Translated as “vine of the soul”, ayahuasca is a powerful hallucinogen that seems to have the mysterious power to overcome what years of therapy cannot defeat (Brown, Adam Oliver). Ayahuasca is a drug made from the combination of two plants found in the Amazon. One plant comes from the banisteriopsis caapi vine and the other comes from psychotria viridis leaves.  The drug used is in the form of a tea and produces psychedelic visions, hallucinations, and euphoria. It is thought to expand one’s spiritual self-awareness and is a popular alternative to therapy. It is used to help cure addiction, depression, and anxiety. In a documentary on ayahuasca, one man explains how he had an awful stomach illness that no doctor could seem to heal. Several years later the man went to Peru because he could no longer take the pain. During an ayahuasca trip he saw himself removing a giant squid from his intestines during an intense hallucination. He declared that the pain was immediately gone and never returned (Levy). This is just one example of the many incredible experiences people have shared after an ayahuasca trip. Although this drug does not yet have substantial clinical research done on it, people around the world are claiming they had similar experiences. The stories involve experiences that are both terrifying and life-altering. The trip often results in an awakening of the individual to a new self or even a new way of seeing the world. According to The New Yorker, the ancient drug is currently trending in many countries, including America. One author insists that it sometimes feels as though ayahuasca is consumed as much as coffee in San Francisco (Levy). This dramatic increase in interest in the drug also raises many concerns about the powerful drug. Given the rising popularity of ayahuasca in the United States, it is essential that there is also a strong increase in clinical research of the drug.

While ayahuasca is not technically classified as an illegal substance itself, it does contain N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) making it a Schedule I drug. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”. This category includes substances such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), peyote, heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, and other similar drugs. Therefore, consuming this concoction is illegal to citizens.

Currently, the only exception to this illegal drug is given to certain religious groups. The ceremonies are stated to be essential to the church’s faith and religious rights as citizens. This is currently the only way American citizens can legally consume ayahuasca. American citizens are able to legally take ayahuasca when they become members of certain churches, which is usually only by paying over a thousand dollars to join, such as at the Ayahuasca Healings Native American church. Ayahuasca Healings is a retreat which is visited by the Oklevueha Native American Church (ONAC). It is stated that any ONAC members, in possession of a membership card, are protected by the first amendment as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (“ONAC members legal rights”).  It was also decided in the União do Vegetal (UDV) v. United States of America case that these ayahuasca churches were not only allowed exemption from ayahuasca, but also any earth-based substances that they choose to consume as their Sacrament (“ONAC members legal rights”).  This allows them access to any vine, cactus, herb, or plant-based drug as long as it is used for religious purposes.

Ayahuasca users strongly emphasize the importance of an appropriate environment. In “Ayahuasca: A Strong Cup of Tea”, Bob Morris describes how before many ceremonies the participants are asked to refrain from certain things for a several days prior to the ceremony: red meat, spicy foods, alcohol, aged cheese, television, and a few other things. This is done to help cleanse the body. A commonly described ayahuasca ceremony is led by shaman in a dark and calm environment, often accompanied by calming music. According to an online dictionary, a shaman is a person who is able to go between the natural and supernatural worlds and are said to control spiritual forces (“Shaman”). This important because many find ayahuasca a drug that enhances their spirituality. It is said that ayahuasca has a spirit in the plant, often referred to as grandmother (Levy). Writer Graham Hancock, who is an ayahuasca enthusiast claims “[Grandmother] sometimes appears as a jungle cat, sometimes as a huge serpent” (Levy). Some also say the medicine will expose whatever problems that need fixing to the individual. After drinking the concoction, users often will get sick and throw up or have diarrhea. This is referred to as the “purging” of the body, which is thought to help remove all prior negative thoughts or emotions. Observations from different experiments have led researchers to believe that less vomiting occurs with freeze-dried ayahuasca than when it is in tea form (de L. Osório, Flávia, et al.). If this is truly the case, ayahuasca could be released freeze-dried rather than in a tea so patients have a less negative experience. Like most drugs, it will affect every individual in different ways. This being said some report having a calm experience with calm realizations and other have intense hallucinations and awakenings.

