DISCUSSION OF AYA, SCAR-FACE IS HAUNTED BY A MAN HE KILLED...
In 2012, Kyle Nolan, an 18-year-old from Northern California died in Peru from what authorities believe was an ayahuasca overdose. Henry Miller, a 19-year-old gap year student from Britain suffered a similar fate after having an allergic reaction to the drug.
There are also growing reports of predatory shamen raping and sexually assaulting women who drink ayahuasca.
Tribes worry whether they'll continue to have access to the tea if ayahuasca goes the way of cocaine, which was used by the Incas to counter altitude sickness before erupting into the global marketplace as an illegal drug.
"If there is a problem with ayahuasca, it will be banned, it will be condemned, and what's going to happen to us indigenous people?," said Jose de Lima of the Kaxinawa tribe. "Imagine if our medicine is banned? Are we going to have to rely on a pharmacy? No, we want to rely on our living pharmacy, the forest."
But some researchers see the global commercialization of ayahuasca as inevitable, and think the tribes should focus on getting a cut of profits.
"It is a daily fight for the preservation of our culture," said Biraci Brasil, leader of the Yawanawa tribe. "Ayahuasca is not just a plant, it's our ancestors."
A cup of ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian plant medicine used to induce hallucinogenic visions
