Ayahuasca: Grieving parents issue warning to backpackers after son's death on jungle drug retreat.

By Hamish Macdonald

The family of a young traveller who died suddenly in the Amazon jungle has issued a warning to other tourists about the dangers of a traditional hallucinogen known as ayahuasca.

Matthew Dawson-Clarke went to Peru to sample ayahuasca — an increasingly popular item on the bucket lists of many young adventure travellers.

He never came home.

And now, neither the man who organised his trip, nor the man who ran the ayahuasca retreat will accept any responsibility for his death.

It was Father’s Day 2015 when the Dawson-Clarkes heard the shocking news their 24-year-old son had already been dead for three days.

It came from a tourist who had rung to offer condolences.

“My world stopped that day,” his mother Lyndie told Foreign Correspondent.

“This is my world, you know? It doesn’t happen to people like me, and it doesn’t happen to my son.”

For the first time, Mr Dawson-Clarke’s parents have given their full account of his death at Kapitari — a popular ayahuasca retreat outside the city of Iquitos, Peru.

Mr Dawson-Clarke, from Auckland, died after drinking a powerful brew of tobacco tea in preparation for an ayahuasca ceremony.

Foreign Correspondent travelled to Peru to investigate Mr Dawson-Clarke’s death and learned no-one from the jungle retreat tried to get medical help when he took ill; it was left to other tourists to try to get him to hospital — nor did retreat staff or management inform his parents.

Ever since, his family has been waging a battle to hold Kapitari management to account.

While his mother says she does not want to bar young people from trying ayahuasca, she asks them to think seriously before they decide whether to go ahead.

“I’m not here to tell people what to do with their lives,” she said.

“I’m just here to say ‘be aware’. Be aware that it may not be right for everybody, and if you are a really healthy individual, what are you putting into your system? The possibility of you dying can happen.

“It’s now been 16 months of darkness and of torment … because my belief was that he was in such agony when he died, and I wasn’t there to save him.”

A coronial inquest in New Zealand into Mr Dawson-Clarke’s death has handed down an interim finding, which is inconclusive.

Australian travellers chasing ayahuasca high.

Tens of thousands of travellers — many of them young Australians — are flocking to the Amazon to chase the ayahuasca high, with promises of spiritual, physical and psychological healing and growth.

The plant grows only in the Amazon, and, when brewed with other natural jungle products, it becomes one of the most powerful hallucinogens in the world.

It is traditionally used by indigenous shamans, or natural healers, but is now going mainstream as a tourist magnet.

Some retreats are believed to be raking in earning as much as $30,000 a week.

Tragically though, some tourists never return home.

Since Mr Dawson-Clarke died in September 2015, there have been another five known ayahuasca-related deaths in Peru.

And while an Ayahuasca Safety Association is in its infancy, there is little sign of any real progress.

While some ayahuasca retreats are making as much as $US30,000 ($40,000) a week, there are hardly any convictions when things go wrong.

Many retreats still lack adequate first aid equipment or trained staff.

About 17 ayahuasca retreats are licensed with local authorities to host foreigners, but at least 50 around Iquitos are currently operating illegally. They include Kapitari — where Mr Dawson-Clarke died.

When deaths do occur at retreats, those in charge are rarely made accountable.

Shaman says death was ‘his destiny’.

The Peruvian police investigation into Mr Dawson-Clarke’s death was short-lived.

But, apparently as a result of his family’s persistence, it was reopened last month.

Now Don Lucho, the shaman who prepared the tobacco tea for Mr Dawson-Clarke at Kapitari, is facing questions from an investigating prosecutor.

The shaman told Foreign Correspondent Mr Dawson-Clarke’s death was “his destiny”.

Foreign Correspondent also tracked down the tour operator who organised and facilitated his trip, British expat Andy Metcalfe. He also denied responsibility.

“I don’t accept blame for what happened,” he said.

“We had well over 1,000 people on retreats before Matt came along and no incidents whatsoever.”

But he acknowledged “maybe we were complacent”.

“There are certain risks that people have to be aware of. When something goes wrong, you can’t just dial an ambulance and have them come out in five minutes like you can in the western world,” he said.

Mr Metcalfe now runs his own ayahuasca retreat, called Gaia Tree Retreat, servicing hundreds of foreign tourists each year.

Asked if safety standards had improved since Mr Dawson-Clarke’s death, he replied: “It’s not very easy to get first aid training in Peru, in Iquitos, so finding people that are able to work on the retreats that have a full amount of first aid, it’s not really possible.”

“I don’t want to say not possible; it’s not easy.”

Mr Metcalfe was not present when Mr Dawson-Clarke died.

He blamed the shaman who failed to take the young man to hospital.

“As far as I’m concerned, the shaman is ultimately responsible, the shaman gives the medicine,” he said.

Tour operator says ‘shit happens’.

Despite the continuing deaths, Mr Metcalfe insisted the risks from ayahuasca were relatively low.

“The big story that everyone’s ignoring is how many people die from pharmaceutical drugs every year,” he said.

“Thousands and thousands die pretty much from taking prescription drugs that doctors prescribe every year and they trust their doctor.

“You know, things happen. Shit happens. It’s always gonna happen.”

That was hardly a sentiment shared by the Dawson-Clarkes, who are still in search of answers.

They spoke of the impact of their son’s death.

“There’s a part of you that’s going to be forever empty,” his father Stu said.

“You go through regular periods where you just actually want to go and be with him.

“And that’s often at the expense of those that are still with us while we’re alive, because it’s very easy just to go, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’.”

Watch Foreign Correspondent’s story It Doesn’t Happen to People Like Me on ABC TV at 9:30pm or on iView.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.