Brazil is the only country with explicit national-level authorization for ayahuasca — a 2010 CONAD resolution that formalized 30 years of tacit acceptance.
CONAD Resolution 1/2010 is the only national-level law in the world that explicitly authorizes a DMT-containing brew. Brazil's National Council on Drug Policy (Conselho Nacional de Políticas sobre Drogas, or CONAD) issued it on January 25, 2010, under the Ministry of Justice.
The resolution permits the production, distribution, and ceremonial use of ayahuasca by registered religious entities and indigenous communities. It also prohibits the prohibition — meaning no Brazilian authority can ban ayahuasca for those recognized uses.
The authorization rests on two constitutional pillars: religious freedom (Article 5 of Brazil's 1988 Constitution) and the state's duty to protect the cultural traditions of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian peoples.
Spiritual entities that use ayahuasca as a sacrament may produce the brew from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaves, distribute it among members, and use it in formal ceremonies. All of this must happen within a registered, non-commercial organization.
The resolution also established a code of ethics — a set of norms and principles for responsible ceremonial use, adapted in part from the 1991 "Charter of Principles" that the main ayahuasca churches had drafted themselves a decade earlier.
Brazil's ayahuasca authorization did not come from a single moment of political will — it took more than 25 years of incremental regulatory action by three different federal bodies.
In 1985, the federal anti-drug agency DIMED added the ayahuasca plants to the list of prohibited substances, driven by a report that treated the brew like any other psychoactive drug. UDV and Santo Daime members lobbied against it immediately.
CONFEN, the successor drug council, launched a formal working group to study the churches. After visiting communities and reviewing the evidence, the group issued its final report in September 1987. It recommended removing Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis from the prohibited list, and CONFEN adopted the recommendation.
In 1991, the main ayahuasca-using churches drafted a voluntary "Charter of Principles" — a shared code of ethics intended to show regulators that the communities were self-governing. That charter became the foundation for later formal rules.
A new multi-year federal review began in 2000 as ayahuasca use spread internationally and questions arose about whether the 1987 rules were enough. Church leaders met with senior government officials including General Alberto Cardoso at the Institutional Security Office (GSI). The 2006 GSI report recommended formalizing the authorization through a binding resolution.
CONAD finalized that binding resolution in 2010. Resolution 1/2010 superseded the earlier infra-legal authorizations and gave the churches a clear, standing legal basis that did not depend on the good will of any individual minister or agency.
União do Vegetal and Santo Daime are the two largest ayahuasca-using religious organizations in Brazil, and both are named within the framework that shaped the 2010 resolution.
Mestre Gabriel (José Gabriel da Costa) founded the UDV on July 22, 1961, deep in the Amazon forest near Porto Velho, in the state of Rondônia. He had first drunk ayahuasca — called hoasca within the UDV — in 1959 from a fellow rubber tapper.
The UDV now has more than 24,000 members across 226 ceremonial centers (nucleos) in every Brazilian state, plus branches in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, and Peru.
The UDV also won a landmark US Supreme Court case — Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (2006) — that established a religious exemption for UDV's use of hoasca under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That case is discussed further in the Brazil vs. US section below. See our DMT guide for how the UDV exemption works in US practice.
Raimundo Irineu Serra (Mestre Irineu) founded Santo Daime in the 1930s in Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon. He had first experienced ayahuasca — called Daime within the tradition — in the border region between Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru during the rubber-boom era.
Santo Daime blends folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, African animism, and Amazonian plant knowledge. Mestre Irineu established his formal center in Rio Branco, the capital of Acre, around 1930.
Santo Daime was formally recognized by Brazil as a religion in 1986, one year before CONFEN's landmark ruling. The church has since expanded to every continent.
Barquinha lineages — a third family of Amazonian syncretic churches — also fall under the authorization. So do indigenous communities whose traditional use of ayahuasca predates any formal regulation entirely.
The operationally important point: to claim protection under the resolution, an entity must formally register with authorities. The resolution prohibits unregistered groups from producing or distributing ayahuasca for profit, even in a ceremonial frame.
CONAD Resolution 1/2010 drew a sharp line around what is permitted by explicitly listing what is not allowed.
Brazil has a large and growing ayahuasca retreat industry, but much of it operates in a legal grey zone that the 2010 resolution did not resolve.
Commercial therapeutic retreats — centers that charge per session, market to international visitors, and operate outside a formal religious structure — are technically prohibited under the resolution. The ban on profit-oriented use and standalone therapeutic sessions applies to them directly.
In practice, enforcement is inconsistent. Many centers operate openly, maintain social media presence, and market internationally with little regulatory scrutiny. This creates a real risk for visitors: a retreat operating without religious-entity registration has no legal cover under the 2010 resolution if authorities choose to act.
The safest path is to attend a ceremony through a formally registered UDV núcleo, a Santo Daime community, or a recognized Barquinha church. These entities are named in the regulatory framework and have operated openly for decades. Many hold regular public sessions and accept new participants.
For vetted retreat options — including legally protected programs in Brazil and legal alternatives in other countries — use our retreat finder. If you are weighing countries, see our ayahuasca guide for a full breakdown of where access is legal, protected, or unregulated.
