Is Ayahuasca Legal in Spain? Court Rulings and Police Cases Explained (2026)

Ayahuasca is not listed as a controlled substance in Spain. Neither the brew nor the plants it is made from appear in Spain's lists of controlled substances, and in July 2025 the High Court of Justice of Madrid (Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid) stated that ayahuasca, under that name, is not a controlled substance in Spain, although it contains DMT. Because the brew contains DMT, which is controlled, police can still seize it and open a case, but in the published court rulings on ayahuasca that we reviewed, Málaga in 2021, Madrid in 2025 and Almería in 2026, the accused were acquitted, and the 2004 order that some websites still cite as making ayahuasca "controlled" was annulled by the courts in 2005. Spain has no permit system for ceremonies, so how a retreat is run matters more than any licence.

No Spanish law names ayahuasca. Its status comes from three layers that work together: the UN conventions, the Spanish lists of controlled substances, and the courts.

Spain applies the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which lists DMT in Schedule I. The convention controls the substance, not the plants that contain it. In its Annual Report for 2010 (paragraphs 284 and 285), the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) stated that no plants are currently controlled under the 1971 Convention, that preparations made from such plants, such as decoctions for oral use, are not under international control either, and named ayahuasca as an example. The Board added (paragraph 287) that governments may control such plants at the national level if they choose to.

In Spain, DMT is listed in Schedule I of Royal Decree 2829/1977, which regulates psychotropic substances. Ayahuasca, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis are not in that list or in any other Spanish list of controlled substances. This is why Spanish courts have treated ayahuasca as a plant preparation, not as DMT.

Some sources, including the English Wikipedia table of ayahuasca laws, list Spain as "controlled" and cite Order SCO/190/2004 of 28 January 2004. That order, issued by the Ministry of Health, established a list of plants whose sale to the public was prohibited or restricted because of their toxicity, under the Medicines Act of 1990. The list did include the ayahuasca vine, Banisteriopsis caapi (root), under the common name "ayahuasca". It did not include Psychotria viridis. It was a rule about the retail sale of plants, not a drug control list, and it did not refer to ceremonies or personal use.

The order was annulled. In June 2005 the Audiencia Nacional (Spain's National High Court) declared it void, because the draft had not been notified to the European Commission as required by Directive 98/34/EC, in a case brought by a Spanish association of herbal and dietary product manufacturers. The State appealed, and on 9 July 2008 the Supreme Court declared the appeal inadmissible, so the annulment stands. The High Court of Justice of Madrid noted this in its July 2025 ruling: the vine was on the 2004 list, and that list was annulled by the Audiencia Nacional and later confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Not being listed as a controlled substance is not the same as being authorised. Spain has no licence or permit for ayahuasca ceremonies, no rules on who may hold them, and no official safety standard. Any organiser who claims to hold a "licence" for ceremonies in Spain is describing something that does not exist.

On 10 July 2025 the High Court of Justice of Madrid (ruling 316/2025, Civil and Criminal Chamber) dismissed the prosecutor's appeal and upheld the acquittal of a woman by the Provincial Court of Madrid. She had ordered a package from Peru containing 1,693 grams of ayahuasca with 0.2% DMT (2.7 grams of DMT in total). Customs intercepted it on 22 June 2022 in the postal depot of Madrid-Barajas airport. The courts accepted that it was for her own use.

The court wrote that ayahuasca, under that name, is not a controlled substance in Spain, although it contains DMT, which is listed in the 1971 Convention and in Royal Decree 2829/1977. It agreed with the lower court on the difficulty of bringing ayahuasca within article 368 of the Criminal Code (the drug trafficking offence), relying on the INCB reports of 2010 and 2012 and on a 2018 opinion of Spain's Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office that ayahuasca is not a controlled substance. It also held that the National Institute of Toxicology, whose expert had called ayahuasca a controlled substance, has no authority to decide what is controlled: that is a legal question for the courts.

On 10 March 2021 the Provincial Court of Málaga (ruling 86/2021) acquitted a man who had ordered about 5.7 kilograms of ayahuasca from Peru for his own use. The prosecutor had asked for four years in prison. The court found that ayahuasca is not under international or national control and that the facts were not an offence.

On 15 June 2026 the Provincial Court of Almería (ruling 289/2026) acquitted a woman who had received a package from Mexico with plant material containing DMT, mescaline and psilocin. The court cited the INCB reports of 2010 and 2012 and found reasonable doubt that such plant material falls within the offence. This ruling may still be appealed.

Each ruling binds only its own case. Spain's Supreme Court has never ruled on ayahuasca, so there is no national precedent, and a different court could reach a different view. The ruling of the High Court of Justice of Madrid could be appealed to the Supreme Court; whether that happened is not public. Every case is still decided on its own facts, including the quantity and whether the court accepts that the brew was for personal use.

Because ayahuasca contains DMT, police can seize it and open a case. Below are the cases reported by Spanish authorities since 2023, as described in their own press releases. Although such cases are often reported as "ayahuasca retreats", in none of them was ayahuasca the only substance: in all four the authorities listed several others alongside it, such as San Pedro cactus, mescaline, kambo, bufo toad secretion, mushrooms or prescription stimulants. The outcome of these cases has not been published.

An arrest is the start of a case, not a conviction. Whether the facts are an offence is decided by a court, and in the published decisions on ayahuasca that we reviewed in the official CENDOJ database (Málaga 2021, Madrid 2025, Almería 2026), the courts acquitted. What the cases above have in common is only what the press releases describe: seizures, several substances in one place rather than ayahuasca alone, and in three of the four cases postal shipments.

Spain has no permit for ceremonies, so no retreat is "licensed" and nobody is protected by default. What the court rulings and the police cases point to instead is how a retreat is organised.

Before you book, check that:

• Ceremonies are held by a registered association for its own members, not sold to the public. You apply, your application is reviewed, you are accepted as a member, and only then do you take part. A place that anyone can buy on the spot is organised differently from a members' gathering.
• Only ayahuasca is served, and nothing else is sold or offered on site: no San Pedro, kambo, bufo, mushrooms or "add-ons". In all four police cases above, several substances were found together.
• Nobody promises to treat or cure an illness. Ayahuasca is not a medicine under Spanish law, and a retreat that advertises cures is making a medical claim it has no basis to make. Treat it as a warning sign.
• You complete a health and screening questionnaire before you are accepted, the group is small, and the team stays with you through the night and the days after.
• Nobody ships or hands you ayahuasca to take home, and you never bring it into Spain yourself. Import by post is how the three court cases above began.

Spain is one of the few European countries where the brew is not listed as a controlled substance. In the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden it is treated as illegal. In Peru, the traditional knowledge and use of ayahuasca by Amazonian communities was declared part of the National Cultural Heritage in 2008 (National Directorial Resolution 836/INC). For each country, see our guide to ayahuasca legality by country.

Ayahuasca is not listed as a controlled substance in Spain. In July 2025 the High Court of Justice of Madrid stated that ayahuasca, under that name, is not a controlled substance in Spain, although it contains DMT, which is controlled. There is no law that authorises ceremonies and no permit for them.

The reported cases concern people who imported, transported or supplied ayahuasca, not participants: in the police operations described in the press releases, the people arrested were organisers or importers, and the guests present at the ceremonies were not. Because the brew contains DMT, police can seize it and open a case, and a court then decides whether the facts are an offence. In the published court decisions we reviewed (Málaga 2021, Madrid 2025, Almería 2026), all of which began with a package imported from abroad, the accused were acquitted.

No. Spain has no licence or permit for ayahuasca ceremonies, and anyone who claims to hold one is describing something that does not exist. What does exist is the association model: a registered association, with its activity declared in its statutes, holds ceremonies for its own members, who apply, are reviewed and are accepted before they take part. This matters because Spanish criminal law targets supply to others, and the published acquittals turned on the brew not being for sale. A members-only gathering of a registered association is how responsible organisers in Spain work.

Do not. Importing ayahuasca by post or in luggage has led to seizures, arrests and criminal cases in Spain, even where the courts later acquitted the person. The 2021, 2025 and 2026 acquittals all began with a package sent from abroad and intercepted by customs.

No. DMT is listed in Schedule I of the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and is controlled in Spain under Royal Decree 2829/1977. The courts have treated ayahuasca as a plant preparation, which is a different question.

Because of Order SCO/190/2004, which restricted the sale of certain plants to the public and included the ayahuasca vine, Banisteriopsis caapi. The Audiencia Nacional annulled that order in 2005, and the Supreme Court dismissed the State's appeal in 2008. The annulment is noted in the Madrid ruling of July 2025.