International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service

20/07/2026

EN

"Illegal drugs" is a phrase that hides a mistake.

Laws don't act on substances. They act on people — on what we do, in what context, with what intent. When we call a plant "illegal," we hand it an agency it doesn't have, and we quietly move the law away from where it actually operates: human practices, human rights, human consequences.

That shift isn't just semantic. It shapes who gets prosecuted, which practices get delegitimized, and which knowledge disappears from view. The same plant, the same ceremony, the same people can meet completely different legal outcomes depending on jurisdiction, interpretation, and the framing available to a court.

Our new article looks at how the language of drug policy travels — from courtrooms and legislative chambers all the way into the search bar, where "is ayahuasca legal?" quietly teaches millions of people to ask the wrong question. And it proposes a more accurate one: under what conditions do certain practices carry legal consequences for the people who engage in them?

A drug policy for people — not a people policy for drugs.

📖 Read the full article: https://www.iceers.org/en/articles/drug-policy-language/

Co-authored by Igor Domsac, Darryl Bickler, Javier Lorente and Jesus Alonso Olamendi.

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ES

«Drogas ilegales» es una expresión que esconde un error.

La ley no actúa sobre las sustancias. Actúa sobre las personas: sobre lo que hacemos, en qué contexto y con qué intención. Cuando llamamos «ilegal» a una planta, le atribuimos una agencia que no tiene y desplazamos la ley del lugar donde realmente opera: las prácticas humanas, los derechos humanos, las consecuencias humanas.

Ese desplazamiento no es simplemente semántico. Determina a quién se procesa, qué prácticas se deslegitiman y qué conocimientos se vuelven invisibles. La misma planta, la misma ceremonia, las mismas personas pueden encontrar resultados jurídicos completamente distintos según la jurisdicción, la interpretación y el encuadre disponible ante un tribunal.

Nuestro nuevo artículo analiza cómo viaja el lenguaje de la política de dr**as: desde las salas de juicio y las cámaras legislativas hasta la barra del buscador, donde «¿es legal la ayahuasca?» enseña en silencio a millones de personas a hacer la pregunta equivocada. Y propone una más precisa: ¿en qué condiciones ciertas prácticas acarrean consecuencias legales para las personas que las ejercen?

Una política de dr**as para las personas, no una política de personas para las dr**as.

📖 Lee el artículo completo: https://www.iceers.org/es/articulos/lenguaje-politica-dr**as/

Escrito por Igor Domsac, Darryl Bickler, Javier Lorente y Jesus Alonso Olamendi.

La ley no regula sustancias: regula el acceso y las prácticas humanas. Un análisis crítico sobre el lenguaje empleado en política de dr**as.

08/06/2026

¿Puede el silencio enseñarnos algo sobre la mente?

La neurociencia ha empezado a estudiar qué ocurre cuando la mente se aquieta, y encuentra ecos inesperados entre la meditación y el estudio de los estados no ordinarios de consciencia asociados a medicinas tradicionales como la ayahuasca. No son lo mismo, y conviene leerlo con cautela, pero el diálogo abre preguntas que van mucho más allá del laboratorio.

Lo exploramos en nuestro blog, con el II Encuentro Anual de Espiritualidad y Neurociencia («Paz y silencio», Gran Canaria, 26 y 27 de junio) como telón de fondo.

Lee el artículo:

¿Qué nos enseña el silencio sobre la mente? Meditación y neurociencia convergen en el estudio de la consciencia y los estados no ordinarios.

04/06/2026

Thank you The Psychedelic Society for this thoughtful article and for highlighting Aili Adelita's insights.

As ayahuasca continues to reach new audiences around the world, it is crucial to keep Indigenous perspectives at the center of the conversation. These are complex questions with no easy answers, which is why spaces for dialogue, reflection, and collaboration are so important.

We're looking forward to continuing these conversations at the World Ayahuasca Forum.

Once a sacred secret of the Amazon, ayahuasca is now a booming global industry - and Indigenous communities are paying the price. As Western demand surges, ancient traditions are being commodified, unqualified shamans are proliferating, and no one can agree on what ethical ayahuasca tourism actually

18/05/2026

¿Qué significa realmente integrar una experiencia psicodélica?

La integración no funciona como una receta universal. Cambia según la persona, el contexto, la historia emocional y el momento vital. A veces implica comprender. Otras veces sostener, reorganizar, escuchar, cuestionar o simplemente dar tiempo.

Hablar de integración de forma compleja no complica el proceso. Lo vuelve más honesto.

🗓️ Las inscripciones para AyaSafety cierran el 25 de mayo.

Comenta SEGURIDAD si quieres recibir más información sobre el curso.

14/05/2026

🇬🇧 EN

What actually changes in a person after an ayahuasca retreat — not days later, but a full year on?

