Legality

According to the international consensus, as reflected in the 2010 Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) “No plants (or plant materials) containing DMT are currently controlled under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Therefore, preparations (e.g. decoctions) made from these plants, including ayahuasca, are not under international control and are therefore not subject to any article under the 1971 Convention”.

According to this criterion, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) issued different letters, upon request of lawyers who have defended ayahuasca-related cases in Spain, confirming that, “although DMT is controlled according to the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, ayahuasca is not subject to control according to Spanish legislation” (e.g. AEMPS, 2013). AEMPS, 2013) and the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office in its report of 23 April 2018, specifies that this type of substance is not controlled as a narcotic or psychotropic substance in the international schedules of the United Nations Conventions.

Thus, although these are products that may contain a concentration of substances included in these lists, particularly in the case of ayahuasca and DMT, they do so naturally, without these substances being synthetic or having been processed, which in that case would make them controlled drugs under the Convention.

In fact, the fact that a substance contains DMT naturally does not make it different from other living beings, nor does it make it illegal, even if synthetic DMT is illegal, given that it has even been scientifically proven that humans generate it during sleep states, which would otherwise make the brain and its use illegal.

Therefore, as the International Treaties apply in Spain, Ayahuasca is, according to them, a substance that is not controlled or criminally prosecuted. Therefore, the articles of the Spanish Penal Code do not apply to it.