“They could never understand the kind of taboos against plant medicines that we have here in our culture.” A 2005 report in The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs entitled “Report on Psychoactive Drug Use Among Adolescents Using Ayahuasca Within a Religious Context” 7studied individuals within the União do Vegetal (UDV) and Santo Daime churches — which use ayahuasca. The study found that in Brazil, the current estimates of adolescents using ayahuasca is close to 2,000. While working with these adolescents (41 ayahuasca users and 43 who had never used ayahuasca), the researchers found that the ayahuasca drinking adolescents were basically the same, mentally as their non-using peers. “Despite their early exposure to a hallucinogenic substance, adolescents using ayahuasca in a controlled setting were mostly comparable to controls,” the study’s abstract reads. “Except for a considerably smaller portion of alcohol users [among the ayahuasca drinkers.” That last part is
7 Report conducted by Evelyn Doering-Silveira, Charles Grob, Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Enrique Lopez, Luisa Alonso, Cristiane Tacla and Dartiu Xavier Da Silveira.
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