Who Steps Up When a Category 5 Hurricane Hits Jamaica?

Good morning and welcome to another edition of The Drop In! We're kicking things off with a story about Jamaica, one of the most serene global destinations for psychedelic tourism.

The island nation was recently ravaged by Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 hurricane that basically swallowed it (along with Haiti and Cuba) for three days, destroying homes, farms, crops, schools, roads and other infrastructure, and more, according to reports. We caught up with people on the ground in Jamaica to get the real story on what’s going on and how we — as a community — can help them rebuild. As one of our sources so bleakly stated: “There is no recovering, only rebuilding…and it will take decades.” You can find that story below!

Keep scrolling and you’ll find pieces on DMT, webinars on psychedelic parenting and how to become a psychedelic therapist, and the impact of mushrooms on cluster headaches.

Enjoy the read 📚💡

Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

Together With SANTA

Introducing: Santa, the Amanita Muscaria tonic crafted to feel your best without the sketchy side effects.

We start with hand-picked Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. Our expert extraction process isolates the active compound Muscimol —a GABA A receptor agonist known for its calming, yet focusing properties.

Our proprietary Muscimol extract is then paired with a unique blend of super chargers — kava, beta alanine, caffeine, l-theanine and ashwagandha. The result? Noise cancelling earphones for your mind… and an energy boost with zero crash.

No CBD, psilocybin, kratom, or alcohol… just instant energy, elevated mood, and mental clarity.

Ready to start living amplified? Meet Santa, and use the code DB10 for 10% off your order.

In Hurricane Melissa’s Wake, Jamaica’s Entheogenic Heartland Faces a Long, Uncertain Road Back

As the island grapples with the aftermath of Melissa, the stewards of its entheogenic practices face staggering losses and a recovery timeline that no one can predict.

Jamaica was all over the news on October 28th, the day it was walloped by a type of natural disaster portrayed in fictional suspense films. Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, flattening homes, drowning farms, and swallowing entire communities in mud and seawater. That includes the Rastafari Indigenous Village and Medicine Family Gathering, both of which have helped transform Jamaica into one of the world’s most sought-after destinations for plant medicine retreats. Now, the land these communities live and work on is in ruins.

For the Rastafari Indigenous Village, the devastation caps a run of back-to-back crises that Firstman, the community’s co-founder, describes as a slow, grinding unraveling. “It has been a slurry of events,” Firstman tells DoubleBlind over the phone. “Starting first with the covid… quite honestly, that was like us going 16 years into the process, and just felt like everything was stolen out from under our feet.”

But the village rebuilt. The community launched retreats. They found new ways to anchor themselves in the land. Then, Hurricane Beryl hit in the summer of 2024. It was a Category 4 hurricane that brushed up against the island, bringing with it winds exceeding 120mph, rain, and a significant storm surge, wiping out everything the Rastafari Indigenous Village had saved. “Beryl took away everything that we planned to do that year,” Firstman says. The village invested its remaining funds into getting Starlink satellite wifi to protect its elders and maintain some measure of independence. “I wouldn’t be able to talk to you right now if we hadn’t done that,” Firstman tells us.

Still, other massive challenges remained. Road construction and development tore through the Rastafari Indigenous Village’s ecosystem, stripping soil and destabilizing the watershed until the village became, in Firstman’s words, “almost like a water harvesting space.” In 2025, they managed to host only two retreats, instead of the 13 they originally planned. Then Melissa hit, demolishing the recovery process made after Beryl.

“On October 28, we were hit with the most historic storm humanity would ever see,” says Firstman. When he returned to the island after the storm, the reality was crushing: “Some places… what used to be land is now a river. The water just keeps rising. It’s like, we don’t know what’s really going on or where to start.”

The Medicine Family Gathering, a multigenerational community led by Sita and her family, suffered equally catastrophic losses. Cassandra Suber, who has been helping them coordinate emergency relief, describes the damage to us over a phone call.

“Sita’s entire property is gone,” says Suber. “Their home is gone. The kitchen is gone. The cabins are gone. Everything they’ve built for twelve years — gone.” Families are scattered. Food is scarce. Medicine gardens washed out to sea. For Suber, the devastation underscores how urgently people need to confront the climate reality shaping these storms. “Do we really need to be told like this? I’m not exactly sure,” she says. “I think because climate change is the real factor here, no natural disaster is too extreme or too unthinkable anymore.”

The sentiment on the island is that they cannot endure another year like the past two. Alas, climatologists warn that extreme weather events aren’t stopping. As of 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that the proportion of Category 4 and 5 Atlantic hurricanes has increased markedly over the past four decades, and storms today produce up to 20 percent more rainfall than comparable storms in the 20th century due to warmer ocean temperatures. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that with every additional increment of warming, tropical cyclones will grow more intense, destructive, and frequent.

