How do different legal systems regulate ayahuasca practices around the world? Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an alkaloid present in ayahuasca, is listed in Schedule I of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Under the Convention, states undertake to limit the manufacture, distribution and use of DMT to medical and scientific purposes. The ayahuasca brew itself is not scheduled under international drug control treaties, a position clarified by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). In practice, national authorities have adopted at least three distinct regulatory approaches to ayahuasca-related practices.
Legal approaches to ayahuasca practices
In some jurisdictions, specific contexts for preparing or using ayahuasca are permitted or 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). In other jurisdictions, authorities interpret domestic drug laws as prohibiting the preparation, distribution or possession of ayahuasca. They include France (whose regulatory lists include various plants used in the decoction) and Russia, where domestic law prohibits plants containing scheduled psychoactive substances, leading authorities to treat ayahuasca accordingly.
In a third group of countries, the legal framework does not explicitly address ayahuasca, creating uncertainty in its enforcement, 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.
