What Happens When a Community Gets Honest About Addiction
There are nights that stay with you. Not because they were perfect, but because something real happened, something you didn't expect to feel in a room full of people you'd never met before. District216's 11th Marquee Event was one of those nights.
On May 9th, LoDo Studios in Santa Barbara filled up with researchers, facilitators, coaches, artists, people in recovery, people curious about recovery, and everyone in between. The topic was Addiction and Psychedelics, one of the most urgent, most personal, and most underexamined conversations happening in medicine and culture right now. And rather than a lecture, we built a living, breathing experience around it.
Addiction & Psychedelics Marquee Event Sizzle Video
The evening opened with our Chief Dreamer Jacob Tell setting the intention, reminding the room why District216 exists and why this particular conversation matters so deeply right now. Tell’s presentation was titled “Holding Space Between Recovery & Psychedelic Healing” as he aimed to respectfully connect the 12 step community to the world of psychedelic therapy. Emceed throughout the night with poise and warmth by Kat Walsh, the space felt held from the very first moment.
What followed was a night in three acts, each one going a little deeper than the last.
The first Fireside Chat, Sobriety Redefined, brought together Kate Wysocki — yoga teacher, wellness curator, and sacred space holder — and Joshua Milne, a sobriety coach, writer, and somatic bodyworker. Together they explored what sobriety actually means when you strip away the stigma and the rigid definitions. What does healing look like when it's yours to design? The room got quiet in the best possible way.
The second Fireside Chat took a different kind of courage. The Dark Side of Ketamine featured Jaz, a plant medicine facilitator, in conversation with Christian Rasmussen, CEO and owner of Amentara. They did not flinch. They brought nuance, honesty, and clinical reality to a modality that has exploded in popularity — and with that popularity has come both tremendous healing and genuine risk. It was exactly the kind of conversation the psychedelic community needs more of.
Then came the Discussion Panel: Addiction and Psychedelics. Five extraordinary voices gathered around one of the most pressing questions in modern medicine. Danielle Nova, Founder of Lumeria and Executive Director of the San Francisco Psychedelic Society, brought her vision for systemic healing at scale. Simeon Schnapper, Managing Partner at JLS Fund, offered the capital and infrastructure lens. Steven Grant, Ph.D., Director of Research at the Heffter Research Institute, brought decades of scientific rigor to the table. And Trevor Millar, COO and Co-Founder of Ambio Life Sciences, grounded the conversation in what frontline healing actually looks like for real people. Moderated with intention and grace by Kat Walsh, the panel was the heartbeat of the evening, urgent, honest, and full of hope.
District216 Marquee Events have always believed that transformation doesn't only happen in the mind. It happens in the body, in movement, in breath, in beauty. And this night delivered all of it.
The Psychedelics in Recovery Circle created a potent container for sharing that only happens when a community truly trusts one another. The breathwork workshop cracked something open for everyone who stepped inside. The ShiftWave chairs quietly reset nervous systems throughout the evening. The terpene lounge became one of the most unexpected and warmly human connection points of the night.
Faces were painted. Henna was drawn. Art became another doorway into presence.
And when the music started, the night truly lifted. Original Synth opened the dance floor with live synth energy that pulled people in immediately. Then Kat's Meow closed the night as our headlining DJ — the kind of set that makes you forget what time it is and what was ever worrying you. All while Michael Strauss painted the walls with immersive visuals, Elemental Arts spun fire and LED glow toys under the open sky, and the Santa Barbara Bubble Guy sent thousands of bubbles floating through the crowd. Pure joy. Pure magic.
The conversation around addiction is changing. Slowly, then all at once. For decades, we treated addiction as a moral failure, something to be ashamed of, punished, hidden. What science and lived experience are now showing us is that addiction is a wound, and psychedelics, in the right context with the right support, may be one of the most powerful tools we have for healing that wound.
Ibogaine, MDMA therapy, psilocybin journeys, ketamine therapy, these are not fringe ideas. They are the frontier of a mental health revolution that is happening right now. And the people leading that revolution need a place to gather, to share, to challenge each other, and to build something together.
That is what District216 is for.
To every speaker, panelist, performer, vendor, and human who poured themselves into this night, we see you. We honor you. We are so deeply grateful. You made District216's 11th Marquee Event something this community will carry for a long time.
More is coming. Always. 💜
Want to be part of what we're building? Become a District216 Member and join a community of thinkers, creators, and trailblazers who believe healing is possible, and that it's better together.
