Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal (UDV) are Brazilian religions that drink ayahuasca as a sacrament. Santo Daime’s founder, Raimundo Irineu Serra, was an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper; an Oregon federal court recorded the church’s account of his visions of a Queen of the Forest, and described the faith as blending Catholicism with Indigenous Amazonian and African beliefs (Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey, 2009). “Daime” is Portuguese for “give me”, as in prayers asking for light or strength.
The UDV says its founder, José Gabriel da Costa, created the religion on 22 July 1961 after working in Amazon rubber forests (UDV biography). Its tea is called hoasca. In 2006 the US Supreme Court ruled that the government had not shown, at the preliminary-injunction stage, a compelling interest in barring the UDV’s sacramental use (Gonzales v. O Centro, 2006). That is US law and does not apply in Canada.
In Canada, DMT is a Schedule III substance, so religious use needs a section 56 exemption from the Minister of Health. In 2019 CTV News reported that Health Canada had granted five such exemptions, the first two in Montreal in 2017, and one later to Céu de Toronto (CTV News, 2019). No official public list confirms which are in force. These exemptions cover named groups only. This is not legal advice.
Sources
- Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey, 615 F. Supp. 2d 1210 (D. Or. 2009)
- Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006), syllabus
- CTV News, 8 May 2019: Health Canada allows more religious groups to import ayahuasca
- UDV: biography of Mestre Gabriel
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