Ayahuasca users have claimed it has many therapeutic benefits. In a study conducted in 2015, researchers gave six volunteers ayahuasca as a treatment. Two volunteers were men and four were women, all suffering from recurrent major depressive disorder. According to an interview given by the researchers, none of the participants had ever taken any drugs, including ayahuasca (de L. Osório, Flávia, et al). All of the volunteers drank somewhere from 120-200 milliliters of ayahuasca, according to their body weight.  The researchers concluded that ayahuasca had fast-acting anxiolytic and antidepressant effects. Furthermore, they also determined that ayahuasca would not “induce episodes of mania and/or hypomania in patients with mood disorder” given the lack of significant score changes in Young Mania Rating Scale (de L. Osório, Flávia, et al). This study is one of the first modern clinical studies done on ayahuasca. It proves that there is great reason to further the research on this drug because of its potential in helping people overcome depression.

In another study, developed in Brazil, researchers found there was no evidence of tolerance but did show tendencies of low cardiovascular activation and tolerance to the Growth Hormone secretions in the second dose (Dos Santos, Rafael G, et al). This trial was placebo-controlled as well as double-blind, making it reliable. This report is important because it shows that ayahuasca does not seem to become less effective over time in a particular individual’s body, which could be a positive or negative thing, depending on further research. Furthermore, this trial claims that the body has a higher tolerance to the Growth Hormone secretion which brings attention to how higher dosages may cause much different effects than in moderation.

Since the drug itself has not been thoroughly researched, people are able to learn a good deal from the experiences of users. Tim Ferris, a New York Times bestseller author, explains his personal ayahuasca experience as 

“The most painful experience I’ve ever had by a factor of a thousand. I felt like I was being torn apart and killed a thousand times a second for two hours.” This was followed by hours of grand-mal seizures; Ferris had rug burns on his face the next day. “I thought I had completely fried my motherboard,” he continued. “I remember saying, ‘I will never do this again.’” But in the next few months he realized that something astounding had happened to him. “Ninety per cent of the anger I had held on to for decades, since I was a kid, was just gone. Absent” (Levy).

The honesty Ferris has about the intensity and painfulness of the experience forces the readers to be more likely to trust that Ferris did have a positive and therapeutic outcome, if he still supports the drug after such an awful experience.  And Ferris is not alone; Many others swear by the drug, claiming it has helped them heal and have powerful realizations. Celebrities from Sting to Lindsay Lohan enthusiastically support the drug, claiming it is eye-opening and has helped them overcome other drug addictions (Morris). But the experience alone show the drug is not safe or trustworthy to be legalized without thorough experiment. Through these experiments, researchers may be able to discover a way to decrease the fear and pain felt during the trip itself. This could might could be done through removing certain ingredients in the tea or by finding a standard dosage. The terror explained above, delivered by ayahuasca, has been acknowledged through a clinical trial.

In 2015, several researchers freeze-dried different milligrams worth of ayahuasca and fed them to rats. There were three groups of rats which received either the 120 mg/kg, 240 mg/kg, or the 480 mg/kg. Each group of rats contained around six to twelve different rats. The rats’ behavior was then observed using two different mazes: The Morris water maze (MWM) and the fear conditioning and elevated plus maze (EPM). The MWM is black circular pool filled with room temperature water and is divided into four quadrants. In one of the quadrants there is a platform placed two centimeters in the water and there are visual ques placed on the walls for orientation. The EPM maze looks similar to a large addition sign. Two of the arms of the maze are open and the opposite arms are enclosed. The maze is raised fifty centimeters high. After thirty days, the researchers concluded that the drug did not affect the rats’ performance in the mazes but did increase the contextual conditioned fear response in them (Favaro, Vanessa Manchim et al). The contextual fear response was defined as complete immobility of the rat for three hundred seconds (Favaro, Vanessa Manchim et al). According to the trial, the rats who were given the 120 mg/kg drug had stronger effects on the rats and caused more anxiety-like responses. This suggests that ayahuasca becomes more intense according to the dose. Drinking too much or even too little of the drug might increase a person’s chance of having a frightening experience. Given this information, it is crucial for researchers to discover what the most efficient and safe dosage is for citizens. Although this study is conducted in rats alone so far, it does help show how ayahuasca may lead to rise in fear and anxiety. 

