Vancouver doctor forced to stop controversial treatments using Amazonian plant

For many years, Megan Hames battled addictions to substances ranging from cocaine and benzoates to alcohol. Now sober, the 36-year-old Vancouver woman credits her recovery to a different kind of substance: an Amazonian plant derivative called ayahuasca.

"Ayahuasca saved my life," she told the Globe and Mail. "It enabled me to look at all those dark things I buried long ago … to unleash them and the pain, so that I could move forward."

Long used for traditional and religious purposes amongst indigenous populations in South America, ayahuasca is a mix of various psychoactive decoctions prepared by blending the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine with the leaves from the Psychotria genus—a plant containing a naturally occurring psychedelic compound called DMT. The mixture, which can cause hallucinations, has long been thought to contain medicinal properties and has been advertised as a possible cure for everything from depression to addiction.

Hames first came across ayahuasca when she joined a trial group run by established Vancouver family practitioner and addiction specialist, Dr. Gabor Maté. Over the past two years, Maté has successfully administered infusions to 150 — 200 patients, mostly drug addicts. A number of those have reported significant breakthroughs.

As Maté told the paper, "ayahuasca is not a drug in the Western sense, something you take to get rid of something. Properly used, it opens up parts of yourself that you usually have no access to. The parts of the brain that hold emotional memories come together with those parts that modulate insight and awareness, so you see past experiences in a new way."

He added that escape from pain is a natural human response which fuels additions. The medicine makes it possible for users to confront and hold pain without running from it.

A 2006 study by Health Canada found that ayahuasca posed no serious health hazards. It even noted its spiritual and health benefits. Yet, that hasn't stopped the agency from threatening to prosecute Maté if he continues to administer the medicine. Ayahuasca is still considered illegal in Canada.

Johanne Beaulieu, director of Ottawa's Office of Controlled Substances, sent Maté a two-page letter saying she would notify the RCMP if he didn't immediately cease all activity connected to the substance.

"For a controlled substance to be used in Canada, there's a process that needed to be undergone," Beaulieu said in an interview, adding that the agency was simply looking out for the safety of Canadians and that she urged Maté to get in touch with her.

Meanwhile, the doctor said he will "reluctantly comply" with the order, even though he wishes Beaulieu had gotten in touch with him first to discuss the matter. Maté hopes to gain permission to use the substance therapeutically again.

Hames, on the other hand, is a little less diplomatic. "I think Health Canada's threat to be ridiculous and unfortunate," she said.