Should MAPS break up with Amazon? by Phillip Balke — Central Texas Mycological Society

Preface

Hello there CTMS! This is your president with an article for y’all. My goal is to have two articles a month for the Blog, one covering social issues and the other covering mycological science. This the social one for the month. Stay tuned for the science one.

Introduction

On June 30, 2020 the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, MAPS, announced that they had brought in $4,125.38 in the first quarter of 2020 and $42,361.22 in total via Amazon Smile on their Instagram feed which caused the comment section to become fiery as they sometimes do.1,2 Several other mushroom friends shared the MAPS post and received backlash. People were upset with MAPS for taking money from Amazon through the Amazon Smiles program.

Why would people be upset about it? What’s the big deal with taking money from Amazon? If they want to give it away, why not take some? Are they mad at MAPS or at Amazon? Is it worth the negative social implications of taking money from Amazon in the pursuit of a goal? As MAPS is a fixture in the greater mushroom community simply because psychedelic mushrooms fall under the umbrella of what they teach and research, I felt it would be a worthwhile topic for exploration. Hopefully this essay will provide the reader with some information about MAPS and their research, as well provided context for the controversy.

Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy & Maps

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies or MAPS is 501(c)3 Non-profit research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana.3 They have researched the various therapeutic benefits of LSD-, Ayahuasca-, Cannabis-, Ibogaine-, and MDMA- assisted psychotherapy.4,5,6,7,8,9,11 Though MAPS has yet to research the therapeutic benefits Magic Mushrooms (Psilocybe cubensis) or the psychedelic component Psilocybin, they do assist in research participant recruitment for other researchers that have.10,11 They are also currently recruiting for a Phase 3 Clinical Trials for their therapy protocol and hope to have MDMA-assisted psychotherapy an FDA prescribable treatment for PTSD by 2022.

Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy is less about the drugs themselves (though they all have different ways of affecting our brains which is fascinating but beyond the scope of this article) but rather the experience and how the person undergoing therapy integrates the experience into a series of sessions with a therapist team.9,11 Protocols can vary from study to study but the general trend is first the therapy participant meets with the therapy team for several sessions to build a report, explore the cause of the PTSD, any emotional triggers, and what to expect on the psychedelic experience. Then the therapy participant goes in for an extra long session in which the drug is given by the therapy team. The participant usually lies on a couch or in a bed and is encouraged to “surrender to the experience.” The therapist team supports and helps guide participants through any potential difficult moments throughout the session, as well as general wellbeing things like getting the participant water or walking to the restroom. After the experience the participant will meet again with the therapy team to discuss the experience, the lessons to be drawn, and process an ineffable experience.

This method of therapy is proving very effective at treating PTSD, as well as helping people quit smoking cigarettes and overcome opioid addiction, treatment resistant depression, and end of life anxiety associated with a terminal diagnosis.9,11 Participants describe being able to see their lives or trauma with some distance, which gives the memory a new perspective or less powerful in the moment. Or so powerful that the surrender and subsequent rebuilding up of the self, the trauma releases its hold on the psyche. Psychedelics disrupt the story we tell ourselves by disrupting our neurochemistry and specifically a neural network called the Default Mode Network.13,14 Having this treatment legally available would certainly save lives or dramatically improve the quality of life in a terminal diagnosis.

Amazon & Amazon Smiles Foundation

Research however, and particularly medical research at the scale of t he current MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy phase 3 clinical trial, is expensive and this is where Amazon Smile enters the picture. As a non-profit organization, MAPS takes donations from a variety of sources, what is the wrong with taking money from Amazon to further the cause? Amazon Smiles Foundation donates 0.5% of the sales from certain items you purchase on the Amazon website to the charity of your choosing, MAPS being one choice of many.15 This donation occurs without any extra cost to the Amazon customer, so they can feel good how their purchase new belt sander (not all items apply) also helps fund research into psychedelics. The Amazon Corporations operates the Amazon Smiles Foundation and covers all administrative expenses.

