The first sign that something was off was the sound of the doors of the trucks that are raised outside, an unpleasant rest in peace inside the yurt located by a long road
In a few moments, a ceremonial leader named Michael Adzich had been arrested, and the police were within the structure similar to the store, leaving six women tied to six women who were in the last hours of a three -day spiritual retreat.
“He felt very rapist of our space,” said Jennifer Wilson, who attended the November 2022 ceremony as an assistant, a Halifax court this week.
What RCMP officers found on the site, a substance similar to tar located within a freezer, is now in the heart of an unusual case this week in the Supreme Court of New Scotland, facing what the Federal Government effectively considers an illegal drug against Adzich’s right to religious freedom.
Ayahuasca, a tea based on plants that originates in the Amazon, is a psychedelic substance that some adherents accredit with experiences that alter life, often call it medicine or sacrament, or even “grandmother”, which helps with trauma or connects with the earth.
The religious ceremonies that surround the substance are deep in parts of indigenous South America, but in recent decades, the interest of outside the region in Ayahuasca has increased, as well as a possible mental health or addiction therapy, and a spiritual practice.
The western ones have come to retreats in places like Peru, giving rise to the term “Tourism of Ayahuasca”. Celebrities such as actor Will Smith have talked about their experiences, and Ayahuasca ceremony of the NFL star Aaron Rodgers appeared in a Netflix documentary.
But a crucial element of ayahuasca, component N, N-Dimethylectamine, commonly called DMT, remains illegal in many countries, including Canada, which lists it as prohibited in the Law of Drugs and Controlled Substances, the legislation that makes hundreds of drugs, including cocaine and heroin, illegal.
After his arrest on November 14, 2022, Adzich, 52, was accused of possession of DMT with the purpose of traffic, along with import and production.
Adzich’s lawyer is arguing that his client’s right to freedom of religion was infringed, and wants Judge Josh Arnold, who is listening to the case, to order that Ayahuasca is explicitly excluded from the law.
His lawyer, Asaf Rashid, said in an interview that the heart of the argument is the “use of ayahuasca should be considered part of a protected spiritual practice, not subject to crimes under the law of drugs and controlled substances.” He said that multiple studies and surveys have found that Ayahuasca does not cause harm.
In the Peruvian Amazon, Ayahuasca is a sacred medicine. Drinking dark tea derived from the plant is part of a ritual that leads to vomiting and hallucinations, but defenders say it has great healing effects. As the ayahuasca experience becomes more common outside the Amazon, Mark Kelley analyzes what it is.
The case has fallen under public radar, and Adzich has tried to avoid attention, although more than 30 supporters sat in the public gallery in court on Tuesday, the first day of the audience.
Adzich rejected an earlier request from an interview, but it is expected to testify in the case. He declared himself innocent.
Much more public in Canada has been battles about another psychedelic, psilocybin, also known as magical fungi, including a series of raids in recent years in unauthorized dispensaries.
The lawyer Paul Lewin, who represents a man accused in a case of Ontario, launched a challenge of the letter in 2023, arguing that Psilocibin is a “tool of freedom of thought”, and that freedom of thought is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He said a judge must rule on the case in October.
“We do not envelop adults in bubbles, we allow adults to make decisions for themselves,” he said about Ayahuasca. “If we are talking about an important spiritual experience, it does not have to be perfectly safe for the government to allow it.”
He and others have drawn parallel between psychedelics and previous judicial cases that involve medicinal marijuana that retreated some restrictions, followed by the Federal Government’s decision in 2018 to legalize recreational cannabis.
But the Adzich case, despite all its fascinating nuances, can rest partly in a more mundane question. According to the Law of Drugs and Controlled Substances, people or groups can seek an exemption that allows them to possess and use a prohibited substance, even for scientific or religious reasons.
Adzich did not request an exemption, according to judicial records. His lawyer refused in an interview to say why until there are more evidence in court.
But a legal defense report said that Adzich had learned that he took a church, in Montreal, 16 years finally ensure an exemption in 2017, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees along the way. That was “not feasible” for Adzich, whose “spiritual call called him.”
However, a Health Canada official said in a judicial affidavit submitted this spring that the average time to process an application and grant an exemption is now 13 months. The agency said that 12 exemptions have been granted for Ayahuasca for religious purposes.
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The challenge of the letter, if successful, would legalize ayahuasca in Canada. The Prosecutor’s Office opposes Adzich’s request.
A report by a psychedelic investigator commissioned by the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the “existing regulatory channels” allow the ceremonies of ayahuasca legally sanctioned, but suggested that underground groups without supervision could be safety risks.
“I think the legislation is a complete response to anyone seeking legitimately to controlled substances in Canada,” said prosecutor Glen Scheuer in an interview.
A brief presented by the Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the case comes from an seizure of a black tar substance by the United States Customs in Miami. National security learned that the package was destined for a woman who lived in New York.
He allegedly told the authorities that Adzich had asked him to re -package the article and then send it to Canada. He supposedly told him that they were tobacco and “water waters”, but to label it as birthday and coffee gifts.
In judicial records and witnesses’ questions, Scheuer has asked Ayahuasca’s security, pointing out concerns about people with heart problems or antidepressants. There have also been user reports that have accidents or are victims of crime, while under the influence of Ayahuasca.
Those who drink Ayahuasca sometimes vomit, a reaction known as purge. In interviews and testimonies, the adherents say that Ayahuasca ceremonies can be deep and deeply difficult, especially if someone has intended to dig in a past trauma.
Allan Finney, executive director of Ayahuasca Canada, a freely organized group that provides legal security and advice, said he attended a ceremony in Peru first when he was 59 years old.
He said that “it scared myself” when he faced fearful childhood experiences, and promised to never do Ayahuasca again. But a shaman convinced him that it was just the beginning, he said, and attended more.
“Ayahuasca has just changed my life,” he said. “There is the idea that Ayahuasca is a psychedelic, as if it were a kind of recreational substance. I can guarantee that if you think that ayahuasca was recreational, I will sit in a ceremony. Take a bit of ayahuasca and then tell me how it is recreational.”
The judicial records presented by the defense say that Adzich took Ayahuasca for the first time in 2009, later trained with healers of the Amazonian tribe Shipibo and is qualified as a facilitator of the Ayahuasca ceremony.
Witnesses attending the November 2022 withdrawal described completing an admission form that included questions about any health condition.
They said that the ceremonies of the Ayahuasca in the afternoon included drinking the liquid of a cup and Adzich singing traditional songs known as “Icaros.” During the days, there were circles and walks shared in nature.
An exchange circle was about to start when the police descended on the yurt. The officers were respectful, witnesses said, and one asked if they should take off their shoes.
Even so, it was a heartbreaking end for a weekend of deep vulnerability, witnesses said, and one called the police that attacked a “knife in the heart.”
