Ayahuasca For Weed Addiction: What 2 Studies Found
Ayahuasca for weed addiction rests on thin evidence. In the 2 studies that tracked drug use after ayahuasca, cannabis didn’t drop. A 12-person retreat study in Canada saw alcohol, tobacco and cocaine use fall over 6 months, while cannabis use didn’t. A Brazilian study found that members of 1 ayahuasca church had quit every illicit drug they once used, except cannabis. I couldn’t find a single study of ayahuasca in people who came to quit weed. It may still help you. No one can promise it will.
I co-founded Cusco Ayahuasca Retreats in 2017, so read this knowing which side I sell. About 13% of our guests come for addiction recovery. This page still tells you who should pick therapy over us.
Does Ayahuasca Help With Weed Addiction?
Maybe, but the research hasn’t shown it, and the studies that counted drug use point the other way.
Ayahuasca for weed addiction means drinking ayahuasca, a brew of the caapi vine and chacruna leaf, in ceremony to quit or cut back on cannabis. The vine’s MAO inhibitors let the leaf’s DMT survive digestion. In the 2 studies that tracked drug use afterward, cannabis use didn’t drop. No medication is FDA-approved for weed addiction either.
Weed addiction is common enough to take seriously. About 3 in 10 people who use cannabis have cannabis use disorder, the CDC says, and the risk rises for people who start young or use often.
Some retreat sites list naltrexone or methadone as weed treatments. Those are drugs for alcohol and opioid addiction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says no medication is FDA-approved for cannabis use disorder, or for withdrawal from it.
After 9 years and about 2,000 guests, the belief I push back on most is that the brew does the work. The guests who expect a shortcut struggle most when they get home.
My own drinking had stopped by the end of my third dieta in 2014, in a cabin behind Don Julio’s house, and I never decided to stop. I still won’t promise you the same with weed. A single story isn’t data, and the data on weed doesn’t back me up.
What 2 Studies Found for Cannabis
In both studies that tracked drug use after ayahuasca, cannabis was the exception. Neither was built to test ayahuasca for weed, and neither explains why.
In a 12-person study published in Current Drug Abuse Reviews in 2013, a First Nations community in British Columbia held retreats. Each had 4 days of group counseling and 2 ayahuasca ceremonies. 6 months later, participants reported using less alcohol, tobacco and cocaine. Their cannabis and opiate use didn’t fall. Only the cocaine drop was statistically significant.
A Brazilian study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2010 compared 56 jungle-based church members who drink ayahuasca with 56 rural controls. It also compared 71 city members with 59 city controls. The jungle group had stopped every illicit drug they’d used before, except cannabis. A year later, cannabis was still the exception.
| Study | Who | Design | Cannabis | Other drugs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas and colleagues, 2013 | 12 people in a First Nations community, Canada | 2 ceremonies plus 4 days of counseling, checked again at 6 months, no control group | Use didn’t fall | Alcohol, tobacco and cocaine use fell; only cocaine’s drop was statistically significant |
| Fábregas and colleagues, 2010 | 127 ayahuasca church members and 115 controls, Brazil | Compared with non-drinkers, checked again after 1 year | The 1 illicit drug the jungle group still used, both times | Past illicit drug use had stopped |
| Argento and colleagues, 2019 | 11 people from the Canadian retreats | Interviews | Not counted | Not counted |
| Loizaga-Velder and Verres, 2014 | 14 people treated in South America, 13 therapists, 2 researchers | Interviews | Not counted | Not counted |
This is where we part ways with retreat marketing. Pages that sell ayahuasca for weed quote guests who quit, and those stories can be true. The studies that counted didn’t find the pattern. We gave the alcohol version of this question the same kind of answer: the evidence is more mixed than the industry suggests.
Neither paper says why cannabis held on, and I won’t guess for them. The Canadian study had 12 people. The Brazilian one measured church members, not people trying to quit.
How Long Before Ayahuasca Should You Stop Smoking Weed?
At least 2 weeks before you fly. With our 2 acclimatization days, your first ceremony comes at least 17 days after your last joint.
That gap matters because withdrawal is common, and it starts fast. A 2020 review in JAMA Network Open pooled 47 studies covering 23,518 people. It found cannabis withdrawal in 47% of regular or dependent users, and in 54% of people in outpatient treatment. Daily use made it more likely.
Under the DSM-5 criteria the review uses, withdrawal means at least 3 symptoms that start within 7 days of cutting down. The list includes irritability, anxiety, trouble sleeping, appetite changes, restlessness and low mood. So if withdrawal comes, it starts at home, with your own bed and your own people around you.
