Santa Barbara’s Psychedelic Surge – The Santa Barbara Independent

Ketamine as a Cure

Medically legal because the middle a part of the twentieth century, ketamine is an inexpensive prescription drug that has historically been used as a type of anesthesia. Nevertheless, because of the drug’s dissociative powers and exceedingly protected user profile, it has turn into a preferred — and legal — psychedelic therapy for a broad range of afflictions, helping with every part from chronic pain and depression to anger disorders and PTSD. 

“It’s so real, this mystical/medical space we’re working in. There isn’t a doubt that it’s the long run,” says Dr. Remi Drozd, the owner of the Santa Barbara Ketamine Clinic. A classically trained physician with greater than 15 years of experience as an ER doctor, Drozd is a comparatively recent convert to the world of psychedelic medicine. Like so many within the space, he had a private experience that modified his views on the subject. “Working within the ER, I often would see patients that I could never really help. They were coping with underlying issues, things like poor mental health stuff or addiction, problems that I just didn’t have the tools to effectively address. I could never get to the foundation cause,” says Drozd, who opened his clinic in downtown Santa Barbara last 12 months. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating.” 

Nevertheless, after participating in a psilocybin trial at Johns Hopkins and later receiving ketamine-assisted therapy himself, Drozd saw a recent method to take into consideration helping his patients. After which, while on sabbatical and traveling in Yellowstone National Park along with his family, he read The Ketamine Papers by Dr. Phil Wolfson, and the hook was set. “Truthfully, I never thought of changing my profession like this, but here I’m. The evidence was too loud to disregard.”

Though dosing and sequencing varies on a case-by-case basis, the final practice of ketamine-assisted therapy looks like this: A patient involves the clinic, either self-referring or on the suggestion of their therapist or psychologist or primary care doctor. Dr. Drozd meets with the patient and tries to get a more complete picture of what’s motivating them, establishing their intentions for the therapy. There may be a modest amount of somatic work done followed by breath work and, if essential, a further screening with a psychotherapist on the clinic’s team.

At the subsequent appointment, the ketamine is run via an intramuscular injection, and the experience lasts roughly 45 minutes with a physician or nurse nearby your complete time. In line with Drozd, the standard protocol calls for six sessions of ketamine and 6 corresponding “integration sessions” with one among the licensed therapists on the clinic, all of it opened up over an eight-week period. “Absolutely, we see long-lasting, cognitive changes in nearly all of our patients,” explains the doctor. “It’s amazing what an almost-apocalyptic shutdown of your ego can accomplish whenever you set an intention and pair it with a well-trained talk therapist.”

To learn more about ketamine therapy and Dr. Drozd’s practice, head to santabarbaraketamine.com.

The Accidental Queen
of Psychedelic Support

“I’m an advocate for psychedelics. I can’t help it,” explains Santa Barbara’s Jacqueline Lopez, a 57-year-old skilled event organizer and business marketing whiz. “I mean, it wasn’t that way back that I assumed to myself, ‘What are you considering, Jackie? These are Schedule I drugs. You’ll be able to’t just go around talking about them.’ However the science behind it is great and I had seen too many good things occur. It was time to talk up.” And, after watching her terminally in poor health husband, Michael, get transcendent profit from a DMT trip in addition to her own therapeutic experiences using psychedelics to assist heal some deep traumas from her childhood in Paraguay, that is strictly what she did. 

Lopez founded the nonprofit organization EntheoMedicine, built out an impressively thorough and easy-to-use educational website on all things psychedelic, and began working to bring psychedelic luminaries, researchers, and practitioners to talk in Santa Barbara. The speaker series, which her company Spiritual Safari Media produced, ran in 2018 and 2019 at S.B.’s Unity Church and was the primary of its kind on the South Coast, having fun with widespread popularity and offering many their first experience with serious conversation in regards to the advantages of psychedelics. But COVID stopped the momentum of the in-person events and Lopez ultimately needed to pivot. She doubled down on her website and almost immediately saw traffic grow exponentially.

The Michael Pollan effect, from each his book and his Netflix series, coupled with the dynamic mental health implications of COVID and the related periods of isolation that folks needed to endure, ramped up interest in psychedelics in a way that few saw coming. People, not only from the Santa Barbara area but from all around the country, were hungry for information and guidance on how best to proceed. “It’s almost like people needed permission or something to explore. And so they saw me, a traditional woman who runs a successful company and the caregiver to a sick partner, and I used to be protected. I could provide that permission, despite the fact that that was never my intention,” opines Lopez.

In June of this 12 months, Lopez began the Psychedelic Hotline, a spot where people can book free, 15-minute consultations along with her to assist begin their journey with psychedelic medicine. She counsels them on all of the potential options and works to attach individuals with medical professionals and therapists working within the space. She says demand for her services has increased fourfold in recent months. “Look, I still have my day job. I don’t do the psychedelic stuff as a business or for money. It’s just something I feel in and wish to support and see grow.” Says Lopez, “We are only scratching the surface on what consciousness is all about and the potential [of psychedelics]. It’s an exciting thing to be an element of.”

Learn more at entheomedicine.org.