The recall of the gummies this week sparked concern about the spread of natural stimulants such as herbs and fungi in everyday products Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Mushroom gummies have made headlines this week after one brand was recalled Australia-wide as customers were hospitalised with “disturbing hallucinations”. Attention soon turned to the question of whether cannabis was present. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup ..read more

Jarrad Antonovich died after consuming the frog toxin kambo and psychedelic ayahuasca. Now, prosecutors are considering criminal charges Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast When police and paramedics drove up a steep track through the rainforest foothills of the Border Ranges and found a dead man in a temple being prayed over while his feet were being massaged, they struggled to understand it. The long wait for answers to what occurred on the night of 16 October 2021 was extended this week when the New South Wales state coroner suspended an inquest into ..read more

Coroner suspends inquest into death of man who consumed ayahuasca and frog toxin kambo at the Dreaming Arts festival at Arcoora in 2021 Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast An inquest into the death of a man after taking poison and hallucinogens has been suspended after a coroner found there could be enough evidence for charges to be laid. Jarrad Antonovich died of a perforated oesophagus after consuming the plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca and frog-based poison kambo at the Dreaming Arts festival at ..read more

Participant in ‘kambo’ ritual tells Byron Bay courtroom of ‘extreme experience’ with drug made from Amazonian frog secretions Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The Amazonian frog toxin used at a spiritual retreat where a man died was so strong that it caused another participant to faint and soil herself, an inquest has heard. Witness testimony in a Byron Bay courtroom paused on Thursday afternoon, the penultimate day of the inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich, with only the man alleged to h ..read more

Antonovich died during a six-day retreat in NSW’s northern rivers after he took a cocktail of alternative ‘medicines’ Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A group of spiritual leaders at a retreat in the northern rivers conspired to mislead police about the death of a man who had just taken a cocktail of alternative “medicines”, a Bryon Bay courtroom has heard. The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich also heard that a Brazilian religious tradition fusing Christianity with Amazonian shamanic practices – including the drinking of hallucinogenic tea ..read more

The 39-year-old died suddenly and violently after a ritual involving Amazonian frog poison in Mullumbimby in 2019 Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Vulnerable people are placing their trust in self-proclaimed healers who lack basic first aid training, a coroner has warned in handing down her findings into the death of a woman after a two-person ritual involving the poisonous mucus of an Amazonian frog. Natasha Lechner died suddenly and violently after a “kambo” ceremony in a Mullumbimby sharehouse ..read more

Coroner pauses inquest into death of Jarrad Antonovich, who died after drinking ayahuasca and partaking in a ‘kambo’ ritual Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The inquest for a man who died after taking a cocktail of alternative “medicines” at a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales has been adjourned after new witnesses emerged. Jarrad Antonovich died after drinking ayahuasca and partaking in a “kambo” ritual at a six-day spiritual festival held on a property near Kyogle in October 2021. Si ..read more

Jarrad Antonovich died after drinking plant-based psychedelic and having frog toxin extract ‘kambo’ dabbed into burns Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The ceremonial leader of a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales at which a man died after drinking ayahuasca may have told witnesses not to talk about the fatal ceremony, a coroner has heard. The second sitting of the inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich – who died after drinking the plant-based psychedelic and having the frog toxin extract “kambo” dabbed into burns in his skin – held it ..read more

Psychotherapist tells inquest she was told ‘no hospital’ after expressing concern for Jarrad Antonovich, who died later that night Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A man who died after taking a cocktail of alternative “medicines” at a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales was not taken to hospital because the “energy workers” charged with his care failed to detect the fatal tear in his esophagus, a coroner has heard. The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich resumed in Byron Bay on T ..read more

Entrepreneurs on TV show’s panel all offered to invest in business selling ear seeds as part of treatment for chronic illness Doctors and campaigners have complained to the BBC and MPs about “unfounded” claims made on the TV show Dragons’ Den that Chinese medicine had helped a woman recover from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a disease with no known cure. An open letter to the chairs of two select committees was organised by Action for ME after an episode of the programme, in which entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of investors, aired on 18 January containing “misleading and pot ..read more