Canadian kills British tourist during drug ritual

Authorities accuse a Canadian man of killing a Briton in the Peruvian Amazon in a brawl after they drank the hallucinogenic beverage ayahuasca at a spiritual retreat on Wednesday night.

Witnesses said Unais Gomes, 26, was killed by Joshua Andrew Freeman Stevens, 29, with a kitchen knife, regional police chief Normando Marques told Reuters.

Stevens allegedly took the knife from Gomes and stabbed him with it.

Reports suggested he may have acted in self-defence, police said.

Stevens was taken into police custody.

The incident occurred at Phoenix Ayahuasca near Iquitos city.

On Facebook, Phoenix Ayahuasca is described as a safe place to “experience plant medicines and explore the true nature of the self”. The health centre, however, did not respond to any request for comments.

Witnesses said the Mr Gomes, who is thought to be from London, had attacked the Canadian with a knife after suffering a bad trip during the ceremony. Amazonian indigenous groups have used ayahuasca – also known as yage – for millennia as an important spiritual and medicinal tool.

Many tourists seek the drug out because of its reputation as a way to help ease depression and other mental troubles.

Ayahuasca is a combination of an Amazonian vine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) – containing plants that give users psychedelic experiences when combined.

Dozens of jungle retreats offer the brew to tourists.

Both men had been on a spiritual retreat in the Amazon at the time of Gomes’s death.

In January, 32-year-old Canadian Jennifer Joy Logan died in a Peruvian jungle after drinking a nicotine-based tea used for spiritual ceremonies in the region. Gomes was participating in a formal occasion involving Ayahuasca – a particularly potent hallucinogenic plant brew – when the pair had an argument.