Peru: Canadian Tourist Released From Jail for killing friend after ayahuasca ceremony

theguardian.com reported a Canadian man who authorities say killed his British friend in self-defence after the two drank a hallucinogenic brew at a spiritual retreat in the Amazon has been released, a police chief said.

Joshua Stevens, 29, was freed on Friday because all evidence showed he stabbed his friend Unais Gomes, 26, in self-defence after Gomes tried to attack him with a knife, said Normando Marques, a police chief in the Amazonian city of Iquitos. Stevens’ fiancee, Sarah-Anne Allen, said that all charges had been dropped and Stevens would be going home to Canada soon. “He is very shaken and sad, but he is coping,” Allen said. Stevens and Gomes were taking part in a ceremony that used ayahuasca – a hallucinogenic brew – at the alternative health centre Phoenix Ayahuasca, near Iquitos. There, Gomes took a knife from the kitchen and tried to attack Stevens, witnesses told police. Read Article