Psychedelics in the Pharmaceutical Industry: How Did We Get Here, and What is the Future?

For thousands of years, humans have lived harmoniously with nature; it’s how we survived. Just like the Sumatran Orangutan who crushes plant sap to treat facial wounds, nature has a cure for every ailment.

In 1806, just 220 years ago, German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner isolated morphine from the opium plant, creating the first pure drug derived from a plant.

In the 1820s-1850s, chemists began isolating other plant ingredients, such as codeine and quinine, with great results. Concentrated, purified doses seemed more precise than consuming the whole herb.

In the nineteenth century, chemists isolated active compounds from plants, including morphine and quinine. Later advances followed different paths: aspirin reached the market in 1899, while Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. These developments helped shape modern pharmaceutical research, but they were not part of a single shift away from plants.

This was another shift from plants to microbes and mass production during World War Two, which led the way for scientists to experiment and chemically modify natural plant compounds to design entirely new synthetic molecules. Natural herbs and plants cannot be patented, but synthetic, lab-made “medicines” can. By 1899, Bayer introduced Aspirin, which was synthesized from a natural willow compound. This truly marked the beginning of the commercial pharmaceutical industry.

At the same time this was happening, John D. Rockefeller earned the first half of his fortune by compromising the oil industry with railroad rebates and high-volume bargaining, manipulating and eliminating the competition. Rockefeller worked a deal with the railroads so that his competitors paid full prices for shipping oil barrels while he paid a fraction of the costs. He also got a kickback percentage on every barrel of oil his rivals shipped. This allowed Rockefeller to sell his oil at a fraction of his competitors’ prices, buy them out, and monopolize the industry, with Standard Oil controlling about 90% of American oil refining at its peak. He made millions, then he turned his attention to monopolizing the food and health industry. He figured out a way to manufacture synthetic drugs from oil byproducts that were cheap, could be patented, and highly profitable. The problem standing in the way was that we already had a working medical industry.

So in 1901, John D. founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, which was the first biomedical research institute in the United States. This back-door Trojan Horse, disguised as “philanthropic” funding, shifted standard medical practices away from plants and natural remedies to petrol-chemical laboratory-made drugs. By 1903, the U.S. had passed the Elkins Act to ban the railroad rebate monopolies, but they had no idea what was about to happen to the medical field.

The Carnegie Foundation commissioned Abraham Flexner to travel and visit the medical facilities across the United States to accumulate data for what we currently call the Flexner Report, 1910. His report stated that many practices of herbalism, homeopathy, chiropractic care, and holistic medicine that have healed humanity since the beginning of time were “quackery.” Solution: give away hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to medical schools, only if they taught his new pharmaceutical curriculum. The schools that refused to be bought out were forced to close. The medical monopoly was now a pill-based treatment, as insurance companies stopped covering holistic practices, doctors stopped practicing, and the knowledge stopped spreading.

The next step was the language. Technically, no one owns the word “medicine.” The words themselves—diagnose, prevent, heal, cure, treat, and remedy—aren’t illegal, but claims that a product diagnoses, prevents, cures, or treats disease can bring it under FDA drug regulations. Seriously. So how does one get FDA approval? Great question. R&D trials cost about $50-$800+ million. An extract labeled as a dietary supplement costs only $25,000-$250,000, but because it’s still being claimed as a supplement, not a medicine, claims about treating or curing disease are still restricted.

Now the FDA is in place to create a medical standard so that every crook can’t sell us snake oil, but money rules the world. It’s the reason America uses high-fructose corn syrup and half of Hollywood is on Ozempic, looking ready for Halloween like walking skeletons with their faces sunk in. Approved! From 2010-2016, Dr. Siyaram Pandey and Dr. Caroline Hamm conducted studies with dandelion root tea and leukemia patients, showing significant clinical improvements. A 2016 study found that dandelion root extract killed over 95% of colon cancer cells in vitro and slowed tumor growth in mice. Yet, they lost funding for human trials in 2016. How? Why? Because they make more money off of the disease than the cure.

We’re all in pain; we all need help. Those medical authoritarians are supposed to have the education to help, but the education has been compromised, and so is the help. The cascading help of prescriptions can pile up and start to hurt when one prescription causes a side effect, and the solution is another prescription with another side effect.

In a KFF survey, 66% of adult Americans reported currently taking at least one prescription medication.

Approximately 19% of women, 10% of men, and 39% of the trans community use SSRIs. We turn to these legal drugs to help us through hard times and keep us sane. Approximately 60%-73% of people who take SSRIs for a prolonged period of time experience serious sexual side effects like decreased libido, difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection, and permanent genital numbness. This was supposed to help mental health, not numb us.

Almost 11% of the population is on pain meds. Some of these medications can lead to serious chemical dependencies and opioid addictions, resulting in smoke shop Kratom self-diagnosing. 50% of the population over 70 years old are on arthritis pills, which create risks for high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes. Having a hard time sleeping? So are 18% of Americans. We’ll prescribe you Ambien, and you can drive while sleeping, send that angry email, go shopping in your underwear, or rearrange your furniture with zero memory at all!

Ketamine has evolved from being an anesthetic dissociative to an anti-anxiety medication, just like Ozempic evolved from a diabetes drug to starring in a weight-loss epidemic. Yet Ivermectin was looked down upon during COVID when it had shown real signs of combating the virus, and doctors were discredited, similar to the propaganda at the start of the Flexner Report. It’s not about your health; it’s about your money.

History repeats itself. We learn, we do it again, and again until we figure it out.

It’s been interesting to watch big pharma get into the world of real plant medicines, and a noribogaine clinical study get that FDA green light. Helus Pharma and Eli Lilly have spent millions and billions on psychedelic mushroom medicines, not to make them legal, but to extract parts from them to sell to consumers. Texas has approved $50 million in state funding, with additional matching funds envisioned, to advance clinical trials for psychedelic alternatives to current antidepressants and PTSD treatments, but marijuana is considered illegal. The plant medicines themselves are still illegal. The ceremony is still illegal.

I have been in the plant medicine world for over 20 years, working with natural plant medicines as well as psychedelic plant medicine ceremonies. I work alongside Indigenous Peruvians and have led Ayahuasca ceremonies and sung songs for many years. I’ve heard multiple people in ceremony share that 25 years of therapy can’t touch what they’ve just experienced. The understanding, the healing, the teachings, the humble surrendering that comes with the ceremony is the medicine. Companies that come in to extract some part of the mushroom or plant to achieve a 24/7 bliss state bypass the ceremony itself. Like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. The ceremony can be the reset that is so needed instead of masking the pain with more meds. Sometimes people need to go outside and eat some mushrooms to reconnect with the external beauty of nature, and that journey is exactly what is needed. Sometimes we need to go internally and connect with ourselves in an ayahuasca ceremony. These explorative higher-dose experiences have a longer sustained response time without needing daily supplements, allowing us to break a habit-forming pattern. There are plenty of safe facilitators out there, but it’s hard to find them, as these mushroom or aya ceremonies are underground, taboo, and illegal without the expensive, proper legal documents.

So the plants, the mushrooms, and the ceremonies are all illegal, while claims that plant medicines and herbal elixirs heal, cure, or prevent disease are restricted when these products are sold.

We shouldn’t have a monopoly on health. Getting a product recognized as medicine shouldn’t be financially out of reach. Safe, original alternatives are necessary that don’t have the same harmful side effects as the oil companies’ pills.

Personally, I always work with the plants and am grateful to my predecessors in the jungle who have continued to teach about the plant kingdom and its knowledge. After a particular ayahuasca ceremony, the message was to serve these plants and make them available for people, just as a pharmacy. So I started a high-grade natural plant medicine company, and I actually use them. When I have brain fog, I reach for Pure Being (B. Caapi vine). If I have joint pain (arthritis) or back pain issues, I reach for Pure Vitality, and it’s amazing. If I start to get sick and feel off, I reach for Pure Immunity (Peruvian Catsclaw). Suppose I need to wind down and relax my bones at the end of the night, I reach for Pure Heart (Bobinsana) or Pure Dreams. They’re not going to knock me out like Ambien, but staying conscious of blue light intake, eating late, and several other factors help with restful sleep. When I need to cleanse my gut and mind, I reach for Pure Clarity, and Pure Moon helps with muscle spasms and is the best for the ladies out there with painful cramps. I personally take these over anything, and so does my family from young to old. It’s not the McDonald’s bite of the burger here. Even Rockefeller didn’t take his own pills but preferred holistic treatment until his death at 97. One thing we agree on.

We are in interesting times for the health of humanity, as our current medical system is just over 100 years old. Architecture from over 100 years ago is breathtaking compared to today’s standards. Chinese herbal medicine dates back more than 5,000 years, and the government implements a state-supported dual system where both herbal medicine and Western petrochemical pills operate alongside each other at every level of healthcare. The pre-Inca Empire of Peru has a history of using plant medicines for thousands of years, and the Peruvian government and medical system work together with modern and traditional plant medicines and ceremonies. Getting our priorities back to basics.

Certainly, technology and surgery have improved and are truly the crowning achievements of modern medicine, but Sunshine is medicine too. We need to integrate plants with pills. Asking for and prescribing a day at the beach or a day in the woods for mental health. Prescribe the gym for weight loss. One day, potentially prescribe an ayahuasca ceremony or guided mushroom trip as therapy. We are making baby steps, slowly but surely making progress.

According to the WHO, 170 Member States have reported the use of traditional and complementary medicine, and it is my goal to help spread information and education where necessary.

TAKE ACTION: Learn more about Aaron Eschenburg’s work with the Center of Spirituality and Ancestral Herbs, where he shares his interest in traditional plant practices and their place alongside modern medicine. If this work resonates with you, you can support the Center or explore its upcoming retreats in Costa Rica and Peru.

Editor’s note: This article reflects the author’s personal views and experiences and is provided for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Do not stop or change prescribed treatment or use plant extracts or psychedelics to treat a medical condition without consulting a qualified healthcare professional. Some substances may interact with medications or carry serious risks.