INQUEST INTO AYAHUASCA AND KAMBO DEATH

Guest post by Ken McLeod

This week a Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich resumes [1] in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Meanwhile, pending the outcome of Inquests and other investigations, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission has imposed interim prohibition order on Mr Soulore Solaris, ‘….a Counsellor who facilitates Ayahuasca ceremonies.’

Under section 41AA of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993 (Act), Mr Solaris: “….must not under any circumstances provide, or cause to be provided, any health services, either in paid employment or voluntary, to any member of the public.” [2] This applies until 11 March 2024, when the matter will be reconsidered.

So what is all this about? To go back a while, Mr Antonovich died from a perforated oesophagus after consuming ayahuasca and kambo frog toxin in October 2021, at the age of 46, while attending the ‘Dreaming Arts festival’, a six-day retreat at Arcoora near Kyogle in northern New South Wales. At the festival he had consumed ayahuasca and participated in a “Kambo” ceremony, involving secretions harvested from an Amazonian tree frog.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic substance made from boiling plants that is used in ritualistic ceremonies in the Amazon basin. [3] Ayahuasca contains chemicals of concern, such as N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a highly psychedelic substance and a Schedule I drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Ayahuasca is illegal in many countries, and it is illegal to sell, import, produce and possess it in Australia. [4]

Kambo is made from secretions harvested from an Amazonian tree frog. Kambo is usually used in a group setting, called a Kambo circle or Kambo ceremony. Wikipedia lists a whole smorgasbord of dangerous consequences, including tachycardia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, psychosis, SIADH, kidney damage (including acute renal failure), pancreas damage, liver damage including toxic hepatitis, dermatomyositis, esophageal rupture, seizures, and death. [5]

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has listed it as a schedule 10 poison, in the category for “substances of such danger to health as to warrant prohibition of sale, supply and use”. [6]

Earlier in the Inquest we heard that:

• – While Jarrad Antonovich‘s condition worsened there was resistance to calling for an ambulance. An ambulance was finally called at 11.30pm and took an hour to arrive because of the remote location.
• -One ambulance officer reported that a female told them to “move away from Jarrad because it was affecting his aura” and no one told them he had consumed Kambo. [7]
• -The event organiser Soulore “Lore” Solaris described Jarrad Antonovich’s death as ‘beautiful.’ [8]
• -Fred Woller, the site manager at Arcoora, was unaware those running the event did not have any medical training. [9]
• -Soulore “Lore” Solaris said Mr Antonovich ”…. had good support, a couple of kinesiologists with him and they couldn’t find anything wrong,” [10]
• -Mr Antonovich “was surrounded by people who loved him and an Aboriginal elder called Uncle Andrew who was chanting sacred songs and calling the spirit out of his body” and “the koalas were making a special sound that is known to the elders when the land accepts a spirit”.
• -“Mr Solaris has stated that he has plans to leave Australia for Brazil to visit his teachers.” [11]

We will keep you informed.

REFERENCES

• 1 Court Lists http://tinyurl.com/3fzjd6uy
• 2 Health Care Complaints Commission http://tinyurl.com/yh76rzc6
• 3 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/328manjt
• 4 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_ayahuasca_by_country
• 5 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_(drug)
• 6 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/2s398psy
• 7 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/328manjt
• 8 ABC http://tinyurl.com/5n7ejydy
• 9 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/59wa3rmn
• 10 ABC http://tinyurl.com/5n7ejydy
• 11 Byron Bay Echo http://tinyurl.com/44n78s2w