CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

According to international drug laws, changes in the schedule of controlled drugs should be based on scientific evidence. However, social actions significantly contribute to many of these changes being made. There are several cases worldwide where changes in drug policies resulted from the activism of those who benefited from drug use. Biomedicine, as a source of evidence to base drug policy decisions on, is limited. Thus, other approaches are needed that show how drugs are being used in society.

Field research involving radical participation methods was conducted inside a phenomenological community of rural Catalonia, where ancient psychoactive plants (APP), such as ayahuasca or cannabis, are ritually integrated and regularly used in the community. Self- and/or community-controlled use of psychoactive plants, as medicines and as sacraments, may benefit both the individual and society by reducing potential harms and strengthening bonds between community members.

Evidence from ethnographic field work should be considered alongside evidence from biomedicine when drug policy decisions are made. The fieldwork offers a clearer picture of what is happening in society, outside of the drug research laboratories and other data sources.