Brazilian murder prompts debate on ayahuasca

Brazilian murder prompts debate on ritual use of ayahuasca

http://trueslant.com/marceloballve/2010/03/18/murder-triggers-debate-of-ritual-ayahuasca-usage-in-brazil-implications-for-u-s/

Mar. 18 2010

Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic infusion prepared from a South American
vine. William Burroughs, American Beat writer, famously experimented
with the drug in the 1950s and corresponded with Allen Ginsberg about
his experiences.

In recent years, it has gained popularity in Europe and the United
States for ritual usage, both by New Age types and serious
practitioners of various ayahuasca-based spiritual practices.

Ayahuasca has been used ritually by South American Indians for
thousands of years. But a modern ayahuasca-based tradition sprung out
of Brazil, and has become one among the country's many popular
syncretic religions. Santo Daime began in the 20th Century with
Afro-Brazilian spiritual leader Raimundo Irineu Serra, who under the
influence of ayahuasca communed with the Virgin Mary of the Rainforests.

Today in Brazil, Santo Daime encompasses various groupings with
slightly differing ritual practices. Since January of this year,
after decades of inconsistent and blurry government attitudes toward
the vine, its religious usage was legally sanctioned by Brazil's drug
control body CONAD, which developed its new policy toward ayahuasca
in consultation with Santo Daime-linked groups such as the Cefluris Institute.

At that point, the policy did not trigger too much scrutiny. Then, on
March 12, Glauco Villa Boas, a prominent, cerebral, and popular
political cartoonist for the influential Folha de São Paulo
newspaper, was murdered at his home. His son, Raoni, was also killed.
The events leading to the double murder are still cloudy and in dispute.

But Glauco, as he's known in Brazil, was a leader at a Santo Daime
church. His alleged killer had frequented the church, according to
police reports. Some of the hypotheses around the murder connect the
suspected shooter's motives and state of mind to the religion and its
psychoactive sacraments.

Glauco's death convulsed Brazil. He was such a beloved member of the
press that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued a short
statement lamenting the death of the multi-talented cartoonist and
his son (Note: Lula's statement does not mention Santo Daime in any way).

Still, Glauco's death has triggered a wide-ranging discussion in
Brazil about Santo Daime, ayahuasca, and whether the drug deserves
government sanction or should be more tightly controlled.

According to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the suspect is a former law
student, Carlos Eduardo Sundfeld Nunes, who had caused concern among
friends and family members due to abnormal behavior. Other reports
suggest that he had drug problems unrelated to ayahuasca and in fact
turned to Santo Daime because of its reputation for helping addicts
overcome their dependencies.

Folha's own reporting published today suggests the murder was
pre-meditated and not conducted in a hallucinogenic haze.

Also in Folha today, author Helio Schwartsman argues soberly against
ayahuasca critics who would use the murder as a justification for
restricting the drug. Schwartsman acknowledges that Santo Daime's
practice of distributing ayahuasca and the religion's generosity
toward troubled souls might be a de-facto "magnet" for unstable types.

But, he writes, "the larger truth is that terrible things happen all
the time, without us needing to go looking for places to direct our
blame … being left without Glauco, who often elicited the first smile
of the day from us with his cartoons on page 2, is one of those things. "

Yesterday, the newspaper published a report on research at the
University of São Paulo on the effects of the ayahuasca tea through
which the drug is typically ceremonially administered. The
researchers have not found evidence that ayahuasca leads to violent
behavior beyond a certain state of agitation.

Elsewhere, some Brazilian bloggers have been a little less
circumspect toward Santo Daime. Reinaldo Azevedo, of news magazine
Veja, recently linked to a government document tracing a blueprint
for arts and culture policy which called for ayahuasca-based
religious communities to be promoted as part of Brazil's cultural diversity.

"Clearly Santo Daime couldn't be left out, huh?," Azevedo wrote sarcastically.

(Veja's coverage of the religion has been criticized as
sensationalistic by Santo Daime-linked NGO Cefluris Institute.)

The Brazilian debate around Santo Daime should be closely watched
because there are implications in Europe and the United States, where
Santo Daime churches are establishing themselves and creating legal
precedents for ayahuasca as a sacramental drug. Last year, in Oregon,
a Santo Daime church won rights to ayahuasca use in the courts
(Brazilian anthropologist Beatriz Caiuby Labate has collected the
Oregon case documents on her website).
http://www.bialabate.net/texts/oregon-daime-case-documents

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