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C. Grob

Report on psychoactive drug use among adolescents using ayahuasca within a religious context

January 1, 2005 / Ayahuasca, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , , , ,

Abstract

Ritual use of ayahuasca within the context of the Brazilian ayahuasca churches often starts during late childhood or early adolescence. Premature access to psychoactive drugs may represent a risk factor for drug misuse. Conversely, religious affiliation seems to play a protective role in terms of substance abuse. The objective of this study was to describe patterns of drug use in a sample of adolescents using ayahuasca within a religious setting. Forty-one adolescents from a Brazilian ayahuasca sect were compared with 43 adolescents who never drank ayahuasca. No significant differences were identified in terms of lifetime substance consumption. Throughout the previous year period, ayahuasca adolescents used less alcohol (46.31%) than the comparison group (74.4%). Recent use of alcohol was also more frequent among the latter group (65.1%) than among ayahuasca drinkers (32.5%). Although not statistically significant, slight differences in terms of patterns of drug use were definitely observed among groups. Despite their early exposure to a hallucinogenic substance, adolescents using ayahuasca in a controlled setting were mostly comparable to controls except for a considerably smaller proportion of alcohol users. Religious affiliation may have played a central role as a possible protective factor for alcohol use. Thus, ayahuasca seems to be a relatively safe substance as far as drug misuse is concerned.

Doering-Silveira, E., Grob, C. S., de Rios, M. D., Lopez, E., Alonso, L. K., Tacla, C., & Da Silveira, D. X. (2005). Report on psychoactive drug use among adolescents using ayahuasca within a religious context. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 37(2), 141-144. 10.1080/02791072.2005.10399794
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Deconstructing Ecstasy: The Politics of MDMA Research

June 5, 2000 / MDMA, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

What is Ecstasy? Defined by the New Webster’s Dictionary as a state of intense overpowering emotion, a condition of exultation or mental rapture induced by beauty, music, artistic creation, or the contemplation of the divine, ecstasy derives etymologically from the ancient Greek ekstasis, which means flight of the soul from tbe body. The anthropologist, Mircea Eliade, who explored the roots of religious experience in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, has described the function of this intense states of mind among aboriginal peoples. Select individuals are called to become shaman, a role specializing, in inducing ecstastic states of trance where the soul is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld. The shaman is thus considered a ‘technician of the sacred’, having been initiated through a process of isolation, ritual solitude, suffering and the imminence of death. Such initiation into the function of ecstatic states of consciousness, always accompanied by comprehensive tutelage from tribal elders, allows the shaman to assume for his tribal group the vital role of intermediary, or conduit, between the profane world of everyday existence and the sacred domains of alternative reality (Eliade, 1951; Schultes and Hofmann 1992)

Grob, C. S. (2000). Deconstructing Ecstasy: The Politics of MDMA Research. Addiction Research & Theory, 8(6), 549-588. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/16066350008998989
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Pharmacokinetics of Hoasca alkaloids in healthy humans

June 1, 1999 / Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, DMT, Papers, Publications / By / , , , , , ,

Abstract

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine (THH) are the characteristic alkaloids found in Amazonian sacraments known as hoasca, ayahuasca, and yajè. Such beverages are characterized by the presence of these three harmala alkaloids, where harmine and harmaline reversibly inhibit monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) while tetrahydroharmine weakly inhibits the uptake of serotonin. Together, both actions increase central and peripheral serotonergic activity while facilitating the psychoactivity of DMT. Though the use of such ‘teas’ has be known to western science for over 100 years, little is known of their pharmacokinetics. In this study, hoasca was prepared and administered in a ceremonial context. All four alkaloids were measured in the tea and in the plasma of 15 volunteers, subsequent to the ingestion of 2 ml hoasca/kg body weight, using gas (GC) and high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated and peak times of psychoactivity coincided with high alkaloid concentrations, particularly DMT which had an average Tmax of 107.5±32.5 min. While DMT parameters correlated with those of harmine, THH showed a pharmacokinetic profile relatively independent of harmine’s.

Callaway, J. C., McKenna, D. J., Grob, C. S., Brito, G. S., Raymon, L. P., Poland, R. E., … & Mash, D. C. (1999). Pharmacokinetics of Hoasca alkaloids in healthy humans. Journal of ethnopharmacology, 65(3), 243-256. 10.1016/S0378-8741(98)00168-8
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