A new study led by ICEERS researchers followed 264 Western participants for twelve months after attending Shipibo-led retreats at the Temple of the Way of Light in Peru. Results show sustained changes in personality, quality of life, and well-being, with minimal adverse effects.

One of the most striking findings: the percentage of participants with high neuroticism dropped from 39.8% to 28.6% over the course of a year. Four in ten people who arrived carrying a high negative emotional load had measurably reduced it twelve months later.

Read the full article at the link below 👇
https://www.iceers.org/en/news/research/psychological-effects-ayahuasca/

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ES 🇪🇸

¿Qué cambia en una persona tras un retiro de ayahuasca? No a los pocos días, sino un año después.

Un nuevo estudio liderado por investigadores de ICEERS siguió a 264 participantes occidentales durante doce meses después de asistir a retiros dirigidos por sanadores shipibo en el Temple of the Way of Light, en Perú. Los resultados muestran cambios sostenidos en personalidad, calidad de vida y bienestar, con efectos adversos mínimos.

Uno de los hallazgos más llamativos: el porcentaje de participantes con niveles altos de neuroticismo cayó del 39,8 % al 28,6 % en un año. Cuatro de cada diez personas que llegaron con alta carga emocional negativa la habían reducido de forma medible.

Lee el artículo completo en el enlace 👇
https://www.iceers.org/es/noticias/efectos-psicologicos-ayahuasca/

07/05/2026

Next Friday, May 15, ICEERS Executive Director Ben De Loenen and Claude Guislain of Nixiwaka Institute will be in New York City for a fireside conversation on the World Ayahuasca Forum.

This is not just an event — it's a window into a living process. The World Ayahuasca Forum (Girona, September 11–13) is co-organized by Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute, Nixiwaka Institute, and ICEERS, and will bring together ancestral knowledge holders from 30 Indigenous nations with people from across the fields of science, policy, healing, regeneration, and systems change. The mandate from the spiritual leaders is clear: join forces, build alliance, organize as a movement.

The event is hosted by The Psychedelic Assembly, a New York-based community organization cultivating connection and education at the edge of expanded consciousness.

If you're in New York and want to hear directly from the people building this — Friday, May 15, 7–9pm, 222 E 46th St.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-new-time-of-alliance-a-fireside-on-the-world-ayahuasca-forum-tickets-1988941603878

05/05/2026

The 1971 Convention is still the backbone of global legislation on access to traditional medicines. But a recent study, based on thousands of documents from the UN archives, lays bare something uncomfortable: the decision to classify DMT, psilocybin, or mescaline as some of the most dangerous substances in the world was not made on scientific grounds.

What proved decisive was something else: media-driven panic, Cold War geopolitical loyalties, and the absence of economic defenders. In the rooms where the fate of ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and the coca leaf was decided, there was no representation of the Amazonian, Mesoamerican, or Andean peoples who have safeguarded these medicines for centuries.
Five decades on, that original absence keeps producing very concrete consequences.

Article by Igor Domsac.

Read the full article: https://www.iceers.org/en/news/1971-convention-indigenous-peoples/

21/04/2026

Ten years ago, UNGASS introduced new language on human rights and drug policy. A decade later, that language remains largely untranslated into practice — especially for communities whose relationships with traditional plant medicines fall outside the categories the international control system was built to recognize.

New post on the ICEERS blog, by Igor Domsac and Jesus Alonso Olamendi.

Ten years after UNGASS, human rights commitments on drug policy and traditional plant medicines remain largely unimplemented.

15/04/2026

In this second installment of our series exploring the shape and spirit of the World Ayahuasca Forum — the first entirely Indigenous-led gathering of its kind, taking place September 11-13 in Girona, Spain — we turn to one of its most distinctive spaces: the Global Dialogues Hall.

As ayahuasca practices expand across the world, new questions surface about ethics, responsibility, and cultural context. Who holds authority over these traditions as they cross borders? How do legal frameworks developed far from their origins affect the communities that have carried them for generations? What responsibilities fall on researchers, practitioners, and institutions that engage with these medicines outside their original territories?

The Global Dialogues Hall addresses these questions directly. Designed as a space for intercultural encounter rather than institutional monologue, it brings together Indigenous leaders, researchers, policy experts, practitioners, and community representatives to examine the social, cultural, and legal implications of ayahuasca's growing global presence. The premise is straightforward: the challenges this expansion poses — from the erosion of cultural rights to questions of access and exploitation — require dialogue between all the actors involved, not parallel conversations that never meet.

Through shared reflection, this space seeks to explore how different communities and institutions can work together to navigate both the challenges and the opportunities that arise when ancestral traditions move across territories, cultures, and legal systems.

Learn more about the Global Dialogues Hall:
https://www.ayahuasca2026.com/spaces/global-dialogues/

If you missed our first installment, click here to read about the Plenary Hall:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iceers_the-plenary-hall-roots-of-living-futures-activity-7437084091478552576-7-oP