Psychedelics Inc.: reflections on the capitalization and corporatism of power plants

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Published: Aug 30, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2025.37.92500

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Genlizzie Elizabeth Garibay Munguía
Asociación Civil CANNATIVA, A. C.

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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Garibay Munguía, G. E. (2025). Psychedelics Inc.: reflections on the capitalization and corporatism of power plants. INTER DISCIPLINA, 13(37), 19–41. https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2025.37.92500

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