Hello SWIMteam,

SWIM has become gradually more and more disgusted by the lack of freedom, opression and systematic exploitation of the people his country's system has been bringing. He thinks it is outright rediculous that many marvelous psychedelics, like DMT, Psilocybe Mushrooms, Mescaline Cacti, Salvia, Cannabis, Ayahuasca, Iboga, LSD and the like are prohibited and scientific/medical/pharmaceutical/psychological research into these substances are ground to a halt due to this prohibition and demonisation.

He seeks to live a life of freedom and is prepared to go to (peacefully)extreme measures to achieve it.
He was hoping to start a community that is connected by entheogenic rituals in a loosely-religious context that uses many different Entheogens for many different occasions as Holy Sacraments. He seeks a way to be legally permitted to sacramentally prepare and ingest DMT, Ayahuasca, Cannabis, Mescaline Cacti, LSD, Salvia, Iboga and whatever usefull spiritual tool nature has to offer us. He hopes to be able to cultivate many of these entheogens in this safehaven.

He wonders wether he should try and get this done the way Santo Daime got legal permission to import, prepare and drink ayahuasca in their US, UK, Dutch, German and French chruches; Under the law on Religious freedom. Then he should unite with plenty of people and try to meet the official requirements for the legal defenition of "Religion".

Or should he go to extremer lengths, unite quite a heck of alot of people and together raise a fund to buy a piece of land or and island where he and his people could live and practice entheogenesis unhindered by predatorial, ignorant authority forces? A bought land that can make it's own laws?

SWIM would like to gather as much information as possible regarding economical and legal possibilities of creating an entheogenic safehaven. Where at least all entheogens that nature offers us are legal to possess, prepare, extract and ingest.

If anySWIY has usefull information regarding this let SWIM know.

This is a great idea, one im sure we're all down for. The things is, youll be facing a wall of laws, a huge wall. Especially with multiple entheogens, Look how hard Santo Daime had to work just to get daime legalized, they won, but are now being appealed. I recently saw an interview with this woman that started an eco-village in canada. It looked amazing, seemed like a perfect place to work with our favorite plants. So maybe somehting like that would good be a start.

You think like I do! Here are some relevent threads which might have some appropriate info:

An entheogenic religion:
http://www.dmt-nexus.me/....aspx?g=posts&t=2670
http://www.dmt-nexus.me/....aspx?g=posts&t=2262

An entheogenic homeland:
http://www.dmt-nexus.me/....aspx?g=posts&t=3378

These safehavens do exist, but mainly they are low-profile. Once they start to become large, they start atracting narco-tourism. And then the authorities close them down and start making arrests.

You also got to be very carefull not to atract criminals.
Criminals know that when you're involved in semi-legal situations, many people won't file charges with them if they start interfering.

Many of these safe havens end up to be mini-police states, where the 'police' are organizations such as the hells angels. Let me tell you that this is far,far worse then the legitimate police.

In many countries, the police won't be much of a problem as long as you keep a low profile, don't advertise, don't let minors use drugs, make sure no overdoses on any substance occur, be friendly with your neighbours, and so on.

Great homeland post ohayoco, hadn't read it before. I think it's great idea, now, we just need to find an island/land where the country has very loose (non-existent) laws on drugs. It could be like that movie The Beach but instead of been povo and all living in one hut we could have many huts, a community in fact. Maybe we could jump on board the Venus Project and practice as a sub-division of it's mega land, though rather been a sub-division it would be more of an ethos of the project I would assume seen their ideas probably align with allot of our own.

Exciting times, I hope. Where do we sign up?

Either you can have these drugs available to people who are seeking them, or you can be within the US. But it can't be both, unless you want to end up in prison. It would be possible to have a place where these kinds of activities went on, but if it wasn't restricted to people who were already known and trusted then it would only be a matter of time before the feds took interest.

There was a place in the netherlands (ruigoord) that was pretty much an entheogenic safehaven. It was a squatted town. But it had to make way for the extension of the port of amsterdam.
In denmark there also was a safehaven, in the midle of copenhagen (christiania), but it was a bit too open and became a safehaven for criminals as well, instead of just people with an alternative lifestyle. I believe it still exists today, but there has been a violent atmosphere for a long time.

