Legalize it

In April of 2008, one of Brazil’s main ayahuasca centers submitted paperwork to Brazil’s Culture Minister, Gilberto Gil, requesting that the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage; IPHAN) recognize the use of ayahuasca in religious ceremonies as an element of Brazilian national cultural heritage.More significantly, the paperwork was filed with the full support of the government authorities of the Brazilian
state of Acre. Ayahuasca religious groups apparently hope that this registry will reinforce their as yet uncertain social legitimacy. If IPHAN approves the request, it would be a major victory for these groups whose practices, which have been historically marginalized and discriminated,might ultimately be enshrined as part of the country’s national heritage.

The registry also raises difficult questions, since preserving a cultural practice and traditional knowledge can mean fossilizing it as if it were a pure and timeless form, when in fact the religious and therapeutic practices that involve partaking of ayahuasca are dynamic, syncretic, and at times even contradictory. As Ayahuasca is a psychoactive substance used by diverse indigenous populations of the Amazon.