Regulating Ayahuasca in the United Kingdom

The chapter examines proactive regulatory approaches for plant medicines, beginning with a legal analysis of the UK Secretary of State's refusal—and subsequent failed appeals—to grant the ayahuasca-using União do Vegetal (UDV) church a license to import, possess, and supply its sacrament. It then considers how plant medicines might be regulated if prohibition ended, from strict legal regulation to the recommended decriminalization model, ideally supplemented by practitioner-generated best practice guidelines voluntarily adopted, drawing lessons from indigenous cultural practices.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter looks at the various proactive approaches that may be taken in the quest to regulate plant medicines. It opens with a legal analysis of the refusal by the Secretary of State in the UK—and subsequent applications to appeal this decision—to allow an ayahuasca-using church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), to be granted a license to import, possess, and supply its sacrament. This is followed by a broader discussion of the ways in which plant medicines might be regulated were prohibition to end, moving from a consideration of strict legal regulation through to the recommended model of decriminalization, with this latter approach ideally supplemented by practitioner generated best practice guidelines, voluntarily ascribed to, drawing lessons from indigenous cultural practices.