Ethical Concerns about Psilocybin Intellectual Property
Flores, I. G., Gerber, K., Ginsberg, N. L., Ruiz, A. C., Schenberg, E. E.
This commentary (2021) provides a historical overview of past and current psilocybin patents and highlights ethical concerns over intellectual property claims that extract value from indigenous communities and bypass their cultural heritage. The article highlights the need to protect and develop traditional medicine via reciprocal and reparative arrangements that serve indigenous communities and diverge from ongoing extractive economic practices.
Abstract
Since a 1957 exposé in Life Magazine, chemical compounds derived from Psilocybe mushrooms have been the focus of dozens of attempted and successful patents, most recently to treat depression. Regrettably, the Mazatec indigenous communities who stewarded these traditional medicines for millenia are not party to any of these patents, despite a number of international treaties asserting indigenous rights to their intangible cultural heritage.