Global Ganja Report

On Oct. 19, while en route to leading traditional ayahuasca ceremonies in Oregon, indigenous Colombian healer Juan Agreda Chindoy was arrested at Houston International Airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for possession of his traditional medicine. He is being charged as a federal criminal and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Taita Juan, a shaman from the Katmsa Biya culture in the Valle de Sibundoy, Alto Putumayo, is certified by his community and by the Colombian ministry of health as a traditional healer.  He is  one of the few remaining indigenous spiritual leaders in the world that holds the ancestral medicinal knowledge of an ecosystem that is rapidly disappearing. Taita Juan is a father, a husband and a godfather to more than 20 children.  With more than 3000 supporters from several countries in the world, his life and work have touched many. Donations to his legal defense fund can be made through his website, FreeTaitaJuan.org.

Photo courtesy of FreeTaitaJuan.org