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Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy

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Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy AYAHUASCA, ENTHEOGENIC EDUCATION & PUBLIC POLICY by Kenneth William Tupper M.A., Simon Fraser University, 2002 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April, 2011 © Kenneth William Tupper, 2011 Abstract Ayahuasca is an entheogenic decoction prepared from two Amazonian plants containing controlled substances, including dimethyltryptamine. Traditionally drunk ritually (and revered as a healing ―plant teacher‖) by Amazonian indigenous and mestizo peoples, in the 20th century ayahuasca became a sacrament for several new Brazilian religions. One of these, the Santo Daime, has expanded into Canada, where in 2001 a Montreal-based chapter applied for a federal legal exemption to allow drinking of the brew in its rituals. This dissertation undertakes a critical policy analysis of Health Canada‘s decision on the Santo Daime request, using government documents obtained through an Access to Information request as data. My goals are to illustrate how modern stereotypes about ―drugs‖ and ―drug abuse‖ in dominant public and political discourses may hinder well-informed policy decision making about ayahuasca, and to consider how entheogenic practices such as ayahuasca drinking are traditional indigenous ways of knowing that should be valued, rather than reflexively demonized and criminalized. My research method is a critical discourse analysis approach to policy analysis, an eclectic means of demonstrating how language contributes to conceptual frames and political responses to public policy issues. I combine insights from recent research on language, discourse and public policy to show how ayahuasca has become an unexpected policy conundrum for liberal democratic states attempting to balance competing interests of criminal justice, public health, and human rights such as religious freedom. I trace ayahuasca‘s trajectory as a contemporary policy concern by sketching histories of psychoactive substance use, today‘s international drug control regime, and the discursive foundations of its underlying drug war paradigm. Regarding Health Canada‘s 2006 decision ―in principle‖ to recommend exemption for the Daime brew, I critique how the government defined ayahuasca as a policy problem, what policy stakeholders it considered in its decision making, and what knowledge about ayahuasca it used. To conclude, I explore modern schooling‘s systemic antipathy to wonder and awe, and propose that policy reforms allowing circumspect use of entheogens such as ayahuasca as cognitive tools may help stimulate re-enchantment and appreciation of the need to address human and planetary ecological predicaments of the 21st century. ii Preface The Appendix to this dissertation is the result of research and writing I did during my doctoral program that was published as an article titled ―Ayahuasca healing beyond the Amazon: The globalization of a traditional indigenous entheogenic practice‖ in Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, volume 9, issue 1, in January 2009 (pp. 117-136). It is reprinted here with the permission of the journal. Other than pagination, I have kept the style, punctuation, formatting and other elements of the text the same as the final published version. iii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ..................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. viii Dedication ............................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 – Introduction........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 – Goal, Objectives & Overview ...................................................................................... 3 1.2 – Public Interest in Ayahuasca ........................................................................................ 9 1.3 – Psychonautic Drinking ............................................................................................... 12 1.4 – Cross-cultural Vegetalismo ........................................................................................ 14 1.5 – Santo Daime ............................................................................................................... 16 1.6 – Review of the Ayahuasca Literature .......................................................................... 20 Amazonian Cosmologies ................................................................................................. 22 Ethnobotany & Pharmacology......................................................................................... 23 Human Physiology .......................................................................................................... 28 Psychology....................................................................................................................... 35 Health/Medicine .............................................................................................................. 41 Spirituality ....................................................................................................................... 46 Westernization/Globalization .......................................................................................... 50 Chapter 2 – Theoretical Foundations & Methods ............................................................. 61 2.1 – Public Policy .............................................................................................................. 61 2.2 – Discursive Policy Analysis & Critical Discourse Analysis ....................................... 68 2.3 – Epistemic Standpoint.................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 3 – Ayahuasca as Policy Issue in the 21st Century .............................................. 83 3.1 – Pre-modern Psychoactive Substance Use .................................................................. 84 3.2 – Psychoactive Substance Use in Early Modernity ....................................................... 91 3.4 – Professionalization & the Path to Prohibition .......................................................... 114 iv 3.5 – The 20th Century & Modern International Drug Control ......................................... 123 Chapter 4 – Discourses & the Drug War Paradigm ........................................................ 131 4.1 – What is a ―Drug‖? .................................................................................................... 132 4.2 – Drug Metaphors ........................................................................................................ 144 Chapter 5 – The Canadian ―Daime Tea‖ Policy Decision ............................................... 157 5.1 – Canadian Politics & Human Rights ......................................................................... 158 5.2 – The Controlled Drugs and Substance Act & Section 56 .......................................... 160 Exemptions for Medical Purposes ................................................................................. 162 Exemptions for Scientific Purposes ............................................................................... 167 Exemptions ―Otherwise in the Public Interest‖ ............................................................. 171 5.3 – International Context ................................................................................................ 174 5.4 – Céu do Montreal‘s Section 56 Exemption Request ................................................. 182 5.5 – Policy Analysis: Problem Definition ........................................................................ 190 5.6 – Policy Analysis: Actors & Stakeholders .................................................................. 200 5.7 – Policy Analysis: Knowledge & Evidence ................................................................ 209 5.8 – Policy Analysis: Conclusion .................................................................................... 216 Chapter 6 – Conclusion: Entheogenic Education—Ayahuasca as a Plant Teacher ..... 219 6.1 – Wonder & Awe ........................................................................................................ 224 6.2 – Cognitive Tools ........................................................................................................ 236 6.3 – Ritual & Harm Reduction ........................................................................................ 241 6.4 – Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 246 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................
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