Cultura y Droga
July 3, 2018
Matteo Politi, Fabio Friso, Jacques Mabit
19 citations
Several American treatment centers use traditional herbal medicines or their derivatives to address substance dependence. Psychoactive plants that induce modified states of consciousness—Ayahuasca, Coca, Wachuma, Tobacco, Psilocybe mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, and Peyote—are particularly relevant. Plant-based assisted therapy for substance use disorders is a promising research field, but clinical outcome validation needs improvement for most cases examined.
Cultura y Droga
January 1, 2022
Rosa A. Giove
5 citations
In 2008, the Peruvian government declared the traditional knowledge and uses of ayahuasca practiced by Amazonian native communities as a Cultural Heritage of the Nation, aiming to protect the ritual use of the brew, its intangible components, healers' knowledge, and the environment. Over the past two decades, research has explored ayahuasca's mechanisms and therapeutic potential, yet thirteen years later, concrete protective regulations remain absent. Meanwhile, commercial pressures and risks from irresponsible use grow, especially in the context of shamanic tourism.
Cultura y Droga
July 1, 2019
Matteo Polit, Fabio Friso, Jacques Mabit
4 citations
The boundaries between viewing drug consumption as a crime versus a health issue may be overcome by drawing on ancient wisdom from traditional medicines. This article surveys treatment centers worldwide that use plant- or animal-derived substances for substance use disorders, including psychoactive derivatives of Tabernanthe iboga and Bufo alvarius. Drawing on scientific literature, information exchanges, internet searches, and the authors' personal experience, the article reflects on how the same substance can be considered a medicine or a toxicant depending on cultural context, policy, and use.
Cultura y Droga
July 1, 2025
Néstor Mauricio Torres
Scientific classification of substances like cannabis, tobacco, and coca is conceptually ambiguous. Categories such as 'entheogen,' 'psychedelic,' and 'drug' are insufficient because they omit cultural uses and historical biochemical transformations. The ontological status of a substance is not intrinsic but determined by its uses and modifications, requiring more complex, non-reductionist analytical frameworks.
Cultura y Droga
October 19, 2023
Verónica María Peña Garcia
Facilitators who accompany LSD experiences in Antioquia, Colombia, center their work on consciousness, expanded states of consciousness, set & setting, and death. They follow a protocol informed by their own discipline and other knowledge, aiming to create trust and safety. Their approach shows therapeutic potential for mental health, habit change, and spiritual connection. Being a facilitator is a highly committed life path involving constant engagement with expanded states of consciousness.
Cultura y Droga
October 19, 2023
Osiris Sinuhé González Romero
This interdisciplinary study examines historical and archaeological evidence for ritual uses of sacred mushrooms in Mesoamerica, focusing on Maya, Mixtec, and Mexica cultures. Through analysis of primary sources including codices, sculptures, and colonial manuscripts, and using methods from iconography, historiography, ethnography, and hermeneutics, the research interprets mushrooms as personified sacred entities with will, capable of communication or serving as a medium to contact deities, as well as a source of knowledge and wisdom. The study considers the ontological pluralism underlying Indigenous philosophies to better understand nature and symbolism in psychoactive mushroom rituals, forming part of a broader intercultural analysis of sacred, therapeutic, and philosophical uses of psychedelic mushrooms.
Cultura y Droga
October 19, 2023
Giorgio Samorini
Traditional use of the intoxicating mushroom Amanita muscaria persists among some North American ethnic groups (Ahnishinaubeg, Ajumawi, Wixaritari), primarily for religious and shamanic-therapeutic purposes. Analysis of popular names and their etymologies reveals semantic associations similar to those in the Old World, indicating knowledge of the mushroom's intoxicating properties was preserved until recently in some Mesoamerican native groups. The mushroom's presence in South America appears due to recent anthropogenic reforestation, explaining the lack of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic records there. The data suggest a broader diffusion of knowledge about A. muscaria's intoxicating properties among North and Mesoamerican natives in the past, knowledge forgotten or secretly transmitted after centuries of colonial repression.
Cultura y Droga
July 20, 2022
Mauricio Genet Guzmán Chávez, José Noyola Cherpitel
Among non-indigenous middle-class men and women in Mexico who consume peyote within the ritual format of the Native American Church, therapeutic benefits are evident. Using open and structured interviews, the study assessed drug-related disorders and risks, particularly from peyote. The most relevant results include the construction of narratives in which participants assume a process of healing, apparent in changes in habits and social relationships. Clinically, 85% of the sample shows evident improvements compared to their previous situation. The findings highlight the role of a highly disciplined ritual and the creation of affective and emotional bonds within the group.
Cultura y Droga
March 30, 2022
Natalia Rebollo Corral
The article highlights normative tensions between international human rights law and international drug control treaties. The Ayahuasca Defense Fund (ADF), created by the ICEERS foundation, provides legal defense for individuals facing criminal proceedings for using ethnobotanicals. Analyzing significant court rulings and resolutions collected since 2009, three interpretative approaches emerge: a restrictive interpretation, a conciliatory interpretation, and a biocultural interpretation. Facing legal gaps concerning some psychoactive plants, some legal operators are integrating a strong human rights perspective, thereby reconciling the normative tension between international drug control law and domestic law.
Cultura y Droga
January 2, 2018
Jacques Mabit
While Peru built the magnificent Inca civilization through the wisdom provided by the coca leaf, it later became the primary producer of toxic derivatives of this desecrated plant. Today, the coca leaf again enables treatment of cocaine addiction, as demonstrated by the experience of the Takiwasi Center. Likewise, the healing use of Ayahuasca was discovered a few decades ago and quickly spread explosively worldwide. The accelerated desacralization of this medicine may reach the same extremes as the misuse of coca; the path followed with coca offers lessons for the use of Ayahuasca; the use of coca in the West responded to certain factors, and the use of Ayahuasca today responds to others.