Four years ago this week, Courtney Barnes walked into Beond as one of the country’s leading psychedelic policy attorneys.
Talia Eisenberg and Courtney Barnes discuss the part of the ibogaine story that rarely gets told: everything that happens after. The conversation covers preparation and what she wishes she had done differently, the long work of integration, what she had to give up, and where ibogaine policy is heading in the United States.
Courtney Barnes is a partner at Feldman Legal Advisors and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, licensed in California, Colorado, and Texas.
She was a lead drafter of Denver’s psilocybin decriminalization initiative and serves as general counsel to veteran focused psychedelic organizations including Heroic Hearts Project. She came to Beond in 2022 while researching ibogaine for a nonprofit client.
Timestamps
(02:00) Why an attorney working on ibogaine policy decided to sit with it herself
(06:00) Heartbreak in LA, two oracle cards, and the question she carried into the room
(09:00) Arriving at Beond underprepared, and coming off fourteen years of Vyvanse
(12:00) Meeting her inner child and the memories she had completely repressed
(17:00) The difficult first year, and the support system she wishes she had built first
(22:00) Two months later, when her inner voice said no more to Vyvanse
(29:00) Four years out: rebuilt relationships with her mother and sister
(35:00) What she would tell someone who feels called but afraid of what they might find