Global Ganja Report

Brazil's Santo Daime church, which uses ayahuasca as a sacrament, is under fire following the March 12 slaying of Glauco Villa Boas, a prominent cartoonist for the influential Folha de São Paulo newspaper. Villa Boas was killed along with his son, Raoni, outside his outside São Paulo home. Glauco, as he's known in Brazil, was a leader at a Santo Daime church, and his alleged killer had frequented the church, police say. Media speculation links the suspect's motives and state of mind to the church and its psychoactive sacrament.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued a short statement lamenting the cartoonist's death. Lula's statement did not mention Santo Daime.

Santo Daime began in the 20th Century with Afro-Brazilian spiritual leader Raimundo Irineu Serra, who said he communed with the Virgin Mary of the Rainforests under the influence of ayahuasca. Since January of this year, sacramental use of ayahuasca has been legally sanctioned by Brazil's drug control body CONAD, which developed its policy in consultation with Santo Daime-linked groups such as the Cefluris Institute. (South Meridian, March 24)