Source: https://spiritvineretreats.com/ayahuasca/brazilian-law-regarding-ayahuasca/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 09:21:03+00:00

Document:
4. The Multidisciplinary Working Group, instituted by the Resolution nº. 5 CONAD, of November 04, 2004, to recognize and accompany the religious use of ayahuasca, as well as research on its therapeutic use, in experimental character, was officially installed by the Chief Minister of the Cabinet of Institutional Security of the Presidency of the Republic and President of the National Anti-Drugs Council, JORGE ARMANDO FELIX, on May 30, 2006, in the Palace of the Planalto, in Brasilia-DF, and has the final objective the elaboration of a document that would decode the deontology of the use of ayahuasca, as well as modes of prevention of inadequate use.
5. AYAHUASCA, here, is referenced in a generic mode, to maintain uniformity of the text and harmony with the nomenclature used in officials acts of CONAD, however is known by other names, according to each community of use in Brazil and abroad, distinguishing the more common expressions “HOASCA”, “SANTO DAIME” and “VEGETAL”, composed indistinctly of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi (jagube, mariri, etc.) and by the leaf of Psychotria viridis (chacrona, rainha, etc.).
6. Under the terms of the referred Resolution, the MWG was composed of six scholars, indicated by CONAD, from areas that cover, among others, the following aspects: anthropology (represented by Dr. Edward John Baptista das Neves MacRae), pharmacology/biochemistry (Dr. Isac Germano Karniol), social (Dr. Roberta Salazar Uchoa), psychiatry (Dr. Dartiu Xavier da Silveira Filho) and juridical (Dr. Ester Kosovski) and six members, invited by CONAD, representatives of the groups that use ayahuasca, elected in a seminar carried out in Rio Branco on March 9 and 10, 2006; these are: branch of Padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo: Alex Polari de Alverga; denomination of Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra: Jair Araújo Facundes and Cosmo Lima de Souza; denomination of Mestre José Gabriel da Costa: Edson Lodi Campos Soares; independent denominations (other denominations): Luis Antônio Orlando Pereira and Wilson Roberto Gonzaga da Costa. Considering that the denomination of Mestre Daniel Pereira de Matos, popularly known as the denomination of Barquinha, decided to not participated in the MWG, according to a letter addressed to CONAD, the election of a person to fill the vacancy was carried out during the seminar from among the denominations that were present. At that moment another representative from the denomination of Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra was chosen.
7. The MWG has counted with the support of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat, represented by the Director of Prevention and Treatment Policy, Dr. Paulina do Carmo Arruda Vieira Duarte, and the Executive Consultant of CONAD, represented by Ms. Déborah de Oliveira Cruz and Ms. Maria de Lourdes Carvalho. In their ordinary meetings, they have counted with the support of Dr. Domingos Bernardo Gialluisi da Silva Sá, jurist, Titular Member of CONAD and of the Chamber of Technical Scientific Advisory, also represented by Dr. Marcelo de Araújo Campos and Dr. Maria de Lourdes Zenel.
8. In addition to the first meeting in which the members of the MWG took possession of their posts, six more meetings were held in the Board Room of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat, on the dates June 28, July 28, August 28, October 23 and 24 and November 23, all registered in acts, during which the following matters were discussed: registration of entities; juridical and legal aspects for the regulation of religious use and protection of religious freedom; regulation of precepts for the production, use, conveying and transport of ayahuasca; procedures for the reception of new individuals interested in the religious practice; definition of therapeutic use and other scientific matters; ayahuasca, culture and society; and, systematization of tasks for the elaboration of a final document. The specialist in the area of psychology indicated by CONAD, Dr Eroy Aparecida da Silva, declined her participation in the MWG.
9. The final objective of the MWG, according to the terms of Resolution nº 05/04 CONAD, is to identify “whatever is needed to accomplish” to attend to the diverse items that integrate the rights and obligations pertinent to the “religious use of ayahuasca.” The “study” of “whatever is needed to accomplish” constitutes, exactly, the activities carried out by the MWG, decoding, thus a “deontology of the use of ayahuasca”: (deon, from the Greek: “what must be done” + logos, also from the Greek: “to study” ).
