The Beckley Foundation’s new venture studio for investments in the psychedelics sector has established an ethics council to help guide the industry.
Beckley Waves — the foundation’s investment arm — announced the formation of the council on Thursday, which is intended to set the standard for ethical and sustainable practices in the ever-growing psychedelics landscape.
The council was established during an inaugural summit meeting for world psychedelics leaders hosted by Beckley Waves and led by Amanda Feilding, Founder of the foundation.
Key members of the council will include Feilding; Rick Doblin, Founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS); the renowned mushroom expert Paul Stamets; and Dr. Pamela Krsykow, a physician and Co-Founder of MycoMedica Life Sciences, a psychedelics company that raised $60 million last year for the development of its fungi-based drugs.
The council will be inviting others to join as its agenda and scope of work develops and grows over time.
Read more: European Parliament launches medical psychedelics action group
Read more: New survey aims to gather data on psychedelics use worldwide
The renowned publication The Economist called Feilding the “Queen of Psychedelics” last year for her contributions to the field, such as hosting a series of international seminars about psychedelics and cannabis at the United Kingdom’s House of Lords in the late 1990s and co-authoring over 80 articles published in peer-reviewed journals.
The Beckley Foundation was founded by Feilding 25 years ago and has been a significant influence in the field of psychedelics research.
“With this council of advisors and experts, we have access to a great resource that will enable Beckley Waves to expand upon our established foundation and strengthen our capabilities and offerings across this nascent sector,” said Feilding.
Beckley Waves says that as the demands and expectations for the industry grow a higher level of responsibility in maintaining the sector inherently comes with them.
“While the psychedelics industry is in its infancy, these compounds and practices have been used for millennia by Indigenous peoples,” said Neil Markey, CEO and Co-Founder at Beckley Retreats, another branch of the foundation that runs psychedelic retreat centres in the Netherlands and Jamaica.
“As we look to set the standards for industry best practices, we must look to modern science and ancient wisdom.”
Feilding recently co-founded Beckley Psytech, a private company focused on developing a catalogue of psychedelic medicines for the treatment of mental and physical health conditions.
Doblin’s organization MAPS is currently in the midst of conducting an online survey to gather data on psychedelics that will be running until June 2.
The European Parliament also founded an “Action Group” for the medical use of psychedelics last week, which is intended to help establish safe and ethical practices while benefiting the sector as well.
rowan@mugglehead.com
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