Melissa arrived almost exactly one year after Beryl. It was stronger, wetter, and more erratic. But people rebuilt after Beryl; they believed they could. Melissa, on the other hand, was a destabilizing event that has dismantled all sense of progress. Now, many Jamaicans estimate the rebuilding process will take at least a decade, maybe longer. But, the concern remains: Within 10 years, there will likely be another hurricane just as bad, if not worse.

But what happens when Indigenous and rural people lose everything? Often, wealthy outsiders or corporations circle the area to buy up the land. We are seeing it happen in Altadena after the recent LA wildfires. Developers arrive with checks, blueprints, and soft promises. “It’s the same story every time,” Coltrane Lord tells DoubleBlind. Lord runs a 501c3 nonprofit called the Wonderland Project dedicated to supporting women with histories of severe trauma who seek healing through psychedelic plant-medicine experiences. She has hosted several retreats at the Rastafari Indigenous Village. “People get wiped out, and someone richer comes in to buy the land. And once the land is gone, the culture goes with it.”

Firstman shares the fear. “Of course, there will be the people running in with block and steel,” he says. “But we are calling on the regenerative community as well — the bamboo builders, the earth builders, the carpenters, the masons, the ones who understand sustainable building.” He is calling on the psychedelic and regenerative communities with these skills to show up and help rebuild in ways that honor the land rather than erase it. Without that, he warns, the communities who have safeguarded Jamaica’s plant-medicine traditions could be displaced from the very lands that anchor their way of life.

These communities have held space for the global population. Now the world must hold space for them.

To support the rebuilding of Rastafari Indigenous Village, donate to their GoFundMe.
To support the Medicine Family Gathering, donate to their GoFundMe as well.

Please Stop Selling Psychedelics Like a Clown

Writer Patrick Maravelias is back with the reminder nobody wants but everybody needs: Selling psychedelics is still very illegal, no matter how cute or discreet the packaging is. In this Friday’s “Please Trip Responsibly,” he walks through the wild ways the underground has let its guard down — from Instagram sales to backpack trapping at festivals — and why that false sense of safety is exactly what the feds are counting on.

But it’s not just a scolding. Patrick lays out the simple, essential practices that could keep both dealers and the movement from imploding at the worst possible moment. If psychedelics are going to have a future, the people moving them today need to act like it.

Upgrade your subscription here to get the full story.

DoubleBlind Digs

REBUILD: To support the rebuilding of Rastafari Indigenous Village, donate to their GoFundMe. To support the Medicine Family Gathering, donate to their GoFundMe as well.

MEET: Santa — an Amanita Muscaria tonic crafted for calm, focus, and clean energy. No CBD, psilocybin, kratom, or alcohol—just clarity without the crash. Use DB10 for 10% off.

ATTEND: Join DoubleBlind on November 21 at 7 p.m. at Child’s Pose in Mid-City for an evening of meditation, breathwork, and a live performance by violin virtuoso Hannah White, with a sensory-opening meditation led by Danielle Olivarez of Highlites (BYOCannabis if you’d like to drop in deeper). Get your tickets here!!

READ: A co-owner of one of Oregon’s first licensed psilocybin service centers has released Psilocybin in Oregon, a practical guide for anyone considering a legal, supported psychedelic journey. The book breaks down how the system works, what to expect, and how to choose the right service center. Learn more about the book here. Order it here.

ATTEND: As psychedelics move from the underground to the mainstream, PsyAware x Maudsley Psychedelic Society brings together leading voices — from researchers to healers — to ask the defining question of our time: What kind of psychedelic future do we want to build? Join this full-day gathering on November 22 in London or virtually from anywhere to explore how equity, accountability, and community care can shape a more ethical psychedelic ecosystem. DoubleBlind readers get 20% off with code DB20. Get tickets here.

Together With SANTA

Introducing: Santa, the Amanita Muscaria tonic crafted to feel your best without the sketchy side effects.

We start with hand picked Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. Our expert extraction process isolates the active compound Muscimol —a GABA A receptor agonist known for its calming, yet focusing properties.

Our proprietary Muscimol extract is then paired with a unique blend of super chargers — kava, beta alanine, caffeine, l-theanine and ashwagandha. The result? Noise cancelling earphones for your mind… and an energy boost with zero crash.

No CBD, psilocybin, kratom, or alcohol… just instant energy, elevated mood, and mental clarity.

Ready to start living amplified? Meet Santa, and use the code DB10 for 10% off your order.