What’s the ayahuasca’s legal status in the world? The psychoactive alkaloid present in ayahuasca, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), is a Schedule I controlled substance according to the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. As such, DMT is considered a substance whose use, manufacture and sale are prohibited – except for very limited medical and scientific uses. However, the ayahuasca decoction itself is not under international control, which has been confirmed by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). In practice, this has been interpreted in different ways by governing bodies and at the national level ayahuasca has been subject to three different legal approaches.
Ayahuasca’s legal status
The first approach has been applied by countries where certain contexts for ayahuasca are permitted, and sometimes regulated – such as religious use for churches in Brazil, the United States and Canada – or traditional use in Peru, where it is considered a national cultural heritage (Peru made a reservation for these traditional uses of ayahuasca when signing the 1971 Convention). Countries that exhibit the second approach – wherein ayahuasca is specifically prohibited – include France (whose regulatory lists include various plants used in the decoction) and Russia, where ayahuasca is considered illegal because all plants containing psychoactive ingredients are prohibited.
The third legal approach encompasses countries where there is a legal void with regards to ayahuasca – it is not specifically prohibited, but it is not permitted, and several people have been prosecuted for receiving the brew by mail or bringing it with them on a plane. This is the case in countries such as Portugal, Mexico, Israel and Spain, the country which has the highest number of legal incidents related to ayahuasca recorded in recent years. It is important to be well informed about the legal status of ayahuasca in each country to prevent possible legal incidents – the Ayahuasca Defense Fund’s legal map is a good tool for this.
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Ayahuasca Defense Fund
, legality
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