The Ayahaska business

How Peruvian traditional medicine of Russians brought to prison (version after Roskomnadzor)

On February 23, 2017, employees of the Customs Service Sheremetyevo discovered a parcel in the name of a certain Daniel Dias-Brukov, in which, according to the expert’s conclusion, 10 plastic bottles with a liquid containing dimethyl tripteamine (DMT) were contained. Later, already in the recipient’s apartment, the security forces found another 8 kilograms of powder from the South American Cactus San Pedro, containing mescaline, and 2.7 kilograms of flour from Koki leaves. The position of the prosecution was charged with Daniel Dias-Brukova smuggling, storage and attempt to sell drugs on an especially large scale. Protection insists that the seized substances are just dietary supplements and plants with an extremely low content of narcotic substances that the defendant was going to use for self -medication and healing.

The "new" tells how for the passion for traditional medicine the pen you can go to bars and why the Russians needed psychedelic tourism for the shamans of the Amazon.

Dmitry Gorbunov, the owner of a small business in Novokuznetsk, in 2014 goes to travel to Peru. During the trip, he learns about local shamans, who supposedly engage in healing and help people find themselves in special retreat centers located in dense forests. Dmitry, which was disappointed in traditional medicine, meets the famous prior-prisoner Jose Shepotte, the owner of the clinic, the author of many scientific articles and the publisher of his own journal about Peruvian traditional medicine. The shaman promises to cure Dmitry, suffering from a chronic kidney disease, and conducts several “healing” rites over it.

Returning to his homeland, Dmitry decides to invite Shaman to Russia to complete the healing course. The shaman agrees, but says that he will first send potions and only then he will fly.

On May 29, 2018, the courier brought a parcel with potions from Jose to the office of Dmitry’s office, followers broke through the courier into the office. The fact that the package contains Ayahua - a decoction that contains DMT narcotic substance - Dmitry learned already during interrogation. On July 30, 2019, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced a man to five years in prison under an article on drug smuggling on an especially large scale.

Liana Ghosts

Ayahuaska is a hallucinogenic decoction of plants growing in the jungle of the Amazon. The indigenous Indians believe that the Liana from whom the drink was preparing was sent to them by the god-Sun to communicate with the spirits of the dead, where its name came from-“The Liang of the Dead”, “Liana of Spirits” or “Liana Ghosts”.

The first mention of the drink dates back to the time of the conquest of South America by the Spanish and Portuguese colonialists, which declared the Devil, in their opinion, a decoction of a real war. Nevertheless, the tradition of using Ayauansa has been preserved to our times.

The ceremony begins with the sunset. Lonely travelers from different countries, tourists and locals gather together under the dome of a wooden structure specially designed for such ceremonies. Many of those present overcome hundreds of kilometers in order to participate in this rite - Indian shamans, and after them, tour operators promise the unforgettable experience of traveling “inside themselves and back”, and adherents of Peruvian folk medicine believe that the Shaman ceremonies are supposedly have a deep, healing and energy processes in the human organism, and treat the spirit first of all, they treat the spirit. And with him - and the body. For each of the participants in the ceremony, the shaman is preparing a special drink, which differs in the fortress and composition. Then he delays a monotonous song, which, as the locals believe, should introduce a person into a trance, open the doors into the world of the dead and facilitate the process of “communication with spirits”.

People sit in a circle, drink a decoction and wait for the shaman’s traction song when the “perfumes” are spoke with them.

Some immediately surrender under the onslaught of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea (shamans call such a reaction to the drink “releasing poor energy”), others, frightened by too realistic visions, run away into the jungle, while the most persistent sits by the fire until the morning, discussing the meaning of their visions with the actor shaman.

In 2008, the Government of Peru issued a law recognizing Ayauascus by a national treasure. This law was supposed to protect the ritual of the use of Ayauansky from the influx of tourists, which, according to the government, destroy the sacrament of the sacred ceremony. It was not possible to maintain the sacrament of the ritual in its original form. In only one of the cities of Peru there are more than twenty hotels oriented towards tourists and combined with peculiar sanatoriums, which shamans call "retrite centers". The ceremony of the adoption of hallucinogen under the monotonous singing of the shaman and the profit from these rites in Peru is put on the stream.

Russian tour operators decided to meet the Peruvians to meet. From some of them you can buy a five -day trip with a Russian -speaking guide. Most shamans offer operators perfectly own English and have their own dossiers on the websites of agencies. On average, for immodest one and a half thousand dollars, various Russian travel agencies promise their customers a package of healing from all diseases, deep cleansing of the mind, body and soul, cleansing the body from “slags” and a complete immersion in the atmosphere of love and joy.

However, as tour operators themselves write, a sense of love and joy does not always come and not to everyone. For example, one of the agencies warns: the Ayauaian cannot be killed by children, in combination with antidepressants, it can cause serotonin syndrome; Tiramin, contained in a decoction, in large concentrations can lead to a hypertonic crisis, which, in turn, with adverse development ends with myocardial infarction and death. It is impossible to calculate the exact amount of the active substance outside the laboratory - in each individual component of the decoction, it can be extremely small and a lot. It all depends on the place of growth, the amount of sunlight, humidity, etc. Feedback on the site reports: "You can not hope for a definitely good effect of use, since deaths have already been during the ceremony." It is also not fully studied how safe the drink for people with severe mental disorders can be.

