The article critiques the fixed legal and medical categories that distinguish illicit drugs from medicines, arguing that these categories are socially constructed and unstable. Drawing on ethnographic examples and research from the 'psychedelic turn' movement, the author demonstrates the fluidity and multiplicity of psychoactive substances. The work examines how dominant Euro-American drug classifications are undermined through embodied user practices and scientific discourses, showing that the border between an 'illicit drug' and a 'medicine' is both stabilized and destabilized. The analysis contributes to the 'ontological turn' in drug research by challenging assumptions of singular, fixed drug objects.
Kevin Tucker's book argues that the history of ayahuasca is deeply intertwined with colonialism, and that Western engagement with the Amazonian sacred brew continues patterns of exploitation. The author points out that Western domination persists in material and immaterial forms, including claims on indigenous knowledge. The work uses the tragic death of Maestra Olivia, a Shipibo-Conibo healer shot by a Canadian seeker of ayahuasca, as a starting point. Tucker concludes that Westerners cannot establish positive and sustainable relations with indigenous worlds and should stay away from them.