With the demand for this psychedelic experience on the rise, there has also been an extreme increase in tourism to the Amazon (Hearn). Because of the legal obstacles in many countries, including the United States, many people have gone to great measures to get an authentic ayahuasca experience. Toé is a plant that is a part of the nightshade family and often mixed, in small dosage, with ayahuasca to enhance hallucinations. There has been an increase of cases where shamans have dosed foreigners with toé without them knowing (Hearn). The intensity of toé can lead to mental impairment and dangerous trips. The shamans do this to help the tourists have a more dramatic trip since the tourists have traveled with that expectation, regardless of the danger involved with mixing the plants. This is just one of the many fears of traveling to foreign countries for an ayahuasca experience. 

In 2011, Kyle Nolan went on a ten-day trip to the Amazon in search of a spiritual awakening. But when Nolan did not fly home on the expected day, his parents went to Peru to search for him. Nolan’s shaman acted worried and helped them look for their lost son. Later Nolan’s shaman admitted that Nolan had in fact already died during a previous session and been buried. It is believed that Nolan’s shaman had given a heavy amount of toé in Nolan’s tea leading to his death (Hearn). When an individual goes to a ceremony, they are putting their life in the hands of their shaman. Shamans are in charge of the dosages of the drug and what ingredients are put inside of it. Shamans are also the people who are supposed to help an individual have a positive and transformative experience. Often a dramatic trip may come at the risk of an individual’s safety. They must be able to judge the difference between intense hallucinations and the need of medical assistance. Shamans are there to protect one from harm during their experience and to help bring them down from a bad trip. Therefore, it is crucial people choose a shaman that is knowledgeable and respected. They must realize that when they seek a shaman they are, very literally, trusting the shaman with their life. 

In 2015, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Dawson-Clarke went to a popular ayahuasca retreat in Peru in order to experience ayahuasca. He died soon after drinking a strong brew of tobacco tea in preparation for an upcoming ceremony. Neither Matthew’s shaman nor any worker at the retreat attempted to get any medical assistance. The retreat also failed to inform Matthew’s family until several days after (Macdonald). This is a terrifying example of why further research needs to be done on the drug. If the drug is harmful, people everywhere need to know. If it is safe and also therapeutic then citizens need to have accessibility to consume it in a safe and local environment. The dangers this drug can present are taken to the next level when people travel to different countries and unfamiliar villages with no protocol.

Ayahuasca is a terrifying drug because its power is unknown to the public. All there is to base the side effects, health benefits, and intensity off of so far is just other people’s experience. It is clear that the drug has therapeutic potential. The real question comes down to if the clinically researched medicinal benefits outweigh the discovered disadvantages and harms. The most beneficial way to research ayahuasca will be through universities because I believe their research will be less bias. Universities have less personal gain from the legalization of medical ayahuasca whereas pharmaceutical companies would be making money off of the drug if it is approved. This could cause the pharmaceutical companies to have a less thorough and well-rounded understanding of the different effects of the drug. Universities can collect data on the drug’s potential and harm and decide whether legislation should be changed or the harm is too great. As mentioned above, one aspect of ayahuasca that should be further researched is what a proper dosage could be. With enough research, a safe and effective dosage of ayahuasca can be discovered. Researchers should also continue to do studies on how ayahuasca can be used as treatment for different conditions. That may mean that ayahuasca is only prescribed to the most severe cases of depression, anxiety, addiction, and similar conditions. But if the drug has the potential to cure only a couple hundred a year from these consuming conditions, that is worth the expenses of research. If ayahuasca became a priority to researchers, there can be groundbreaking discoveries on the drug. Ayahuasca has incredible possibilities and could help people all over the world recover from life-ruining addictions, so it makes no sense why there are not several experiments being done on the drug every year.
