Meet the HALI Foundation: putting the evidence to work

In the coming months, Drug Science will be taking a more active role in lobbying for scientifically backed drug policy. To achieve this, we are teaming up with Liam Hackett of the HALI Foundation to give the public the tools they need to become politically engaged and take the conversation to their local MPs.

Written by Liam Hackett MBE, Founder and CEO, HALI Foundation

For twenty years, Drug Science has done something rare and difficult: it has held the line on evidence. In a field crowded with hype, moral panic and commercial noise, Professor Nutt and the team have insisted that policy and public understanding should follow the science, wherever it leads. That work is the foundation everything else is built on. Ours included.

The HALI Foundation exists to take that evidence, and the wisdom that sits alongside it, and translate it into something the general public can actually reach, understand and act on. HALI stands for Healing, Advocacy, Learning, Integration. Where Drug Science produces and defends the science, we sit downstream and ask the question: what does a curious member of the public, a worried parent, a journalist on a deadline, or a person considering a psychedelic-assisted therapy actually need in front of them right now?

What is the HALI Foundation?

We are a UK non-profit working across four connected areas: education and harm reduction, public dialogue, policy and legal reform, and the protection of Indigenous knowledge holders from corporate and pharmaceutical capture. The bulk of what we do is cultural and educational rather than political.

In practice that means producing clear, accurate resources; working with the press to raise the standard of coverage and to call out the irresponsible kind; convening people who would not otherwise be in the same room; and translating dense academic research into formats that do not require a background in the sciences to follow. Whilst educating the public, challenging stigma and amplifying Indigenous voices.

The evidence for that work is genuinely encouraging. In the COMPASS Phase 2b trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022, 29% of participants with treatment-resistant depression were in remission at three weeks. In the MAPP1 Phase 3 trial published in Nature Medicine in 2021, 67% of participants no longer met the criteria for PTSD. The public is ahead of the policy here: Drug Science's own polling with YouGov in 2021 found that 58% of the UK public support access for terminally ill patients. Against a mental health burden that the LSE and Mental Health Foundation put at £118 billion a year, the case for taking this seriously is not fringe. It is overdue.

The resources, and who they are for

Everything we make is free, public and designed to empower individuals with a rich tapestry of information so that they can make informed decisions and learn about these medicines in balanced ways.

An education hub and evidence library

Our library brings together published studies in one place, with editorial notes that explain what each one does and does not show. It is written for people who want to check a claim rather than take it on trust, and it is meant to sit comfortably alongside the deeper scientific work that Drug Science and others produce.

Harm-reduction tools

We have built resources for the people who are often overlooked in this conversation: trip sitters, space holders, and those considering or preparing for a psychedelic experience. These cover health screening, interaction risks between substances, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Plain-language articles

We publish explainers on the substances within our editorial scope, on the risks that matter, and on the questions people are actually searching for. Our educational articles range from serotonin syndrome explainers, to documenting Indigenous wisdom and standards surrounding Ayahuasca. We are building an ever-expanding library of free, fact-checked resources, accessible to everybody.

A screening and vetting tool, and an educational game 

As access grows, so does the number of retreats and providers of wildly varying quality. We are building tools that teach adults how to spot the red flags, ask the right questions, and protect themselves before they hand over money or trust.

On Indigenous knowledge

One commitment underpins all of this. Much of what modern science is now confirming was known, held and stewarded by Indigenous communities long before the first clinical trial. Our role is not to speak for those communities, to convene them, or to treat their wisdom as raw material for a Western industry. Our role is to resist that enclosure and to follow the lead of Indigenous-led organisations. The principle is reciprocity, not extraction, and we hold to it.

Write to your MP

If you do one thing after reading this, make it this. In 2023, a cross-party committee of MPs urged the government to move psilocybin out of Schedule 1 so research could actually happen. Three years on, nothing has changed: psilocybin is still locked in Schedule 1, and patients still have no legal route to it outside a clinical trial. Meanwhile Australia rescheduled in 2023, and Canada and several US states have moved. MPs respond to their constituents, and personal letters carry real weight, far more than petitions or form emails. It takes five minutes. The letter is already written, fully referenced, and ready to send; you just add your MP's name, your details and, if you can, a line about why it matters to you. Find your MP, copy the template and send it today using the button below.

Write to your MP

Other ways to support HALI

Read and share The fastest way to help is to use the resources and pass them to someone who needs them. Our education hub, evidence library and harm-reduction tools are all on the HALI foundation website.

Join the Founding 100 We are gathering our first hundred supporters, the people who back this work while it is still being built.

Volunteer or partner

We are actively looking to work with peer organisations, researchers, clinicians and communicators. If your work overlaps with ours, we would like to hear from you.

Donate

We take no advertising and answer to no commercial interest. That independence is only possible because people fund it directly.

Drug Science built the evidence base that makes honest public conversation possible. HALI Foundation is here to carry that conversation out to the public, in language they can use, on the day they need it. We are glad to be working in the same field, and grateful for the ground you have laid.