The Amazon Smiles Foundation (ASF) since its inception in 2013 has contributed $183.12 million ($183,120,221) to thousands of Charities.15 In 2018, the most current data we have about ASF, Amazon gave the ASF $48.84 million ($44,840,018) while bringing in $232.89 billion ($232,890,000,000) in sales, or 0.0002% of the sales income.16,17 During this same time ASF disbursed $37.481 million ($37,481,047) or 83% of the total donation from Amazon, to the various participating charities and put $7.4 million ($7,398,986) into the foundation coffers bringing that total to $19,238,484 from $11,882,127 at the start of the year.16 A trend that has continued from previous years and revenue that avoids being taxed as it is a donation to a charity, which in this case is completely controlled and paid for by Amazon.18 As we can see, a relatively small amount of the money brought in to amazon goes out to the community through Amazon Smiles. Part of this discrepancy comes from the fact that a significant portion of the revenue Amazon generates doesn’t come from online sale. It comes from other sources like the Amazon Web Services and physical store locations such as Whole Foods.

MAPS, Amazon, & Charitable Giving

Now, let’s return to the MAPS post announcing the amount they have received in the first quarter from Amazon $4,125.2 The first financial Quarter of 2020 includes the COVID-19 global pandemic, which is ravaging the United State particularly hard. As people physically distance and all but completely shift their consumer purchases to online retailers, Amazon has seen a boost in their retail sales, as well as increased TV show and movie rentals through their streaming services due to the closure of movie theaters.19,20 Retail location such as Amazon owned Whole Foods have also received increased sales as people purchase more of the essentials that they used to consume at the workplaces which they now consume, such as toilet paper and cooking more because restaurants are closed.21,22 While the Net income for Amazon was technically down from $3.5 billion in the same quarter last year, they raked in a staggering $2.5 billion, even after donating $4,125 to MAPS. The company is spending $4 billion globally to protect workers which is cutting into profits some.20 However, before we shed a tear for the corporation valued at $1 Trillion, Amazon expect the trends of growth to continue and have even secured cheap loans backstopped by the federal government.20,23

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Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, complaints of unsafe working conditions, overbearing tracing of worker activities, and low wages plagued Amazon management who, instead of listening to workers concerns and solving the underlying issue, attempted to thwart workers efforts to organize and for unions.24 The pandemic was simply throwing gas onto an already raging fire.25,26,27 Amazon, the second largest employer in the United States behind Walmart, is spending $4 billion on workers safety, and employs approximately 798,000 people.20,28 This means they are paying $5,012 per worker (or approximately $890 more than Amazon gave to MAPS) to improve the safety conditions just for COVID-19, this has nothing to do with improving the baseline working conditions and basic worker dignity. In 2018, Amazon paid $1.6 million for Jeff Bezos’s personal security detail, we have no reason to assume that isn’t part of their normal business expense.29 On November first of that year management raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour and in the Spring of 2019 it was announced to investors that the median salary at Amazon was $30,096 annually, a $390 increase. Note, this is not the average salary, or the salary most employees get, just the middle of the pay scale for Amazon workers. Without more transparency from the corporation to make a more accurate assessment, we’re only left to listen to the repeat messages from Amazon employee labor activists telling us that the company is taking too much.30 For a crude hypothetical that likely over states the amount Amazon is paying to people, they spend an estimated $24 billion ($24,016,608,000) on labor globally.31 A 10% raise would bring that number to $26 billion ($26,418,268,800), or just under 1% of their total sales their 2019 revenue of $280.52 billion. That is to say, perhaps if the trauma of working for Amazon were mitigated and alleviated by increasing wages and investing in better safety standards, perhaps less people would need the psychedelic assisted psychotherapy MAPS is researching; and also that Amazon can certainly afford to make any necessary changes.

The Dark side of Corporate Charitable Giving

The dominance of Amazon over the Internet in a variety of forms and the sheer ability to generate revenue tends to leave me dumbfounded, for context, Amazon has a gross revenue higher than the GDP of 143 countries around the globe.17,32 Early in 2020, Amazon announced that for the first time since 2016 they needed to pay $1.6 million in Federal taxes (to reiterate, Amazon paid $0 in Federal Taxes in 2017-18), a figure considerably lower than one might expect from a company raking almost 300 billion in total revenue.33 They accomplish this through a variety of means, such as deferrals, exemptions, and deductions to most relevant to this discussion being charitable donations.34 For an example we can look at the Amazon Smiles Foundation again. As stated earlier, ASF has over $19 million in the bank, a figure that has grown to that size year over year.16 While it is true they do give away a lot of money, they are not giving it all away and what they don’t give away, they maintain full control over.