10. The establishment of the Multidisciplinary Working Group expresses the constitutional obligation of the Brazilian state to protect popular and indigenous manifestations and to guarantee the right of religious freedom. It represents the culmination of the process of legitimization of the religious use of ayahuasca in the country, initiated more than twenty years ago, with the creation of the first Working Group of CONAD (known as CONFEN at the time), assigned to examine the convenience of the provisional suspension of the inclusion of the substance Banisteriopsis caapi in the Ordinance nº 02/85, of DIMED (Resolution nº. 04/85, of CONFEN).
11. This first study, involving carrying out several research episodes and visits to the communities of users in various states of the federation, especially Acre, Amazonas and Rio de Janeiro, resulted, after two years, in an extensive report, from September 1987, subscribed by the then Counsellor of CONFEN, Doctor Domingos Bernardo Gialluisi da Silva Sá, President of the Working Group, which concluded that the vegetal species that integrate the elaboration of the drink known as ayahuasca would remain excluded from the list of substances prohibited by DIMED.
12. This conclusion was approved by the plenary of the former Federal Narcotics Board, in the September 1987 meeting, such that the provisional suspension of the prohibition of the use of ayahuasca, implemented by Resolution nº 06, of CONFEN, from February 04, 1986, became definitive, excluding the drink and the vegetal species that compose it from the DIMED schedules.
13. In this regard, in 1991, in view of an anonymous accusation, upon initiative of the then Counsellor of CONFEN, Paulo Gustavo de Magalhães Pinto, Chief of the Division of Repression of Narcotics of the Department of Federal Police, the “question of the use of ayahuasca” was reexamined.
14. From this resulted, once again, on behalf of CONFEN, the realization of studies on the context of production and consumption of the drink, carried out by Doctor Domingos Bernardo Gialluisi da Silva Sá, who, in a conclusive finding of 02/06/92, approved unanimously by the 5th Ordinary Meeting of CONFEN held on the same day, considered that there were no reasons to modify the conclusion proposed in 1987, in the final report mentioned before.
15. Ten years later, in view of accusations concerning the inadequate use of the drink ayahuasca, most of which were made public through the press and others that were conveyed through organs of the Public Authority, particularly CONAD, Federal Police and Prosecution, a fact that is amply documented in the consolidation of the decisions and studies of CONAD and other institutions concerning the use of ayahuasca, a new Working Group was established by Resolution nº 26, of December 31, 2002.
16. According to this resolution, the WG must be composed of diverse institutions, based on the principle of shared responsibility, now with the objective to establish norms and procedures that may preserve the religious cultural manifestation, observing the objectives and norms established by the National AntiDrug Policy and the pertinent legal diplomas. There is no record that this group was constituted.
17. On March 24, 2004, CONAD requested the Chamber of Technical Scientific Advisory to conduct a study and technical-scientific report regarding the diverse aspects of the use of ayahuasca, the moment in which the said advisory organ of CONAD emitted a finding that was presented and approved in the Meeting of CONAD of 17/08/04, which served as the basis for Resolution nº 5, of CONAD, from 04/11/04, which instituted the Multidisciplinary Working Group.
18. In order to comply with the terms of the resolution that instituted it, the MWG had as its first task, after electing the President and Vice-President of the Group, respectively Dr. Dartiu Xavier da Silveira Filho and Edson Lodi Campos Soares, the elaboration of a National Registry of Entities that Use Ayahuasca – the CNEA.
19. In this regard, the group considered many concerns, beginning with the intention of the said registry, which must not serve as a mechanism of state control over the constitutional right of freedom of belief (art. 5, VI, FC). Its objectivity was also discussed, in order to avoid demands that would come to invade the individual right to intimacy, private life and image of the users (art. 5, X, FC). In this sense, a consensus was reached that responding or not to the registry would be facultative for the entities.
