Ancient psychoactive plants in a global village: The ritual use of cannabis in a self-managed community in Catalonia.
The International journal on drug policy December 1, 2021 Maja Kohek, Constanza Sánchez Avilés, Oriol Romaní et al. 14 citations
Cannabis has a long history of medical, recreational, industrial, and spiritual uses. This paper reports on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Catalonia, where a phenomenological community regularly uses ancient psychoactive plants, including cannabis and ayahuasca, in ritual contexts. The rituals serve as effective harm reduction techniques, strengthening community bonds and generating beneficial effects for individuals and communities. Participants view these practices as spiritual or religious, and as forms of self-care and community-care, rather than involving dependence or addiction. The authors argue that international drug policies, which claim to be evidence-based, overlook the benefits of non-problematic drug use and could be improved by incorporating ethnographic findings on the spiritual and community dimensions of drug use.