Public Policies

Nierika A. C. has dedicated itself in the las years to drug policy transformation sacred and has has recommended the establishment of an International Commission for the Regulation of Sacred Plants conformed by a multidisciplinary team of experts that can inform policy makers as to the humanistic and scientific relevance of sacred plants for humanity.

Nierika A. C. believes that it is in the best interest of public health to promote and facilitate the legal architecture for the development of treatments that present preliminarily favorable results in the treatment of disorders, which have not responded well to conventional treatment, such as substance dependency and depression. Excessive restrictions on ritual use of sacred plants that are based on models of classification and control of other psychotropic substances can hinder and deter the availability of effective treatment options.

Nierika A. C. is an NGO consultant to the Federal Government of Mexico through the Department of Foreign Relations; Since 2016 its part of the Vienna Council of Non-Governmental Organizations in the topic of Drug Policy, and it is also an active participant as Civil Society in the United Nations General Assembly UNGASS 2016 on the analysis of international drug policy and continues its involvement in the follow-up process leading to the revision of the International Conventions at the UNGASS 2019. Nierika A. C. position as an NGO stands for the most basic human rights to knowledge, to effective medicine, to cultural sustainability of indigenous people, and to the spiritual evolution of humanity by preserving sacred plants and their traditions.

From a strict scientific point of view and without moral prejudges, these ancestral medicines can contribute knowledge to modern science, and its effects can help people to solve traumas, quit drugs, forgive and heal, as well it can represent, to certain people, a source of wisdom and knowledge that fortify the will, they can also offer spaces of clarity and peace. The benefits of the “hallucinogenic” plants in medical and spiritual contexts are barely starting to be studied from the scientific medicine to get to know more deeply their possible applications; however, it has been empirically probed by the existing studies, that these plants in their traditional context and adequate quantities, are not a risk for health, do not induce to addiction, nor to psychosis; as long as indications and counter-indications are respected, theirs consumption is practically safe.

The use of certain plants with psychoactive effects in ceremonial context with therapeutic or human development purposes must be considered by the Mexican Government, searching for a national legal architecture with greater adherence to the guidelines disposed by the UN, OMS and JIFE. Because Mexico has a long history of use and management of these plants in indigenous contexts, it is in its plain capacity to contribute to a progressive model before this legal void and promote an international policy that adheres to the DDHH by declassifying only the hallucinogenic plants from Class I to Class IV of the art. 245 from the General Law of Health.

Because the research with sacred plants require an ethical, sustainable and organized regulation of the psychoactive substances, Nierika A. C. recommends the creation of an interdisciplinary committee that supervises the safe use of psychoactive plants in intercultural contexts and that takes into account the scientific evidence for the implementation of pertinent public policies in the development of innovative medical and psychotherapeutic treatments. Experts in the matter of human rights, customs and habits of indigenous people, drug policy, scientific innovation, intercultural relationships, neurology, psychology and medicine, among other areas of knowledge, would contribute to an informed analysis about the humanistic and scientific relevance of the sacred plants, in a way that they can transmit efficiently such information to the ones in charge of the legislation and public policies regarding this topic.