20. Having determined these parameters, the registration form was made available to the interested parties, accompanied by a letter with explanations and a copy of Resolution nº. 05/04, of CONAD. Currently, almost one hundred entities have been registered, giving a partial dimension to the diverse practices adopted by the entities that make use of ayahuasca in Brazil. The registry is still available for interested entities.
21. The MWG attempted to highlight and consolidate the practices that the entities themselves consider to be adequate and responsible religious use, Ministeries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Fisheries and Farming and Supply, Department of Federal Police, ANVISA, IBAMA, FUNAI, OAB, Brazilian Medical Association, Brazilian Psychiatry Association and religious denominations users of the tea ayahuasca. Previously established in the “Charter of Principles”, which resulted from the 1st Seminar of Entities of Ayahuasca, carried out in Rio Branco on November 24, 1991.
In the discussion, the following topics were prioritized: definition of ritual use, commercialization, tourism, publicity, association of ayahuasca with other substances, creation of new centers, self-sustainability of the entities, procedures to receive new interested individuals, therapeutic use, as well as the definition of a mechanism to make effective the deontological principles that were formulated. Most of the deliberations in the group were consensual and are synthesized in item V – Conclusion.
23. The correct identification of what is religious use, according to the concepts and practices dictated by the entities that use ayahuasca themselves, will allow the freedom of belief contemplated in the Federal Constitution to be securely protected. Considering the occurrence of records of non religious use of ayahuasca, its identification will allow practices that do not fit the constitutional protection to be prevented.
24. It is a matter, then, of ratifying the legitimacy of the religious use of ayahuasca as a rich and ancestral cultural manifestation which, precisely because of its historical, anthropological and social value, merits the protection of the state, in accordance with the 2nd art., “caput,” of Law 11.343/066 and art. 215, §1, of the FC. Practices that may place the legitimacy of traditionally recognized use protected by the Brazilian state must be avoided, including the use of ayahuasca associated with illicit psychoactive substances or outside of the ritualistic environment.
“2nd Art. Drugs are prohibited in all the national territory, as well as the plantation, culture and exploitation of plants and substrates from them that can be extracted or produced as drugs, with the exception of hypothetical legal authorization or regulation, as well as what is established in the United Nations Convention of Vienna on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, with respect to plants with strictly ritual-religious use” (our emphasis).
25. The MWG recognized the religious character of all the acts that involve ayahuasca, from the gathering of the plants and their preparation, to its storage and administration, such that its practitioner participates in all these with the conviction of practicing an act of faith and not commerce. For this reason, the plantation, preparation and administration with the objective of obtaining profit is incompatible with the religious use that the entities recognize as legitimate and responsible.
26. Whosoever sells ayahuasca does not practice an act of faith, but commerce, and contradicts and assaults the legitimacy of the traditional use consecrated by the religious entities.
27. The prohibition on the commercialization of Ayahuasca is not confused with its expenditures, with the payment of expenses involved in the gathering of the plants, their transport and its preparation. These maintenance costs, according to the statutory organizational modes, are supported by the community of users. It is evident, too, that the production of Ayahuasca has a cost, which may vary according to the region which produces it, the number of members, the higher or lesser ease in which the raw materials (vine and leaves) are acquired, if it is a plantation that belongs to the entity itself or if the plants are obtained from the native forest, and many other variables.
28. Historically, though, according to the experience of the religious entities called upon to compose the Multidisciplinary Working Group, this cost is shared within the institution through the membership contributions of each each entity. Members respond for the costs of maintenance of the religious organization, in which the expenses of Ayahuasca production are included, in their regular accounts.
29. The responsible religious use in the production of Ayahuasca is outlined from the verification of the practices of the entities: a) cultivate the plants and prepare Ayahuasca, in principle, for internal consumption; b) seek sustainability in the production of the species; and, c) when it is not possible to possess their own cultivation and there is no way to obtain the raw materials from the native forest— without abstaining from seeking self-sufficiency within a reasonable time frame — nothing hinders obtaining the tea through meeting the costs of expenditures only, avoiding that there be individuals, groups or entities who dedicate themselves, whether exclusively or in a major part, to the supply of third parties.
