Keeper Trout said:
This is worth reading carefully.
This resolution, which was put together by the National Congress of American Indians Executive Committee, puts forth policies that have been in place in regards to Native Americans and the
chacruna.net
This proposition will, no doubt, be controversial for many reasons; and the approach taken in it will undoubtedly alienate some of us who would otherwise be supporters.
While I personally do not & would not take peyote, due to its past over-harvesting, and present limited supply, especially since it is considered a sacramental plant, without substitute, by a portion of my human family, I have two concerns:
1. Exclusive, unlimited, perpetual ownership of any plant or animal species by any sub-population of mankind; and
2. The use of the word mescaline - a component of other plant species - in association with a proposal to secure #1.
I respect and empathize with the intention to conserve this endangered resource, but do not believe nature or its products should be under the exclusive, unlimited, perpetual ownership or use of any human sub-population.
If mention of “mescaline” were removed from the proposition, and if the proposition were written in a way that allowed for all mankind to have the possibility of accessing peyote (perhaps where/when there exists sufficient sustainable supply beyond the needs of the sub-population that uses it for its non-substitutable sacramental purposes), then I could support it.
I fully expect mescaline and all its cactus sources to become decriminalized/legalized in at least some parts of the US, and it gets my hackles up to have some of my brothers & sisters (who are members of a particular religious organization) decide to appropriate this currently denied birthright, to my exclusion, in the future.
My issues are not with this particular sub-population, I’d feel exactly the same it they were some other sub-population…like, say, a corporation.
In short, there are plenty of pathways to protect this sacred resource for all of mankind; cooperation, not selfishness, is the righteous route.
All the best.