years. Early on in her advocacy Holland encountered the phrase “cognitive liberty” which was coined in 2013 by neuroethicist Wrye Sententia and legal theorist and lawyer Richard Glen Boire, the founders and directors of the non-profit Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE). Sententia and Boire define cognitive liberty as “the right of each individual to think independently and autonomously, to use the full power of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought.”

Holland says she resonates deeply with these values. “I want to be able to think what I want and feel what I want, and I’m not bothering anybody,” she said. “These are very much victimless crimes. I think most of us, if we are taking mushrooms in the mountains, we’re not really hurting anybody.”

Holland added that the history of cannabis legalization in the U.S. demonstrated the probable path for legalization with other substances that induce altered states. After the approval of medical cannabis in numerous states, Holland said, the public realized that the “sky does not fall when cannabis is made available to people who need it.”

Holland said she hoped that good drug policy will lead to the same outcomes for psychedelics. She advocated for the DEA to take a step down in regulating psychedelics, noting how scientists have tried to experiment with psychedelics only to be blocked by the DEA in the past.

After a grounding ceremony from local psychedelic “guardians” and sisters Yuki and Raven, the marchers headed westward on the sidewalks in an atmosphere of jubilation and bravery; the spirit of psychedelically coming-out-of-the-closet.

Lyall, with a megaphone, led the group through chants such as, “My mind, my choice; Science, not stigma; Hey hey, ho ho, the DEA has got to go.” A particularly eager man in an Amanita muscaria-colored hat walked apart from the crowd to the street shouting “Wake up people!” Marchers brandished signs saying “My healing is not a crime; Neuroscience for psychedelics; Take it easy dude… but take it!” 

The crowd finished the parade at Grand Army Plaza by Central Park, beneath the statue of Civil War General William Sherman mounted on his horse, led by a statue of his allegorical ally fashioned as a golden angel, Victory.

Dunn spoke to the crowd about the historic moment. “I know it’s not ideal weather, but it speaks to your spirit and the spirit of what we’re doing here. We are trying to free our minds from oppression, from trauma, from all that is literally killing us right now in this world.

“As psychedelics become more mainstream, let us remember that we are not just fighting for the freedom of our minds, but the freedoms of our rights. We must live free or die fighting for those freedoms.”

Dunn added she is running for Congress in New York District 12, Jerry Nadler’s open seat. The election is on June 23. “Do you want a sexual assault survivor who has overcome trauma, who has healed her mind through psychedelics, who’s going to make sure that you have access to the sacred medicine? I want your vote on June 23.”

Meanwhile In San Francisco 

During the same weekend that marchers gathered in New York City, an advocate for cognitive liberty took the stage in San Francisco. Sebastian William Foster, an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a legal scholar at the University of Zürich and the University of Göttingen, made his case on a panel at the Psychedelic Culture conference hosted by the Chacruna Institute. Entitled “Global Psychedelic Landscapes: Perspectives from Phillipino, South African and Gabon Traditions,” Foster shared his research on psychedelic law, human rights, and the distinctive position South Africa occupies in the conversation about global decriminalization of psychedelics. 

Foster noted during his presentation that when the South African Constitutional Court ruled in 2018 to partially decriminalize cannabis and allow adults to possess, use, and cultivate cannabis in private spaces, they centered the right to privacy as a foundational legal argument. Foster said that these arguments are transferable to psychedelics starting with access to psilocybin which is currently illegal in South Africa. He notes that the South African courts have not yet decided on the issue of psychedelic decriminalisation or medicalisation. While there is currently no medical exemption, even for cannabis, Foster observed that “globally, the medicalisation route is receiving the most attention.” He believes this is a consequence of economic interests as large companies are in a position to make the strongest arguments for an exemption. 

Foster argues that this is not the most suitable route for psychedelic decriminalisation because  such reasoning would attempt to confine psychedelics into a pharmaceutical model. Attempting this approach, says Foster, would prohibit the benefits of psychedelics in culture, play, art, and connection while continuing to infringe upon human rights vis-à-vis cognitive liberty, privacy, and dignity. According to Foster, South Africa is a legally progressive jurisdiction where human rights are well-recognised within its constitution allowing for this legal framework to potentially prevail in the decriminalisation of psychedelic substances.

During his presentation, Foster noted that South Africa is well-acquainted with the consequences of a government telling its people how to act, think, and be seen throughout the apartheid regime. Against this  backdrop, he observed that the South African Constitution was created to guide the country into a new era of human rights protection and recognition. In defense of his arguments for cognitive liberty, Foster posits that  free-thinking, autonomous individuals are needed to uphold democracy, not a paternalistic government that subjugates its citizens. 

While the South African Constitution supports progressive interpretations of human rights that could be applied to psychedelics, Foster wrote in an email after his talk that these are fundamental rights established amongst many jurisdictions, which include privacy, bodily and mental integrity as well as cognitive liberty. Foster observes that the global prohibition of psychedelics originated through the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which lists many psychedelics as Schedule 1 substances – the strongest regime of control which prohibits these compounds with only minor exceptions for medical and scientific research. This convention compelled nation states, including the U.S., to impose strong controls on psychedelic substances. 