30. The culture of the religious use of Ayahuasca, being a faith that is based on a drink extracted from plants that are native to the Amazonian Forest, presupposes environmental responsibility in the extraction of the species. The religious entities must seek self-sustainability in the production of the drink, cultivating their own plantations.
31. Tourism, as a commercial activitiy, must be avoided by the entities, which because they are constituted as religious institutions, must not orient themselves to the intention of profit, principally deriving from the exploitation of the effects of the drink.
32. The Federal Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religious cults, which has the consequence of the right to propagate the faith through the legitimate displacement of its members. In this sense, all have the right to profess their faith freely and to promote events within the established legal limits. What is sought to be avoided is that a serious, responsible religious practice, legitimately recognized by the state, should become, through the force of a use that is divorced from ethical principles, a mercantilism of a psychoactive substance, generating profit for individuals or groups, who use the argument of faith only as a shield for inadequate practices.
33. The publicity of Ayahuasca has also been a motive for deformations and abuses, notably through the Internet. It can be observed, principally through this means of communication, that there is an availability of all sorts of paid courses and workshops, whose central element is the use of Ayahuasca associated with promises of transformational experiences divorced from religious ritual.
34. Based on the experience of the entities and their ritual practices, it is seen that responsible ritual use is incompatible with publicity and the offer of promises of miraculous cures, rapturing personal transformations and the induction of individuals who believe that Ayahuasca is the panacea for all ills. It is the consensus of the GMT that those who make responsible religious use do not divulge information that may induce people to have a fantasiacal image of Ayahuasca and they treat the topic with discretion, without making loud proclamations of the effects of the substance.
35. For the purposes of this report, “therapy” is understood as an activity or process oriented towards healing, maintenance or development of health, in consideration of ethical scientific principles.
36. Traditionally, some denominations possess healing rituals in which Ayahuasca is used, inserted within the context of faith. The therapeutic use that is traditionally attributed to Ayahuasca in the religious rituals is not therapy in the sense defined above, constituting an act of faith and, thus, the state may not interfere in the behavior of individuals, groups or entities that make use of the drink, in a strictly religious context. Those who use the drink outside of a religious context are in another condition. This is not related with religious use, and such a practice is not recognized as legitimate by CONAD, which has solely authorized the use of the substance in religious rituals.
37. The therapeutic use of Ayahuasca in activities privative of a profession regulated by the law will depend on the professional habilitation and support of scientific research, or will otherwise incur in the illegal exercise of the profession or reckless professional practice.
38. Any practice that implies the use of Ayahuasca with strictly therapeutic ends, whether of the exclusive use of the substance, or whether associated with other substances or therapeutic practices, must be prohibited, until its efficacy is proven through scientific research carried out in research centers associated with academic institutions, following scientific methodologies. Thus, the recognition of the legitimacy of the therapeutic use of Ayahuasca will occur only after the conclusion of research that proves it so.
39. Based on the accounts of representatives of the user entities, it is seen that healings and the solution of personal problems must be understood within the same religious context as other religions: as acts of faith, without a necessary relationship of cause and effect between use of Ayahuasca and the healing or solution of problems.
40. The growth of the use of Ayahuasca and the ease with which the drink can be bought from individuals without a commitment to the faith has resulted in the emergence of new entities, which do not have experience in dealing with the drink and its effects, as well as making incorrect use of Ayahuasca, associating it with practices that are not related with religion. Ritual use characterized by the search for a religious identity differs from merely recreative use.
41. Responsible religious use of Ayahuasca assumes the presence of experienced individuals, who know how to deal with the diverse aspects that are involved in this practice, these being: the capacity to identify the plant species and to prepare the drink, to recognize the appropriate moment for serving it, to discern individuals in which use is not recommendable, in addition to all the aspects linked with ritualistic use, according to their spiritual orientation.
