http://www.livestream.co...&utm_medium=ui-thumb

This is a great talk by Gabor Mate followed by Q&A with both him and Rick Doblin. Gabor Mate is a therapist here in Vancouver who works with ayahuasca and drug addicts in the downtown eastside..

I get the impression that there's a small psychedelic renaiscance happening in british columbia! I've heard they have an iboga house in vancouver as well.

The only drawback could be that drug culture can become extremely commercialised like in amsterdam. The dutch bulldog company, wich is like the mcdonalds of cannabis and realy a loathsome and shitty organisation in my view, has already opened some stores in vancouver, i've been told.

I would like to visit vancouver before it's swamped with 'bulldog's'. There's a canal in amsterdam where there are even three of these terrible 'bulldog's' in a row!!!(next to where all the prostitutes are)

I don't know if MDMA has that much therapeutic potential as ayahuasca. I find it more superficial but mostly more of a fleeting experience.

It's good that ayahusca is being studied for it's healing powers, but i fear for it becoming an 'official' medicine, because that could seriously affect it's legal status and therefore it's availability. All depends on how it's gonna be scheduled when it get's recognised as a medicine.

What does this bulldog company do?

We do have cafes here, but you cannot buy or sell cannabis in them..you can go there, eat dinner, drink coffe etc..buy pipes and bongs and other things..and you can smoke in them..some of them sell other entheogens like salvia, peyote plants and ayahuasca plants..they are like other cafes in amsterdam I guess..the only difference is you have to bring your own cannabis to smoke there. I have never been bothered by the police or anything at a cafe here..You are right though the cannabis industry is sort of touristy here..without Marc Emery none of it would be here probly so I would hate to see something so grass roots become overly commercialized..

I see BC going through a sort of psychedelic renaiscance as well..we do have an iboga house ouside of the city..Vancouver is sort of reestablishing it's psychedelic roots I think..this was like ground zero at one point, before even Leary's time..back in the 50's we had the "hollywood hospital" which was one of the first places on the planet I think for LSD assisted therapy to be taking place..and it went on here until sometime in the 70's I think becasue LSD was scheduled here later than it was in the US..

-Thanks Fractal, i really enjoyed that!

fun fact, my mum is personal friends with gabor mate, his books on ADD and addiction are also quite fantastic.

How do you explain BC's relative openness?