International Journal of Drug Policy
October 18, 2016
Ismael Apud, Oriol Romaní
40 citations
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive beverage from the Amazon traditionally used by indigenous and mestizo populations, has seen widespread international use since the 1990s in both secular and religious contexts. This article analyzes these networks as health care systems, focusing on Spain and Catalonia, describing group emergence and participants' therapeutic itineraries. Using a medical anthropology perspective, it reflects on the relationship between medicine and religion and problematizes tensions between medicalization and medical pluralism. It also analyzes prohibitionist drug policies and their conflicts with ritual and health care uses of ayahuasca. The paper concludes by reflecting on the difficulty of separating ayahuasca as 'medicine' from its religious connections.
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.
Salud colectiva
August 19, 2020
David Pere Martínez Oró, Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro et al.
12 citations
Prohibitionist drug policies present their political-moral agenda as ideologically neutral science. This article examines cannabis and psychedelics to show that prohibitionism selectively uses only scientific findings that support its predetermined conclusions while ignoring contradictory evidence. The authors argue that drug policies should instead be grounded in scientific evidence and core values—public health, social cohesion, and human rights. They advocate analyzing the power relations that shape the contradictory relationship between science and drug policy.