Other retreat pages we checked ask for anything from 2 weeks to 6 months off cannabis. None of them mentions withdrawal. Ours is 2 weeks, and the timeline below shows where those days fall.
| When | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 2 weeks before you fly, or earlier | Your last cannabis | Withdrawal, if it comes, starts within 7 days |
| Days 1 and 2 | Acclimatization at 2,900 m, no ceremony | Altitude can bring headaches, nausea and poor sleep |
| Day 3 | Opening despacho ceremony and final preparation | No brew yet |
| Night 4 | First ayahuasca ceremony | At least 17 days since your last joint |
| Nights 6, 9 and 11 | Ceremonies 2, 3 and 4 | 2 rest days between the second and third |
| Weeks 1 and 3 at home | Calls with your integration lead | Where the plan you made in Peru meets your routine |
Altitude adds its own sleep problems. In our first year, 3 guests got altitude sickness during a retreat, with headaches, nausea and insomnia. That’s why days 1 and 2 have no ceremony, and why Dr. Carlos Medina, our medical director, checks oxygen levels during those 2 days. If you’re still sleeping badly from stopping weed when you land, tell him, because altitude can cause the same thing.
On arrival day, Patricia Rojas Mendoza asks every guest, face to face, whether they kept the preparation rules. Cannabis is one of them. Before she joined us, she spent 6 years as an addiction counselor in San Francisco.
Caffeine, alcohol and the rest of your prep have their own schedule in our physical preparation guide.
Is Ayahuasca Safe If You Smoke Weed Every Day?
Daily smoking alone won’t get you turned down at our center. A history of psychosis will.
The CDC says people who use cannabis are more likely to develop psychosis and lasting disorders such as schizophrenia. The link is stronger in people who started young and use often. Ayahuasca can trigger psychosis too, though rarely. We’ve written about how rare psychosis is in ceremony and who it tends to hit.
So our screening looks at your history, not your habit. These are automatic no’s for us:
- A personal history of psychosis, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
- Bipolar I
- A parent, sibling or child with a psychiatric illness, if you’ve never taken a psychedelic
- Lithium, or an SSRI or SNRI without a completed taper of 6 weeks (8 for fluoxetine)
Family history became a required question after November 2022. A guest in his 40s had an acute psychotic episode about 90 minutes into a ceremony. Dr. Medina stabilized him in about 20 minutes. We learned afterward that his father had schizophrenia, which wasn’t on his form. In 9 years and about 2,000 guests, it’s the only acute psychotic episode we’ve had in ceremony.
Every application goes to Dr. Medina within 72 hours, then to a 30 to 45 minute video call with Patricia. We turn down 13% of applicants outright, and another 4% to 6% get a conditional yes but never meet the conditions. If you also take an antidepressant, it has to be tapered with your prescriber first, and our medication windows list how long each drug needs.
Side effects are common. In the Global Ayahuasca Survey, 69.9% of 8,216 drinkers reported a physical side effect, and 2.3% needed medical attention.
Ayahuasca vs Therapy for Weed Addiction
Therapy has the better evidence. NIDA says 3 behavioral treatments can be effective for cannabis use disorder: cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy and contingency management. Ayahuasca has 2 studies that counted drug use, and cannabis didn’t fall in either.
Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches you to spot and change the habits around using. Motivational enhancement therapy is short counseling that builds your own reasons to change. Contingency management gives you rewards, such as vouchers, for clean drug tests.
| Option | What the evidence says for weed | What it asks of you | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavioral therapy (CBT, motivational enhancement, contingency management) | NIDA says it can be effective for cannabis use disorder | Sessions with a therapist, usually near home | Set by your provider or insurer |
| Medication | None is FDA-approved for cannabis use disorder or withdrawal | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Our 12-day retreat | Cannabis didn’t fall in the 2 studies that counted drug use | At least 2 weeks without cannabis, then 12 days at 2,900 m in Peru | $3,200 private room, $2,600 shared, plus flights |
Knowing why you smoke isn’t the same as not smoking. A ceremony can show you the why. Changing what you do at 9 PM on a Tuesday takes the same daily work it always did.
A guest’s story makes the point, even though it isn’t about weed. A 31-year-old from Texas applied 7 weeks after his last methamphetamine use. A year later he was still clean, and in that year he’d also finished residential recovery. We don’t take credit for that alone. We drew the same line in our ketamine comparison: when something else fits better, we say so.
