NFL Clears Aaron Rodgers on Use of Hallucinogenic Drink Ayahuasca

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The NFL cleared Green Bay Packers superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers over his use of the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca, saying it didn’t violate the league’s drug policy.

According to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy, “any trace of the substance in his system would not trigger a positive result under the substance abuse or performance-enhancing drug policies.”

Ayahuasca is not one of the NFL’s prohibited substances.

Last week, Rodgers, a 10-time Pro Bowler, told podcaster Aubrey Marcus he took an ayahuasca trip to Peru in 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic began, that he said was “a magical experience with the sensation of feeling a hundred different hands on my body, imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life, from what seemed to be my ancestors.” He said ayahuasca made him a better player.

“I came back and the pandemic hit,” he added. “So I went from this incredible bliss in Peru to a pandemic back in the states.”

Like any psychedelic drug, Ayahuasca is illegal in the United States and it is in the same category as heroin, ecstasy, marijuana and LSD. It “has been used for centuries by First Nations peoples from contemporary Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador for religious ritual and therapeutic purposes,” according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.

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