Increasing the Safety of Ayahuasca Sessions

The globalization of ayahuasca outside of its Amazonian context has generated new potential benefits, as well as potential risks that affect guides, participants, and the plant community as a whole.

This can involve physical or psychological risks, drug interactions, dangerous interpretations of experiences, or more subtle issues such as dual relationships between guides and participants. Plant medicine sessions in the Global North can bring certain challenges which often do not arise in traditional contexts.

Finding valid information on these topics is not easy. Many facilitators working outside the Amazon don't have easy access to support from doctors, psychologists, and other professionals.

In this context it is essential to incorporate a harm reduction perspective and prevention strategies to minimize the potential consequences that legal or illegal plant consumption could pose to individuals or societies.

That is why ICEERS presents this prevention initiative to increase safety for people who are working with plants outside the countries of origin.