The First Month Home
Whether you smoke again gets decided at home. The first month is the test. That’s about how long the ayahuasca afterglow lasts, and after it your old routine is all that’s left.
Every guest gets a 30-minute call in week 1 and a 20-minute call in week 3. Check-ins run out to month 12, and an emergency WhatsApp line is answered within 4 hours. If you want a therapist near home, our integration lead, David Ashworth, keeps a list of 25+ integration-aware therapists in 6 countries. Our alumni group has about 320 former guests and is active every day.
The guests who do well make at least 1 concrete change in their life within 3 months. They keep a daily practice and stay in touch with the alumni group or a therapist. The guests who struggle go back to the exact same setup and wait for the ceremony to have done the work. For a daily smoker, that setup might be the same couch, the same friends and the same evening routine.
As for when you can smoke again, no study I know of tests when it’s safe or wise to start. Any date a retreat gives you is a house rule. If you came to quit, the question is whether you start at all. Say it out loud on your week 1 call.
Who Should Skip Ayahuasca for Weed Addiction in 2026
Start somewhere other than a retreat if any row below describes you.
| If this is you | Start here |
|---|---|
| You’ve had psychosis, or you have bipolar I | Therapy near home. Both are automatic no’s at our center. |
| A parent, sibling or child has a psychiatric illness and you’ve never taken a psychedelic | Therapy near home. That’s an automatic no too. |
| You can’t get through 2 weeks without cannabis | Behavioral therapy first. Our timeline needs those 2 weeks before you fly. |
| You take an SSRI or SNRI your psychiatrist won’t taper | Therapy. Those drugs and the brew’s MAO inhibitors can cause serotonin syndrome. |
| You need help this week | In the US, SAMHSA’s free helpline is 1-800-662-4357. If you’re thinking about suicide, call or text 988. |
| You’ve done the 2 weeks, you’re stable, and you can be away for 12 days | A screened retreat, with a therapist lined up for when you get home. |
The full list of who shouldn’t drink ayahuasca, altitude conditions included, has its own page.
What Our Own Data Can’t Tell You
We can’t tell you how many of our guests stopped smoking weed, because we’ve never measured it. Since 2020, we’ve tracked depression and PTSD scores at intake, on day 12 and at 3 months, and we publish our 3-month depression scores. Cannabis use isn’t on those surveys.
If a retreat quotes you a quit rate for weed, ask how they measured it, who answered and how many didn’t.
If you smoke every day and still want to try ayahuasca for weed addiction, do the 2 weeks at home first. Then apply for screening and tell us how much you smoked and for how long. Dr. Medina reads every application before anything else happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ayahuasca for weed addiction work?
No study has shown that it does. In a 12-person Canadian study, alcohol, tobacco and cocaine use fell over 6 months, but cannabis use didn’t. In a Brazilian church study, cannabis was the 1 illicit drug members still used. People do report quitting after ceremonies, but nobody has counted how often.
How long before ayahuasca should I stop smoking weed?
We ask for at least 2 weeks before you fly. With 2 acclimatization days, your first ceremony comes at least 17 days after your last joint. Withdrawal symptoms, when they come, start within 7 days of stopping, so they begin at home.
Will I go through weed withdrawal before my retreat?
About half of regular users do. A 2020 review of 47 studies and 23,518 people in JAMA Network Open found cannabis withdrawal in 47% of regular or dependent users. Daily users had it more often. Irritability, anxiety, trouble sleeping and appetite changes are among the symptoms.
Is ayahuasca for weed addiction safe if I smoke every day?
Daily smoking alone won’t get you turned down at our center, but a history of psychosis will. The CDC links cannabis to psychosis, more strongly in people who start young and use often. In 9 years and about 2,000 guests, we’ve had 1 acute psychotic episode in ceremony.
Can you smoke weed after ayahuasca?
I know of no study that tests when it’s safe or wise to start again. Any date a retreat gives you is a house rule. If you came to quit, the question is whether you start at all. We call every guest in week 1 and week 3, and that’s the place to say it out loud.
Is there a medication for weed addiction?
No. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says no medication is FDA-approved for cannabis use disorder or for withdrawal from it. It says cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy and contingency management can be effective.
Is ayahuasca legal in Peru?
Yes. Peru declared the traditional use of ayahuasca part of its national cultural heritage in 2008. It’s illegal in most of our guests’ home countries, including the US outside narrow religious exemptions.
This page on ayahuasca for weed addiction is information, not medical advice. Don’t start, stop or change any medication without your prescriber.