There are many countries in europe where you could have these safehavens. I think especially in the netherlands and switserland.
But you have to contact the local authorities and promiss them to keep a low profile. Don't advertise on the web or elsewhere that you have a little narco-state of your own somewhere. That will get you in trouble.
If not with the police, then certainly with people and organisations that are interested in having a little narco-state of their own two.

Think of the hells angels and such.

we have a sort of cannabis district here in vancouver..it's called pot-block..you can basically smoke cannabis there in the shops etc without any trouble from authorities..there is no buying and selling though. There is a cannabis cafe, some seed shops and bong shops, a herb shop with a psychedelic bookstore and they sell cacti, salvia, ayahuasca herbs, amanita's and a whole plethora of other shamanic herbs and live cactus..and a vapo lounge in the back with volcanoes...

There are a few other cafe's around the city as well that are cannabis freindly without authorities interviening..and we have commercial drive..which is the height-ashbury of Vancouver...tons of hippy types and very colorful people, and all the shops are fair trade..you can basically walk up and down the street tripping balls like it's a normal everyday thing..and every sundy they block off all the traffic in the summer and have a huge festival..but more crack and heroin seems to be hitting the area, and violence as well.

Yes, i heard about vancouver. I believe in the frisco area there are also some of those places.(in oakland, if i'm correct)
You have to be carefull with the crime, the coke and the heroin indeed.
That's the main reason i wouldn't qualify amsterdam as an entheogenic safehaven.
And the reason mushrooms are no longer for sale here.
Wacko's from all over the world came to amsterdam and started jumping of of buildings and such. Once those things start happening in vancouver, there is a risk that it will all be over very soon.
That's why i say 'low profile'.

I have a goal which is much the same.

My dream to create a self-sufficient, self-sustaining ethnobotanical farm where I grow entheogens and practice shamanism.

YES YES YES and YES! This too has been my dream for the recent past and I have been trying to figure out how I'm going to go about setting it up. At this moment in time, with the air of cannabis legalization slowly wafting through our society I'm thinking there may be a way to piggyback my own ethnobotanical interests and farming needs onto the back of what is arguably one of our nation's most widely used and talked about ethnobotanicals and make it happen relatively legitimately. The only issue is that, at least for the immediate future, just declaring as a medi-grower in a legalized state will probably still attract unwanted attention...but things you buy under the guise of a legitimate medi-cannabis grow-op could always wander off-site to a personal garden with no connection...

So, what is the best country to live in?

I'm sick of the UK, I feel like I can't stand to be stuck in this horrible society any more... I want to escape. (Gloomy people, newspapers full of pessimism and propaganda, a kingdom with taxes still going to the royal family, security services proven to collude with torturers, swamped by bureaucracy and vicious bureaucrats, far-right racists gaining power, a culture of greed, the rich protected and the poor screwed over, etc)

Can anyone make any suggestions for better places to live than the UK? Most imortant is that it is a more liberal society of happier friendlier people with good attitudes. Second is that it has free healthcare like the UK if you ever need it. Third, welfare if you're ever down on your luck (or the equivalent, such as being able to catch your own food or share with the community if it's a Pacific Island or something). Fourth, stable so there probably won't be a war or government change, and it won't be wiped out by climate change (like the imminent disappearance of the Maldives, an example regarding sea level rises, one way in which a country could face hardships).

If there is a better place, and likeminded people all moved there, it would become even better. It could become our homeland. We could all move there! Kind of like how California became the hippy homeland of America, so is now I presume the most liberal state. Should I move to California? Vancouver? Sweden? Norway? Iceland? A Pacific Island? Or is there nowhere significantly better than the UK, so instead we should just build a big raft in international waters and turn it into a city like the Aztecs did?

I long for tihs place dear friend...

and your comments on the uk are bang on the money

Glad to hear I'm not alone . Yeah, it's really getting me down right now. All suggestions on potential countries welcome!