A Vancouver doctor who has been using a ritual hallucinogenic tea to help addicts has been ordered by Health Canada to stop or face criminal prosecution.

Dr. Gabor Maté received a letter in the mail from Health Canada on Monday, warning him to stop using ayahuasca because it is considered a controlled substance and requires proper authorization.

Maté says he has tried helping up to 150 addicts with the traditional Amazonian medicine for about two years. His work is featured in the documentary, The Jungle Prescription, airing on CBC’s The Nature of Things on Thursday night.

CBC’s The National featured a news item on Maté’s use of ayahuasca last Sunday.

“I wish it was otherwise because I have seen how I can help people with this and now it is going to be much longer to seek approval if we even get it,” Maté said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic drink derived from a woody vine that grows in the Amazon basin. It has been used for centuries as a source of medicine by local shamans.

It acts on the centres of the brain responsible for emotional memory and insight, Maté explains. When taken by addicts, it helps them remember traumatic events or get in touch with the “emotional resonance” of these events that led to addictions in the first place.

Addicts can then reprocess the events with the insight of an adult. He says the tea must be taken in a ceremony led by someone trained in shaman traditions and that addicts must be given follow-up support

“If you understand that there is nothing wrong with you but that you have just been hurt and … you can begin to let of it,” he says.

Maté emphasized he has not imported or distributed the tea; he has simply given guidance to those who have used it while reprocessing bad memories. He does not know where ayahuasca comes from.

This isn’t the first time Maté has pushed the envelope in using new and innovative ways to treat addicts. He played a key role at Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site. The Supreme Court recently upheld British Columbia’s right to operate the site.

While he doesn’t have numbers, Maté says he has had some significant successes with the tea, as well as some failures.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“People have given up sex addictions. People have given up cocaine addictions. People have given up their heroin and crystal meth use. People are relocating from the Downtown Eastside. People have reconciled with their families and that kind of thing,” he says.

Maté says he will comply with Health Canada’s order, which notes there are strict protocols that must be followed and approvals granted for restricted drugs. He said he will follow those protocols in a bind to gain authorization for the treatment.

Read more about: