Ancillary 5

Underground bars during prohibition. Marijuana legalization. The Opioid Epidemic. America is obsessed with mind-altering drugs, and we have been since our inception.

It seems obvious, then, that Americans will find a way to procure and try any drug possible, yet Iboga (from Central Africa), Khat (from Ethopia), and Bhang (from India) haven’t gained the popularity of ayahuasca, a bizarre psychoactive tea from South America.

The first ayahuasca churches have begun to pop up in Washington state and Florida, begging the question: What about ayahuasca is so appealing to Americans?

While psychedelic drugs have been popular for centuries, Terrence McKenna’s “Stoned Ape Hypothesis” in the early 1990s asserted that apes gained consciousness by ingesting “magic” mushrooms. Two decades later, his work sparked an entire body of academic research involving the effects of psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs. In my opinion, the correlation of an increase in psychedelic research/use with the inception of the internet and the further socioeconomic stratification of America in the 21st century is more than coincidence.

As we began to stare into screens all day long, and the American middle class dissolved into a perennial cycle of 70-hour work weeks, people started looking for ways to find a deeper meaning. This explains why the same people fighting for income inequality (progressives) are fighting for drug legalization. Take for example Oregon, where a democrat majority voted to decriminalize all drugs, or Dallas, where marijuana was decriminalized by a liberal city in a red state.

Of course, there are parts of the population that are not attracted to ayahuasca use (and are anti-drug in general). Some find meaning through religion, and don’t see the need for reality-altering substances. Others find the appropriation of ayahuasca use (traditionally a deeply spiritual and sacred process) problematic.

While the spread of ayahuasca was most likely also spurred by more superficial reasons, I believe that the inadequacies of a capitalistic society and the prevalence of monotonous, screen-facing jobs has accelerated psychedelic use and research and pushed more Americans to search for meaning using drugs like Ayahuasca.