Interview with Ivan, director

We want to bring you a very special series of stories.

We know our followers probably use our content often but struggle to put a name and face behind Drugs and Me.

For this reason, we have done a series of interviews with our team so you can get to know more about who we are and what we do.

Here, we've interviewed Ivan, who founded Drugs and Me and likes to contribute to all work streams here.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I was born in the Canary Islands (Spain) where I spent my childhood. I lived in Madrid throughout my teenage years. Then, I moved to London when I was 19 and I’ve lived there since then. I’m moving to Berlin for a few months in 2022 though.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your work and study background?

A: I graduated from MSci Neuroscience at University College London (UCL). I’m currently doing a PhD at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in the same university. I combine human, animal and computational work to understand how we perceive temperature. I also do and publish research about psychoactive substances and science of learning (pedagogy).

Q: How did you get involved with Drugs & Me?

A: I co-founded Drugs and Me during the summer from my first to second year as an undergraduate student. My co-founders (Pablo & Gabriel) had already been playing with the idea, but they had put the project on hold. When I met Pablo at a networking event hosted by the UCL entrepreneurship society, I loved the vision, so we started working on it. Together, we had the energy and skills to give birth to Drugs and Me.

Q: Why Drugs & Me?

A: Even though I started Drugs and Me and its related projects, it is like they have chosen me, so you should ask Drugs and Me, why me? I often feel that ideas have me, instead of the other way around, and once this happens, I can’t help but clumsily give it a go.

Q: Tell us a little about a typical month /day in the life of a director at Drugs & Me.

A: It keeps changing and the focus depends on the stage at which the projects we are working on are. I always try to acquire at least the basic skills for the tasks needed to keep the projects going and growing: coding, copywriting, designing, networking, etc. Everyday I’m available on Slack to support the team.

Q: Tell us a little about your interests - what do you like to do in your free time? How do you switch off from work?

A: I don’t like concepts like free time, work-life balance, etc. I usually work on Drugs and Me or other projects during my “free time”. I’m lucky and privileged to work on intellectually stimulating things that I love (research & entrepreneurship), so I don’t feel the need to “switch off”. A more normative answer would be: I like reading Spanish literature, running and calisthenics.

Q: What would you say is the highlight of your work at Drugs & Me?

A: The people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made as well as everything I’ve learnt and keep learning on the way.

Q: What do you think is the best drug to take?

A: It depends on many factors but recently my favourite combination has been love & cannabis..

Q: What do you think is the best activity to do while on drugs?

A: It depends on the type of drug, but having sex or eating can reach new levels of pleasure when combined with many types of substances.