The recent charges faced by two healers from Ecuador for “criminal negligence causing death and administering, trafficking in and importing into Canada a controlled substance,” (Carr: 3 November 2002, Canadian Press) have widespread implication for traditional healers. The two medicine men are currently facing lengthy court cases as a result of the death of an individual during a ceremony in the community of Wikwemikong. The case of the men from Ecuador rests in the notion of “trafficking controlled substances.” The controlled substance in question, ayahuasca, is well documented in anthropological and ethnobotanical literature. Issues related to the Ecuadorian healers and.
