Opiate Addiction, Grieving Loss, & Psychedelics || David Rogers
Artem SmirnovDavid is a mushroom farmer, an activist for Decriminalization in Port Angeles, and the organizer of the Olympic Peninsula Fungi Festival.
Meet David Rogers
David is a mushroom farmer, an activist for Decriminalization in Port Angeles, and the organizer of the Olympic Peninsula Fungi Festival.
Watch “Opiate Addiction, Grieving Loss, & Psychedelics”
Tell us about your personal story with plant medicine?
I’ve had multiple experiences with the psychedelics that have really motivated me to get more involved. I went through multiple years of opiate addiction and was really in a deep struggle where I didn’t feel I had really any self-worth. And I’d gotten to the point where I was telling my family that I didn’t know if there was more for me, if that was my story.
And I remember just a very powerful psychedelic experience where not only I felt this extreme love and worth and that there was more for me, but also I had this moment of just, just kind of feeling like I was wasting my life away. And you know that every day I was just stuck in the same routine and it was just happening over and over and over again.
And that (psychedelic) experience really launched me towards sobriety.
And I think psychedelics could have really helped me speed that process up. But unfortunately, getting involved with a lot of treatment facilities and stuff like that, now they really push away from any use of anything and that includes entheogenic plants.
So, you know, I really kind of buried the use of those and didn’t didn’t use them to help, which I think made that more of a struggle getting to that point of sobriety.
But once I finally was able to get there, I have been probably clean for about four years and unfortunately had a family member that passed away due to opiate addiction. And so at that point I really felt this calling towards psychedelics again and psilocybin specifically. So I went on a mushroom journey in nature because nature always seemed to be very special to her.
And during that experience, I felt this really heavy fog rolling around me and I sat down and felt like it was her presence. And it just gave me time to really cry and communicate with her and it was extremely powerful. And even though the passing of my sister still hurt, it really helped with that healing process.
Even though the passing of my sister still hurt, it really helped with that healing process.
And so since then, it’s really launched me to get more involved with psychedelic societies and organizations that are helping veterans with PTSD and other things.
Can decriminalization help heal a community?
Yes, I think in many different ways. So many people have struggled many times. I’ve heard now that my whole adult life I’ve been on a mix of antidepressants and, you know, multiple at the same time. And this is the first time in my life that I haven’t been taking them.
And I feel better than I have ever. I mean, that’s extremely healing for our community.
Just the happiness that psychedelics can spread, the love the psychedelics can spread. We should all be more loving to one another. And so I think all of that is really critical in healing our communities.
Just the happiness that psychedelics can spread, the love the psychedelics can spread. We should all be more loving to one another.
Has plant medicine really helped you in your relationship?
I feel like plant medicines helped me in all my relationships. I mean, whether that be from microdosing. You know, when I microdose, I feel like I can be much more understanding and less likely to get irritated or agitated by something. You know, I can take a step back and take a breath and kind of reevaluate things.
You know, the heavy trips can be very resetting and helping you kind of really get back to a grounded space. And then also just kind of light trips that are in between. You know, there’s times that me and my wife where I’ve been the one on a light dose, but we’re laughing and crying together because that energy spreads and is infectious and, you know, playing on the ground with my my child can be very special, you know, on those in those light experiences.
And so I think it can be powerful for all relationships.
For someone who’s in a really deep, dark space and there’s just no light at the end of the tunnel from where they stand, what do you have to say to those people?
It’s sometimes hard to see, but there’s people out there that can love you. And sometimes it’s just trying to find that space where you can feel that love, you know, because you are worth being love so just try and find that community.
