1) Anthropologist Dobkin de Rios proposed that as hierarchical societies developed, the use of hallucinogenic plants was strictly controlled and forbidden to local shamans, as the power these plants provided could threaten legitimate political power. 2) However, Furst criticizes this view, noting there is no evidence the elite in Mesoamerican societies usurped hallucinogen use, and that these plants were employed across all levels of society. 3) The evidence suggests that contact with Spanish colonizers, who sought to replace indigenous religions with Christianity, was likely the primary reason for the widespread decrease in hallucinogen use in Central and South America, as the Spanish suppressed and drove underground psych

1. Theories for the Disappearance/Transformation of Hallucinogen Use
The anthropologist, Dobkin de Rios, has suggested that as soon as hierarchical
functionaries interceded between human beings, proposing doctrines concerning the supernatural
and access to it, hallucinogenic plant use was strictly controlled and forbidden to local shamans.
She claimed that in a state-level society, power to bewitch attained through drug use would be a
threat to “legitimate power,” and individuals who used hallucinogenic drugs would be viewed as
dangerous. The use of hallucinogens either fell from popular use or was taken away from folk
segments. She cited the Inca as an example, pointing to their consolidation of a sedentary
agricultural village-level society, and how coca appeared to have been widely used, but that the
Inca forbade the use of the substance to any but themselves as they maintained that the gods gave
coca to the Inca as the source of his power (1974).
Her proposal seems to make sense; however, Furst points out that there is no evidence for
a “usurpation” of any of the hallucinogens used in Mesoamerica by the priestly elite. But there
is evidence suggesting that botanical hallucinogens were employed by practitioners of the sacred
on every level of society (1974). He also criticizes her analogy to the Inca and their use of coca.
Coca and mushrooms aren’t comparable, since coca isn’t a hallucinogen, and many Andean
anthropologists doubt that the Inca exercised as much control over coca use as it has been
claimed. So the answer lies elsewhere.
As we have seen, in traditional, egalitarian societies, revealed knowledge is highly
valued; especially those where hunting and gathering are the main economic activities.
Hierarchies of intermediaries who intercede between man and the supernatural may be viewed as
diluting and lessening the impact of the experience of supernatural forces. By using
hallucinogens, humans can strengthen the bond that exists between themselves and their gods.

2. Yet as societies grow in complexity and enter into hierarchical orderings and segmentation, the
value placed on direct, mythical knowledge of the supernatural undergoes change, and thus the
reasons to use hallucinogenic plants decreases as there is a reduction to seek connection with the
divine (Dobkin de Rios 1984).
Certainly, the evidence of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca are of interest here. Probably the
most prominent reason why the widespread use of hallucinogens largely decreased is when the
Native Americans in Central and South America came into contact with the Spanish. It is well
documented that the Spanish suppressed the use of psychotropic drugs in Mesoamerica because
they identified it with the aboriginal religions they were trying to replace with Christianity. They
only succeeded in driving much of such drug use underground. The use of some other drugs
may have been driven underground before the Spanish conquest, suggested by the attempts of
Moctezuma II to discourage pulque (an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the
maguey) consumption among the Aztecs (Alger 1974). When the Spanish arrived in Mexico,
they persecuted those practitioners who used the sacred plants in religious rituals. They
concluded that the devil was involved with whatever visionary effects the various hallucinogens
imbued the user with. Many priests who were confident in the truth of their religious beliefs
were strongly opposed to the hallucinogenic plants because of the religious importance that were
given to them (Dobkin de Rios 1984). The belief that power (residing in the plants) could be
controlled by the user was totally alien to Western thought. Thus the basic magical assumptions
inherent in drug use, which portrayed man as capable of controlling the unknown and of using
his sacred plants to obtain “power,” were totally contrary to Christian concepts. The Spanish
were so thorough in their destruction of drug cults that many practices went underground for four
centuries (Schultes 1960).