Anthropology

Ayahuasca Tourism is ripping off Indigenous Amazonians

“As Ayahuasca has become more and more popular with foreign tourists—and at the same time, less and less popular with the Indians themselves—we have found that pseudo-shamans have sprung up everywhere to cater for the demand.” While some argue that the commercialization of ayahuasca has bastardized the ritual, others claim that it’s brought much needed…

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Anthropology

U.N. not a place to find good policy

“No, the U.N. leadership is not that open to reform (in 2016)… the U.N. was confiscating copies of the letter calling for the end of the drug war that were being handed out in front of the U.N.” UN Security was apparently ordered to confiscate the letter, and attendees were ordered to hand over their…

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Anthropology

Women across the Americas incarcerated for minor, non-violent, drug-related crimes at an alarming rate

“In Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru, well over 60 percent of each country’s female prison population is incarcerated for drug-related crimes.” The policies that have led to this surge in imprisonment have torn apart families and crippled women’s abilities to find decent, legal employment once they have been released, perpetuating a vicious cycle of…

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Anthropology

An Amazonian religion on New Mexico’s high desert

“The sacramental use ofayahuasca is on the cusp of becoming a permanent part of the colorful religious landscape of northern New Mexico”. After years of litigation, it now seems likely that União do Vegetal (UDV)–or more formally, O Centro Espirita Beneficente União do Vegetal–will build a temple in Arroyo Hondo, just outside Santa Fe. UDV…

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Anthropology

Magic mushrooms in North America before the Wassons?

“Of course, I have no way of knowing if the mushrooms that my great-great Grandfather Daugherty was allegedly harvesting were actually P. cubensis”. Nor do I know if the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes even possess(ed) a knowledge of the visionary properties of coprophilic psilocybin mushrooms. I recount this anecdote only as a means of raising…

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Anthropology

The impact of drug policy on the environment

Forty years of dogged adherence to drug crop eradication and drug interdiction policies have been instrumental in hounding drug farmers and traffickers into increasingly fragile landscapes. New research—much of it using newly available real-time satellite imagery of forest loss—is bringing into sharp focus the devastating ecological costs of conventional drug policies, and how these can…

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Anthropology

Finding a new perspective on psychedelics

The reputation of these compounds is undergoing rehabilitation, but we can’t know how long it will take to shrug off the weight of the mischaracterizations that have been heaped on them for years. While the full history of psychedelic research cannot be summarized concisely, it seems to have ended, at least for a time, with…

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