Amazon flies Pan-African Flag while publicly smearing black labor organizers for fightings for their coworkers safety. Particularly insulting to not only the Black workers and organizers they ignore but to the struggle that flag represents.

These donations serve a dual function, the aforementioned tax avoidance and public relations.34 One of the most effective means of accomplishing this goal with charitable giving is to latch on to social movements and causes. The initial reaction may be to reject that notion as cynical and claim that the movements have gained enough public support that the corporations also feel like expressing support, often through public statements, changes in logos, and even financial donations. While this may be true, that is also precisely the point, they only feel comfortable voicing support after movements have reached mainstream popularity and thus profitable. The social movement provides them an opportunity to inject their brand into a larger conversation. For example, Amazon’s support for Black lives is conditional on that Black life’s acquiescence to Amazon’s labor regimes and efforts to stop workers from organizing.

In response to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent uprising for Black lives that swept the United States, Amazon has voice support and donated $10 million to various organization supporting justice and equity for the Black community.35,36 The statement Amazon released June 3rd states, “Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and partners, and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live with dignity and free from fear.”35 However, two months prior Amazon fired management assistant and a Black man Chris Smalls for organizing a walk out where workers demanded more transparency from Amazon, Personal Protective Equipment for themselves, higher safety standards in response to COVID, among other demands in response to an outbreak in the fulfillment facility he work at (outbreaks are a common occurrence in Amazon warehouses).38,37 Another case in Amazon’s long history of anti-labor behavior.39 Amazon also used their public relations department to publicly smear Mr. Smalls to further discredit the demand and actions he and his coworkers were taking.40 In a similar vein of silencing the voices of workers, in July several Whole Foods employees were sent home without pay and threatened with job loss for wearing Covid-19 masks that said “Black Lives Matter.”41 Completely contradicting the corporation’s own public statement of support for the movement.

Conclusions

After having laid this all out, it should be clear that the people in the comment section were upset that MAPS associated with Amazon, and the justification of those people’s anger. User @_anamalian_’s comment sums this up the best, “Yo, what the heck is all this? I support MAPS every month because I thought y’all had your heads in straight. To be connecting yourselves to Amazon in these times makes me EXTREMELY skeptical of what y’all are actually doing over there. I’m cutting my support right now.”1 MAPS takes donations from small, individual donors who truly believe in the cause MAPS is raising money for, Amazon could care less.3 Frankly though, I have to agree with @_anamalian_, it’s not worth it for MAPS to associate with Amazon.

To start with, Amazon is a terrible company that treats it’s labor force cruelly and cynically exploits social movements for financial gain. Second, if Amazon, as well as other multi-billion corporations and for that matter individuals, wanted to help communities it would be more effective to pay workers more than to give through charity.50 This would have the secondary effect of strengthening the economy because now workers would actually be able to afford consumer goods beyond the basics; that is if the wages cover the basics. A similar sentiment applies to these entities paying taxes, though that needs to be coupled with Federal, State, and Local programs to implement those tax revenues. Amazon is not for the People.

Finally, MAPS has no problem raising money from other sources, not only the small dollar donors, but large sums from people like Tim Ferris.42 They are a multi-million charity, with a Public Benefit Corporation generating revenue for MAPS in addition to the charitable donations.43,44 The approximately $42 thousand from the Amazon Smiles Foundation is a small fraction of this total revenue, it likely wouldn’t be missed. Especially in light of backlash among grassroots supporters who, if organized, could be a pain for MAPS as this is probably the smallest of criticisms to be levied at MAPS’s actions (which will follow in a future blog post.)45,46,47,48,49

P.S. MAPS has been able to get to this point in their research with documented benefits and no harm caused to anyone from taking the drug. Multiple states have fully legalized cannabis. There is absolutely no justifiable, scientific or moral, reason to keep the substances that MAPS researches as Schedule 1 and illegal. More importantly the people imprisoned for possession and distribution of those substances to be released from prison, have their records expunged, and reparations paid for the draconian War on Drugs. Drug addiction is a mental illness, not a crime but that is also another article for the future.

Works Cited