Psicodélicos S. A.: reflexiones sobre la capitalización y el corporativismo de las plantas de poder

Summary

Contemporary psychedelic capitalism, through the medicalization and commodification of substances like ayahuasca and psilocybin, exploits indigenous communities by appropriating their knowledge and practices. This process reinforces social and economic inequalities while the U.S. war on drugs acts as a biopolitical tool that restricts access to alternative knowledge systems. The analysis highlights how these dynamics are rooted in colonial power structures.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article aims to understand how contemporary psychedelic capitalism, through medicalization, regulation, and commodification of ancestral psychoactive substances (such as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, ayahuasca and others), reproduces dynamics of biopiracy and bioappropriation that exploit the territories, knowledge, and practices of indigenous communities. From a critical perspective grounded in the theory of the coloniality of power, the paper examines how the psychedelic industry of the Global North, supported by hegemonic biomedical and legal frameworks, extracts these knowledges and entheogens from their cultural contexts to transform them into commercial products, thereby reinforcing social, economic, and epistemic inequalities. Additionally, it analyzes the role of the United States’ war on drugs as a biopolitical device that regulates and criminalizes these practices, limiting access to and the use of alternative forms of knowledge.

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