While researching the archival record, however, Foster says there is no sufficient medical or scientific evidence to justify the classification of psychedelics as Schedule 1. He points to a recent paper which argues that, “Rather than reflecting a consistent application of scientific or medical criteria, the scheduling of psychedelics emerged from a confluence of institutional dynamics, symbolic politics, and perceptions of social deviance. As such, their inclusion in Schedule I of the Psychotropic Convention appears less as the outcome of a systematic risk assessment than as the product of a particular historical moment shaped by uncertainty, contestation, and the absence of countervailing interests.”

Foster says he is drafting a thesis which will argue that there are rule of law violations implicated by this evidence – in addition to the fact that psychedelics do not meet the requirements for a Schedule 1 substance. He argues that the scheduling of psychedelics does not comply with the power placed on the creators of the U.N. Convention, meaning they acted outside their legitimate mandate. According to Foster, this is therefore an arbitrary decision and use of power which does not align with the Rule of Law standards rendering these laws illegitimate. 

“The rule of law mandates that laws cannot be arbitrary, laws must have a rational connection to their purpose,” writes Foster. “If no scientific evidence was put forward justifying the scheduling of psychedelics, the law risks being arbitrarily disconnected from its purpose.” 

Foster added that data indicates around 50 percent of the U.S. population has consumed an illicit substance in their lifetime – illegal materials, including cannabis, prohibited by the the three main U.N. conventions against illicit drugs that form the backbone of international drug control: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (amended 1972), the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic. Foster theorises that at least 20 percent have taken a psychedelic. This would render 50 percent of the population criminals.

By this logic an enormous number of people are subject to criminal penalties based on what Foster believes are arbitrary justifications for psychedelic prohibition. This begs the question: can a just society justify the creation of laws which render half the living population criminally liable? He argues that any law which has this outcome is legally fragile and morally indefensible. “There are massive chinks in the armor of the current regime,” says Foster.

The Emergence of Street Action for Psychedelics

People currently classified as criminals under current law appear to be pushing back. Kat Lakey, CEO of the Psychedelic Assembly, said that as far as she knows, the New York City parade in support of cognitive liberty “is the world’s first public demonstration in support of psychedelics.” Previous marches, she said, were psychedelic-informed marches, usually in the 60s, but weren’t explicitly about drug policy. This is the first one, she says, that’s “explicitly about the right to use psychedelics.”

During the New York City march, Kyle Sharp, the founder of psychedelic history collective Psychedelic Archives, said the parade seemed rooted in the historic spirit of the Love Pageant Rally, which took place on October 6, 1966. Taking place the day that LSD became illegal in California, the march was half-protest and half-celebration. Sharp noted that grassroots psychedelic advocacy organization Decriminalize Nature recently had rallies for psychedelic policy reform but that he didn’t see them as celebratory as the parade in Manhattan.

Lyall and Lakey said they talked extensively about their vision for the march. They said the bravery of those who came out in support of psychedelics sends a message. “We think it’s really important that these things be destigmatized, that people don’t feel shame, or that they have to hide this part of their life from the world.”

Lyall added that the challenges of the march showed how strongly people feel about how psychedelics changed their lives. “I mean, look, we had probably 100 people or so today in the pouring rain, like literally the weather here is nasty, and that many people still showed up, and we’re still in good spirits and still chanted and wore costumes. I think that really says something about our community and what our community is made of.”

Lakey and Lyall said that even onlookers started chanting with the marchers and began filming when they passed. According to Lakey and Lyall, “everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves,” adding, “even the cops.”

When asked why he came to the parade, Paul Greenfield, 31, replied that “psychedelics are the most profound medicine that we have access to and have helped me and so many others change our lives for the better, and so it’s something I really want to advocate for.” Greenfield asserted that psychedelics have cured his depression, OCD, and chronic anxiety when conventional methods failed, and have helped him become a “much happier, more present, more loving human being.” 

Greenfield added that he had never been to such an event before and believes there should be more such parades. “It’s raining,” observed a wet but content Greenfield. “With this community, more than any other community, we would not let this rain on our parade.”

Pickard, who said he traveled from Sante Fe, New Mexico to be in the parade, addressed the crowd assembled in the rain saying, “Welcome to our ragtag group of courageous young souls.” According to Pickard, he traversed the country “just for this, to see your shining bright faces and the great hope in your hearts.”

The former LSD chemist observed that the marcher’s experience in challenging weather offers a glimpse into the personal and collective transformations offered by psychedelic experiences and the ongoing struggle for legal reforms. “It’s a lovely, lovely day. It’s also a cold, rainy, windy day,” said Pickard. 

“Something profound is rising in us,” said Pickard, “moving through our bloodstream. I notice in the silence, the sound of the traffic, the feel of the merciful rain, lightness in the air, the brightness in each other’s faces, they were not cold and isolated, they were coming together as a warm, loving organism with joy, and courage, and hope. We will move this world with that spirit.”

Andrew Meissen has served as a volunteer with the Psychedelic Assembly. Annie Oak Harrison contributed to this story from San Francisco.