The current resurgence of interest in psychedelics for treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addictions is driven by colonial extractivism, similar to the European Renaissance. Indigenous communities, who have long used these substances ceremonially, receive few benefits from the legalization and commercialization of psychedelics. The paper argues that Indigenous philosophical traditions can help reorient the psychedelic movement toward a more equitable future for Indigenous Peoples and the medicines themselves.
Indigenous gift logic offers an alternative to the commercial extraction of sacred plant medicines in the global capitalist economy. Unlike barter or monetary systems, gift economies involve giving without expectation of future reward, underpinning a relational epistemology that treats plants and fungi as beings with agency rather than commodities. The article suggests reorienting the psychedelic resurgence toward relational ontologies indexed to place and informed by Indigenous gift logic.