International
Journal
of
Drug
Policy
23 (2012) 173–
175
Contents
lists
available
at
SciVerse
ScienceDirect
International
Journal
of
Drug
Policy
jo
ur
n
al
homep
age:
www.elsevier.com/locate/drugpo
Editorial
Statement
on
ayahuasca
Sixty
years
ago,
the
esteemed
academic
journal
Science
pub-
lished
a
“Statement
on
Peyote”
(La
Barre,
McAllester,
Slotkin,
Stewart,
&
Tax,
1951),
in
which
a
handful
of
leading
researchers,
dismayed
by
the
misinformed
and
demonising
drug
politics
of
the
time,
defended
the
right
of
the
Native
American
Church
to
consume
a
psychedelic
plant
in
its
religious
rites.
Today,
we
feel
similarly
compelled
to
speak
out
on
behalf
of
an
analogous,
non-
indigenous
religious
tradition—the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions,
including
the
Santo
Daime,
the
União
do
Vegetal,
and
other
related
groups
(Dawson,
2007;
Labate
&
MacRae,
2010).
We
have
studied
various
ritual
uses
of
ayahuasca,
participated
in
ceremonies
and
consumed
the
sacramental
brew.
As
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
have
spread
from
South
America
to
North
America,
Europe
and
Asia
over
the
past
few
decades,
their
members
have
suffered
arrests,
criminal
prosecu-
tion,
and
stigmatization
as
“drug
users.”
Currently,
Santo
Daime
members
in
the
UK,
Ireland,
Spain,
and
Portugal
are
facing
criminal
charges,
and
the
protection
of
religious
freedom
for
Santo
Daime
members
in
Canada
remains
tentative
and
unresolved
(Tupper,
2011).
Meanwhile,
in
the
US,
Oregon-based
Santo
Daime
mem-
bers
are
in
negotiations
with
the
Department
of
Justice
(Church
v.
Holder,
2012),
and
in
a
highly
politicized
case,
the
União
do
Veg-
etal
was
recently
denied
a
permit
for
building
a
temple
in
New
Mexico
(Haywood,
2011).
We
contend
that
such
barriers
to
the
freedom
of
religious
practice
are
both
legally
and
ethically
unten-
able;
moreover,
as
with
oppression
of
the
Native
American
Church
(Calabrese,
2004;
Halpern,
Sherwood,
Hudson,
Yurgelun-Todd,
&
Pope,
2005),
intolerance
of
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
is
not
based
on
rational
risk/benefit
evaluations
of
consequences,
either
for
individual
practitioners
or
for
public
safety.
Instead,
persecution
of
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
has
been
mostly
based
on
misinformed
prejudice
against
the
use
of
psychedelic
substances
in
what
are
reasonably
safe
and
socially
controlled
rit-
ual
contexts,
and
which
constitute
authentic
cultural
traditions
and
expressions
that
must
be
respected
as
such.
Here
we
discuss
the
scientific
evidence
available
on
these
practices,
and
we
argue
that
the
data
justify
modelling
future
regulation
of
these
religions
on
Brazil’s
largely
self-enforced
policies,
which
treat
ayahuasca
more
like
a
religious
sacrament
than
a
controlled
psychotropic
substance
(Labate
&
Feeney,
2012).
Such
policies
have
proven
successful
in
Brazil
over
the
past
several
decades
and
they
have
allowed
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
to
develop
the
intriguing
social,
health
and
research
implications
that
they
present
us
with
today.
Ayahuasca
is
a
psychedelic
decoction
made
from
plants
native
to
the
Amazon
Basin—most
often
Banisteriopsis
caapi
and
Psychotria
viridis—and
which
contains
harmala
alkaloids
and
N,N-
dimethyltryptamine
(DMT),
the
latter
being
a
controlled
substance
scheduled
under
the
1971
Convention
on
Psychotropic
Substances
(UN,
1971).
Substantial
English-language
academic
literature
on
ayahuasca,
especially
on
its
uses
in
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
reli-
gions,
has
only
been
available
for
the
last
two
decades
(Labate,
Rose,
&
Santos,
2009).
The
belief
systems
of
the
different
religions
bring
together
Christian,
Spiritist,
African
and
Indigenous
traditions
with
influences
from
contemporary
urban
spiritualities.
There
is
no
standard
ritual
performed
by
all
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions,
but
there
are
some
commonalities
across
the
groups:
rituals
are
usually
held
every
2
weeks
and
often
commence
in
the
evening;
church
members
wear
clothing
reflective
of
the
historical
and
cul-
tural
contexts
in
which
the
different
groups
were
founded;
after
initial
prayers
are
said,
the
religious
leaders
give
each
congregant
a
small
glass
of
ayahuasca
in
a
ritualized
manner
that
evokes
the
distribution
of
wine
in
other
Christian
settings;
finally,
the
ritu-
als
are
designed
to
slightly
outlast
the
psychoactive
effects
of
the
ayahuasca
(about
4
h).
These
effects
can
include
the
sensation
of
an
intimate
proximity
to
God
or
other
spiritual
beings;
a
general
inten-
sification
of
emotions,
particularly
those
of
a
positive
valence
(e.g.,
tranquillity
and
reverence);
a
tendency
toward
introspection;
sen-
sations
of
enhanced
lucidity
and
comprehension;
and
sensations
of
enhanced
perceptual
acuity
accompanied
by
an
increased
vividness
of
closed-eye
visualizations.
Somatic
effects
can
include
sensations
of
bodily
heaviness
or
lightness,
nausea,
vomiting,
and
diarrhoea
(it
is
important
to
note
that,
for
the
practitioners
of
these
religions,
vomiting
is
associated
with
bodily
and
spiritual
cleansing).
Over
the
decades,
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
have
devel-
oped
their
rituals
and
theological
teachings
to
incorporate
the
strong
psychological
effects
of
ayahuasca
within
systems
of
belief
and
practice
that
are
immensely
rich
with
spiritual
meaning
for
worshipers,
and
significantly
distinct
from
the
problematic
uses
of
drugs
like
alcohol,
tobacco,
and
the
opiates
(i.e.,
use
associated
with
dependence,
debilitating
illness
or
social
harms).
Unfor-
tunately,
however,
recent
media
depictions
of
these
Brazilian
religions
have
sensationalized
ayahuasca,
mistakenly
portrayed
it
as
a
dangerous
street
drug,
and
even
erroneously
confused
it
with
pure
DMT
and
compared
its
harms
to
those
of
metham-
phetamine
(Rommelman
&
Mesh,
2011;
The
Sun,
2010;
UK
Border
Agency,
2010).
Contrary
to
these
descriptions
of
ayahuasca
and
its
effects,
the
few
biomedical
studies
of
the
physical
and
men-
tal
health
of
members
of
the
Brazilian
ayahuasca
religions
have
shown
no
harm
from
consuming
the
brew
in
these
contexts.
Find-
ings
from
case–control
and
cross-sectional
studies
of
long-term
members
include
the
following:
ayahuasca’s
acute
physiological
0955-3959/$
–
see
front
matter ©
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2012.02.007