Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca (pronounced ‘eye-ah-WAH-ska’) is a plant-based psychedelic. Psychedelics affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions. They can cause a person to hallucinate—seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted.

Ayahuasca is a decoction (concentrated liquid) made by prolonged heating or boiling of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub, although there can be a variety of other plants included in the decoction for different traditional purposes. The active chemical in ayahuasca is DMT (dimethyltryptamine).  It also contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).

Ayahuasca has been used for centuries by First Nations peoples from contemporary Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador for religious ritual and therapeutic purposes.

There is no safe way to use psychedelic drugs, including ayahuasca.

If you do decide to take ayahuasca, it’s important to consider the following.

• It is difficult to predict the strength and effects of ayahuasca. People can have very different experiences taking the same drug on different occasions.
• People with mental health conditions or a family history of these conditions should avoid using ayahuasca.
• Sometimes other drugs may be sold claiming to be ayahuasca that aren’t.
• Taking ayahuasca in an environment and with people where you feel safe may alleviate unpleasant emotional effects.

Use of ayahuasca is likely to be more dangerous when:

• taken in combination with alcohol or other drugs
• driving or operating heavy machinery
• judgement or motor coordination is required
• alone (in case medical assistance is required)
• the person has mental health issues.