Brazil and the United States both allow some religious use of ayahuasca, but the two approaches are structurally different in almost every way.
| Feature | Brazil (CONAD 2010) | United States (RFRA exemptions) |
|---|---|---|
| Source of authorization | National regulation by federal drug council | Case-by-case federal court orders under RFRA |
| Who is covered | Any formally registered religious entity or indigenous group | Only the specific named church in each court order |
| Churches explicitly named | UDV, Santo Daime, Barquinha lineages, indigenous communities | UDV (2006), Santo Daime (2009), and two later churches |
| Export permitted | No | No (court orders are US-domestic only) |
| Profit prohibition | Yes — entities cannot charge per session | Not explicitly addressed in court orders |
| Therapeutic use | Prohibited outside ceremonial frame | Not addressed; no therapeutic pathway exists |
| DMT classification | Prohibited under Law 11.343/2006; ayahuasca is a carve-out | Schedule I; court orders are narrow exemptions only |
When Brazil offers more: if you represent or want to join a religious organization, Brazil's authorization is broader and does not require winning a separate court case. Registered entities operate with regulatory certainty that US churches had to litigate for.
When the US offers clearer precedent: the Gonzales v. UDV (2006) Supreme Court ruling is binding nationwide for the named church. In Brazil, the resolution is infra-legal — it sits below statute — meaning a future legislature could, in theory, override it more easily than a constitutional court ruling.
For more on the US side, see our guides on where DMT is legal and what psychedelics are legal in the US.
DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a prohibited substance in Brazil under Drug Control Law No. 11.343/2006. The ayahuasca authorization is a narrow carve-out from that prohibition, not a reclassification.
Ayahuasca contains two main psychoactive components. DMT provides the visionary effect but is orally inactive on its own. Harmine (and to a lesser extent harmaline and tetrahydroharmine) in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine are beta-carboline MAOIs that inhibit the gut enzymes that would otherwise break down the DMT before it reaches the brain. Together, they produce an experience lasting four to six hours.
A detail competitors rarely surface: the harmine alkaloids in the vine are not scheduled under Brazilian law at all. Only DMT is prohibited — and only DMT in forms other than the ceremonial brew covered by the resolution. This means the vine itself (Banisteriopsis caapi) can be cultivated and held legally in Brazil without any special authorization, while synthetic DMT extracted from plant matter would be illegal regardless of religious intent.
Yes. Ayahuasca is explicitly authorized in Brazil under CONAD Resolution 1/2010 for religious and ceremonial use. The resolution prohibits banning ayahuasca outright and makes Brazil the only country with a national-level explicit authorization for a DMT-containing brew. Commercial sale, export, and recreational use are prohibited; the authorization covers approved religious entities and indigenous communities.
CONAD Resolution 1/2010 authorized ayahuasca for religious and ceremonial contexts, prohibited its prohibition, and established rules covering production, distribution, and use by formally registered spiritual entities. It also banned export, commercialization for profit, and therapeutic use outside a ceremonial frame. The resolution confirmed the Constitutional basis for the authorization: religious freedom and protection of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions.
The authorization covers the two main ayahuasca-using churches — União do Vegetal (UDV), founded in 1961, and Santo Daime, founded in 1930 — along with Barquinha lineages and indigenous communities whose traditional use predates any regulation. Spiritual entities must formally register with authorities to operate under the resolution's framework.
Attending a ceremony through a registered religious entity or indigenous community is covered by the 2010 authorization. However, commercial therapeutic retreats that charge per session and operate outside a religious framework are technically prohibited under the resolution. In practice, enforcement is inconsistent and many retreats operate openly, but they operate in a grey zone rather than under legal protection.
No. CONAD Resolution 1/2010 explicitly prohibits the export of ayahuasca. The authorization is limited to domestic ceremonial and religious use. Removing ayahuasca from Brazil — whether as a liquid brew or as the raw Banisteriopsis caapi vine material — falls outside the resolution's protection.
Brazil issued a proactive national-level authorization covering all registered religious entities. The United States has no equivalent authorization. In the US, a handful of churches — including UDV and Santo Daime — won individual religious exemptions through federal courts under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Each exemption is entity-specific. Brazil's approach is broader and top-down; the US approach is narrower and case-by-case.
No. DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is listed as a prohibited substance under Brazil's Drug Control Law No. 11.343/2006. The ayahuasca authorization is a carve-out from that prohibition — it applies specifically to ayahuasca used in recognized religious and ceremonial contexts, not to DMT in other forms.
Our retreat finder covers legally protected programs in Brazil and legal options in Peru, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and Jamaica — with filters for setting, facilitator type, and budget.
→ Find a legal ayahuasca retreat · Track global policy changes
Get Brazil CONAD Ayahuasca Authorization (2010) updates
New votes, rules, court rulings, and access changes for Brazil CONAD Ayahuasca Authorization (2010) — delivered when they happen.
← Back to all psychedelic laws
Suggest a tool, topic, or improvement that would make this site more useful.