The fatal thirst for Peru’s Ayahuasca drug

It’s an ancient medicine that’s been a way of life for Amazon communities for thousands of years. But Ayahuasca has also become increasingly popular with tourists, eager to seek out its hallucinogenic and healing properties.

It contains DMT, a powerful psychedelic – legal in much of South America, but a class A drug in Britain. As our Latin America Correspondent Guillermo Galdos found out when he travelled to the Peruvian Amazon, the new-found western desire for the Ayahuasca experience isn’t always welcome.