How a Russian forensic examination breaks life

Over the past 6 years, at least 7 Russian tourists have been convicted of smuggling and storing Ayauansky. After reading about a magic drink on the Internet, people went to Peru for treatment and, after the end of the healing course, took shamanistic drugs with them to Russia. Protection insists: these substances are nothing more than a medicine that the defendants were going to use for personal purposes as the prevention and treatment of diseases. The protection of the defense is also raised by the methodology of forensic narcological examination: there are no standard samples for determining the exact amount of DMT in the decoction in Russia, so the percentage of the prohibited substance is determined by recounting for the dry balance. For example:

If you mix 1 gram of cocaine and 500 grams of flour, the investigation will assume that you have 501 grams of cocaine.

Meanwhile, the number of prohibited Garmin and DMT in each individual decoction can be completely different: both a lot and extremely few. Some methods of preparing Ayauansky imply only a trace of prohibited substances in a decoction. And individual ceremonies, which shamans adapt to conducting in Europe and Russia and call “Ayaauis without Ayauasky” do not at all mean the presence of narcotic substances in the drink.

But the Russians are still going to prison.

Maxim Gert (34 years old) is an artist from Nizhny Tagil, who has been suffering from intervertebral hernia for many years. According to his mother, an operation on the spine that Russian doctors offered to him could leave Maxim with a disabled person for life, and therefore he decided to abandon traditional medicine in favor of the people's. After reading on the Internet about the healers shamans, Gert went to Peru, where he met one of such “healers”. The course of the "people's doctor" implied a regular technique of Ayauansky. Returning to his homeland, Maxim took with him several bottles with this drink to continue his reception at home.

On March 2, 2017, he flew home from Peru, safely crossed two borders, but problems began at Russian customs. Express expertise revealed in the drink a narcotic substance dimethyltriptamine, and Maxim went to the pre-trial detention center from the airport. The state prosecution requested 11.5 years of the colony for him, but the lawyers managed to brush up to two years.

A similar story happened with the Muscovite Alexei Fadeev. Going to Peru with his civilian wife, he fell ill with a “fever of Denge” and decided to turn to local shamans for help. Those ordered him to drink Ayauaska and chew the leaves of Coca, and the man decided to seize 26 bottles with a decoction and several bags with cocaine bush leaves to continue the course of renting a house. Russian customs officers confiscated three suitcases stuffed with Ayaau, a forensic examination revealed in a decoction of 5 kilograms of DMT in terms of the dry balance. On July 4, 2016, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced Alexei to 11.5 years in a maximum security colony.

But the story of Pavel Nikolenko. In 2016, having passed the healing course from pancreatitis of the pancreas near the Peruvian shamans, he decided to take several bottles of decoction and bundles with Koki leaves with him to Russia. Paul was detained on the Russian border. Domodedovo City Court gave him 12 years in a maximum security colony.

Cusco healer

Daniel Dias-Brookov is a person with two homelands. His father comes from Peru, his mother is a Russian woman. From childhood, Daniel was interested in his origin, and, in the end, went to travel to his father’s homeland, to the capital of the ancient Inca Cuzco. There he met the shamans from the Shipbo-Conbo tribe and got a job as a translator for Russian tourists who flew there for healing. Once, the mentor shamans told Daniel that he should go to Russia in order to engage in healing there and save lives. Daniel went home. At home, at first he worked in kindergartens and drove tourist groups to Peru for treatment. In the end, Daniel himself became a healer.

In February 2017, security officials burst into the Daniel’s apartment. Close friends and numerous patients of the healer are sure: Daniel did not even suspect that narcotic substances were located in his drugs, and the case was started solely to fulfill the plan to disclose crimes. Now a man threatens from 10 years to a life sentence in a maximum security colony.

While the Ministry of Internal Affairs is chasing shamans and lovers of non -traditional medicine, American scientists are trying to find out the true potential of the Indian drink.

With the research of Ayauans in Russia, everything is much more complicated - they simply do not.

The criminalization of the DMT and Garmin, contained in the decoction, does not allow Russian narcologists and psychiatrists to explore the capabilities of Ayauansky in replacement therapy and the treatment of depression.

About whether the DMT is investigated in Russia and how the Russian drug control is intersecting with scientific research, says the famous Russian narcologist Evgeny Krupitsky:

“DMT is included in the lists of psychoactive substances (surfactants), the circulation of which is prohibited or limited by law in most countries of the world. It is impossible not to add such drugs to the corresponding lists, because They have a very strong psychotropic effect and have a certain addictive potential - i.e. Able to cause addiction. For research with such surfactants, a rather complex and laborious mechanism for obtaining appropriate permits is provided. This is very not easy - but still possible. For example, the American scientist R. Strassman conducted in the 90s serious scientific research with DMT at the University of New Mexico (USA), he published a number of scientific articles and even a monograph on the results of his research.

In the 80s and 90s, we conducted scientific studies with the drug for anesthesia, which in small doses (much less than anesthesia) has an effect, to a certain extent similar to DMT. We managed to show that this drug can be an effective remedy for treating alcohol and opiates. Then these were pioneer works, and I still give lectures about them at some foreign universities and scientific centers. However, with the introduction of this drug in our country in the lists of substances, the turnover of which is limited, we were forced to stop our research due to the very difficult complexity of obtaining appropriate permits ... But it’s a pity - now this drug is officially registered in the United States as a means of treating resistant (resistant to conventional antidepressants) depression! And in a number of American and European universities, there are currently active studies of the possibility of using this drug for the treatment of narcological diseases, and the first results convincingly confirm our conclusions of twenty years ago. ”

PS

To date, at least two defendants in the Ayahasku business can get a huge time, and five more have already received from two to 12 years in prison.

Margarita Bondar - especially for "New"