About the Organization

Decriminalize Nature Philadelphia is a local chapter of the national organization Decriminalize Nature. Our shared mission is to improve human health and well-being by decriminalizing and expanding access to entheogenic plants and fungi through political and community organizing, education, and advocacy.

DNP Board of Directors

Colette Condorcita Schmitt is the founder of Decriminalize Nature Philadelphia. She is an entrepreneur, teacher, coach, activist, and consultant in the psychedelic, stock market, and regenerative design space. The daughter of activists and raised in Quaker school, Colette began volunteering to support social justice movements in Latin America and Philly at age 13 which led to a BA in International Development and Relations from American University. She spent years immersed in working with indigenous communities in Australia, Asia, and Africa in social and environmental justice initiatives through the lens of regenerative agriculture. After a series of family traumas, she began working with ayahuasca 12 years ago, which has become her spiritual path in life and has led to years of spiritual and ethnobotanical study with her teachers in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. Colette is passionate about equitable access to all plant medicines for healing, spiritual practice, and scientific study in the face of the rapid capitalization of psychedelic compounds. Her coaching practice Condor Medicine LLC supports individuals and groups through coaching and retreats by integrating a scientific and shamanic perspective of entheogenic healing, spirituality, and self-directed neuroplasticity.

President

Thomas Buonomo is an independent consultant focused on strategic communications and the peace-building potential of entheogens/psychedelics, from the community to the international level. He began organizing with the Decriminalize Nature Philadelphia campaign in late 2020 after much research into the potential of these natural medicines to treat people suffering from post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and other psychosomatic ailments. He has experienced firsthand the benefits of these medicines in his struggles with depression and they have profoundly influenced his spiritual explorations and growth.

Treasurer

Andy Atterbury is a licensed pharmacist with a background in professional organizing, drug policy reform activism, and guiding patients in the safe and effective use of plant medicines. He is passionate about undoing decades of stigma against entheogenic plants through education and research. It is his firm belief that until plant medicines can be effectively integrated into our healthcare system, decriminalization is the most important step in halting the persecution of Philadelphians practicing self-care and spiritual rites with entheogenic plants and fungi. Though the research into the clinical applications of entheogens looks promising, decriminalization is still imperative for making these therapies most accessible to the marginalized populations who stand to benefit the most from their use.

Secretary