No, ayahuasca is not a drug. The first difference between ayahuasca and a drug is a matter of context. Even though here in Colombia and in the Western world we talk about drugs and call any medicine for pain or illness a drug, there is a big difference between ayahuasca and drugs. We explain here why ayahuasca is not a drug.
Ayahuasca is a natural plant medicine that has been shared for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. The active ingredient it contains, DMT, is a metabolic product produced naturally in the body. DMT is normally broken down quickly in the body so that no effect can occur. The only exceptions in life are birth and death; at these times a large amount of DMT is suddenly released.
Our body cannot develop an addiction to DMT or ayahuasca. The more ayahuasca you have drunk in your life, the less ayahuasca medicine you will need for the same effect. This is exactly the opposite for a drug. The more often and the longer you consume a drug, the more resistant you become to this substance and develop a tolerance; you must therefore increase your consumption in order to achieve the same effect. This is not the case with ayahuasca! Some people only drink a little of the ayahuasca medicine to get into their process, as they are already very connected to the plant medicine.
Also, the healing from ayahuasca medicine can begin with the hangover and the physical cleansing that comes with it. During this time, you may vomit or generally not feel well. Unlike with the consumption of drugs, you will not feel any pleasure or joy shortly after drinking the ayahuasca medicine. But after this initial cleansing process, the effect changes in a positive direction. You feel that you are doing well and you feel a nice energy. The hangover suddenly turns into a powerful feeling. With drugs, these feelings arise in exactly the opposite way – in other words, they have a reverse logic: first, happiness hormones are released and you feel joy and pleasure. Afterwards, however, these positive feelings tip over into a very negative direction and you feel somehow empty. After just one ayahuasca ceremony, on the other hand, you will feel alive and fulfilled. You will probably feel a good energy in your life, feel motivated and be really creative.
First of all, we are talking about drugs and we are talking about something illegal and we are talking about substances that suddenly create addictions, substances that make people ill and turn them into drug addicts, whereby this term – depending on the context – always refers to a question of illegality or to something associated with Western medicine.
Drugs poison an organism from the inside or can be the trigger for permanent psychological or physical damage. Ayahuasca medicine, which must be drunk in a ceremony, heals the body from the inside out and therefore has a positive effect on physical and mental health and, consequently, on life as a whole.
Drugs are addictive, they make people sick on some level of addiction; among other things, it is also said that drugs are taken to produce pleasurable effects and a kind of escape from reality from one’s own life, while ayahuasca medicine does not directly produce a pleasant state at first; most of the time the effect is actually quite unpleasant.
Firstly, ayahuasca medicine is not addictive and unlike illegal drugs, in our context and in the indigenous context, ayahuasca medicine is used for healing and purification for healing processes in ayahuasca ceremonies. Ayahuasca is not used to have fun. Ayahuasca medicine is not used to isolate yourself from reality; quite the opposite! Ayahuasca connects you to reality, to life. As already mentioned, it does not produce pleasure, but often unpleasant sensations. You don’t really feel well at first, suddenly vomit or get diarrhea; this can serve to get rid of harmful substances from the body. But ayahuasca also increases your emotional and self-reflective awareness and causes an expansion of consciousness. In contrast to ayahuasca, drugs inhibit your perception of the world or negatively influence your consciousness. Drinking ayahuasca medicine increases the activation of the frontal and paralimbic areas of the brain. These regions are responsible for self-awareness and controlling emotions. Ayahuasca medicine thus allows you to look deep into your own soul.
When we talk about medicine, we are talking about something that heals us and cleanses us, and when we talk about drugs, we are talking about something that harms us in some way and makes us sick. Therefore, the concept of the difference between drugs and medicine is a question of context, but also a cultural question. The answer to this question is that ayahuasca in its proper use, during an ayahuasca ceremony, is not a drug. Furthermore, when we think of the word drug, we think of something that is harmful and when we drink ayahuasca, it is definitely not harmful! Ayahuasca medicine is known for its healing power, as it frees the mind and purifies the body. Targeted successes have already been achieved in the treatment of mental illnesses with ayahuasca therapy.