In June 2026, lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice informed a federal court that the DEA and the Iowaska Church of Healing had settled their differences and signed a “memorandum of agreement” on the church’s request for a religious exemption to the Controlled Substances Act.
The DEA and the church filed a joint motion to provide the court with a copy of the agreement only under seal, making its contents inaccessible to the public.
“The parties agree that maintaining the memorandum of agreement under seal is necessary to protect important public and privacy interests,” lawyers for the DEA and the church told the court.
They said the agreement contained confidential information such as “personal identifying information” of church members and the names of individuals responsible for handling the controlled substances.
It also covered security measures for storing the controlled substances and the manner in which they were to be imported to the United States for the church’s use.
The Iowaska Church of Healing was formed in Iowa in September 2018 and is run by Admir Dado Kantarevic and Shaman BaBa DaDo, whom the church describes as “an internationally renowned healer and clairvoyant.”
The church’s teachings are built around ayahuasca, a tea brewed from leaves of shrubs and vines found in the Amazon.
The church acknowledged that an ingredient called dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
In January 2019, Iowaska applied to the IRS for tax-exempt status and was denied because the IRS viewed the church’s ayahuasca use as illegal.
In 2021, the church sued the IRS, arguing the agency was violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, but a federal judge ruled in favor of the IRS in March 2023 and dismissed the lawsuit.
The agreement resolved only the first stage of the DEA’s two-step process for obtaining a religious exemption.
Step two required the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to award the church an Iowa Certificate of Registration, after which the DEA would “expeditiously” process the necessary exemption, registrations and permits.
On October 5, 2026, the Board of Pharmacy agreed to provide the church the certificate of registration.
In its order, the board stated the confidential agreement “effectively grants” the church a federal certificate to import “concentrated paste of ayahuasca.”
It also grants a federal certificate to manufacture, in bulk, the ayahuasca tea used in the church’s ceremonies.
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