42. Although solitary and isolated acts of faith are recognized, the religious practice is usually collective. It is recommendable for groups to constitute themselves into formal organizations, as juridical persons, consolidating the idea of responsibility, identity and social projection, that may allow users to engage in the religious practice in an environment of confidence.
43. In addition to the principles inherent to each of the doctrinal denominations for the reception of new members, it is reasonable and prudent that when Ayahuasca is administered it be taken into consideration: accounts of prior mental alterations, the emotional state at the time of use and that they not be under the effects of alcohol or other psychoactive substances.
44. Before drinking for the first time, the interested individual must be informed of all the conditions that are required for the use of Ayahuasca, according to the orientation of each entity. A prior interview, oral or written, must be carried out in the sense of finding out the conditions of the interested individual and in it all necessary clarifications on the natural effects of the drink must be given.
45. It is recommendable for each entity to accompany participants until the end of the rituals, with the exception of previously authorized early departures in exceptional cases and with the acquiescence of the person who is in charge.
46. Considering the lack of sufficient scientific evidence and considering the secular use of Ayahuasca, which has not demonstrated damaging effects on health, and the terms of Resolution nº 05/04, of CONAD, the use of yahuasca by minors under 18 (eighteen) years old must remain an object of deliberation of the parents or responsible guardians, in the adequate exercise of family authority (art. 1634 of the CC); with respect to pregnant women, their degree of participation is their own responsibility, attending, permanently, the preservation of the development and structuring of the personality of the minor and the unborn child.
e. Considering, finally, that the ritualistic religious use of Ayahuasca has been recognized as a legitimate practice for a long time, is constituted as a cultural manifestation that is inseparable from the identity of the traditional populations of Amazonia and of part of the urban population of the country, it being the responsibility of the state not only to guarantee the full exercise of this right to cultural manifestation, but also to protect it from any means of precaution and prevention, under the terms of art. 2, “caput,” Law 11.343/06 and art. 215, caput and § 1 c/c art. 216, caput and §§ 1 and 4 of the Federal Constitution.
9. It is recommended that a registration form be kept with the personal details of the participant and to inform the person of the principles of the ritual, times, norms, including the need to remain within the location until the end of the ritual and the effects of Ayahuasca.
10. Observing the deontological principles defined here, each entity and their members indistinctly, in the institutional, religious or social relations that they may maintain with one another, in any circumstances, must strive for ethics and mutual respect.
b. It is suggested that CONAD promote and finance, beginning in 2007, research related with the use and effects of Ayahuasca.
a. It is suggested that CONAD consider the possibility of exchange with CONAMA, if possible with the help of the religious entities, with the objective of establishing protective measures for the plant species that serve as raw materials for Ayahuasca, through specific legislation for these plants of ritualistic religious use, which cannot be treated indistinctly as a non-lumber forest product.
b. It is suggested that CONAD also carry out due procedures with the competent organs of the state, with the objective of regulating interstate transport of Ayahuasca between entities, previously listening to the interested parties.
a. It is suggested that CONAD study the possibility of establishing mechanisms of control of decontextualized and non-ritualistic use of Ayahuasca, having the deontological principles established here as its paradigm, with the effective participation of representatives of the religious entities.
b. Institutional support is requested from CONAD for the creation of an institution that is representative of the religious entities formed through free adhesion, for the exercise of social control in the fulfillment of the deontological principles treated here.
c. It is also suggested, in the case that the deontological principles defined here be observed, that this be given wide publicity, preferentially by carrying out a second seminar organized by CONAD with the assistance of the Multidisciplinary Working Group, in which all the entities should participate, independently from the formal notification of the act in all of the organs of the Prosecution and the Federal and State Magistrates, Federal Police and State Secretariats of Public Security.

References: art. 215
 §1
 art. 2
 art. 215
 § 1
 art. 216