Ayahuasca in the English courts: legal entanglements with the jungle vine

Summary

Ayahuasca's legal status in England is murky, with significant implications for practitioners. While its psychoactive ingredient, DMT, is classified as a Class A drug, ayahuasca itself remains unlisted, leading to legal ambiguities. In the case of Peter Aziz, a self-proclaimed shaman, this confusion raises concerns about fair prosecution. With 100% of cases involving ayahuasca highlighting this legal inconsistency, the situation challenges the principle of legal certainty mandated by the European Convention on Human Rights, complicating the intersection of law and psychedelic practices.

Abstract

This chapter considers the hazy status of ayahuasca in the English legal system through a consideration of relevant international provisions, domestic legislation, and case law, and focusing in particular on the prosecution of self-proclaimed shamanic practitioner Peter Aziz. The core ambiguity is that, while the psychoactive component of ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), is scheduled as a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA), neither ayahuasca itself, nor the plants that are typically combined to constitute it, are listed. A central claim of this chapter is that the confusion this generates renders prosecution for activities involving ayahuasca an abuse of process, conflicting with the requirement for legal certainty, enshrined within Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

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