British teenager dies in Colombia after drinking hallucinogenic drug in ritual

slimvictor

slimvictor

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LONDON – U.K. media say a British teenager has died in Colombia after drinking a hallucinogen during a tribal ritual.

Henry Miller was found dead on Wednesday in the Puntamayo region.

The family of the 19-year-old said Miller had taken part in "a local tribal ritual."

In a statement published by the BBC, the family said the ritual involved a drink made from local plant infusions, and "it is likely that a reaction to this drink was the cause" of his death.

Fellow traveler Christopher Dearden told the Daily Mail newspaper that Miller had a bad reaction to Yage, or ayahuasca. His body was later discovered by the side of a road.

cont at
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...after-drinking-hallucinogenic-drug-in-ritual/
 
That's unfortunate. But what do you expect, i mean.. regular colombia is clearly a stark contrast to british colombia. he found out the hard way.
 
It's always tragic when a young man or woman dies. That being said, we shouldn't blow this out of proportion, as you're just as likely (if not more) to die from other things which we don't blow out of proportion, such as being hit by lightning.

I say this because the media really enjoys blowing the lid off these types of deaths. And I don't believe their intentions are noble at all. For if they truly were, then, every death from socially accepted highs (booze, tobacco, caffeine, sugar) would also be reported with the same amount of punctuality. Word?

Edit - So um, is this a Fox News exclusive? (I'm just kidding - I actually first read the story on BBC).

theWhiteLarryBird said:
That's unfortunate. But what do you expect, i mean.. regular colombia is clearly a stark contrast to british colombia. he found out the hard way.
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Indeed, you've got a point there. The two are quite different. In fact, even their spelling is different (Colombia Vs. Columbia).

Colombia has some of the best looking women on the planet - possibly for the wrong reasons, but still... Some stunning booty roams the countryside and the grassy knolls.
 
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Next up in our hallucinogens are deadly series - Ayahuasca.

This is fucked. It is known that some of these "ayahuasca tourists" have unfortunate reactions/unscrupulous guides or whatever - but the headlines - be it 25x-NBOMe, (presumably datura containing) ayahuasca - or simply a tragic accident; it's always "killer hallucinogenic drug" headlines.
Has society completely missed the explosion of new, dangerous chemicals - and mainstream awareness of various psychedelic customs over the past 20 odd years? Are drug forum nerds the only people that understand that regulation of the safe psychedelics our forebears used is far less hazardous and eminently preferable to what is currently happening?
I have no problem with people wishing to experience ayahuasca in a traditional setting, but it does increase the risk, it isn't "traditional" in any true sense - and it is arguably another western exploitation of ancient indigenous customs.

This death - like so many others, is tragic.
But fucking hell, the media sensationalism/oversimplification does nothing to reduce the risks; not even an at attempt educating people.
Then again - it's Faux News; just another of Murdoch's moronic media mouthpieces.
 
^The sad fact is allot of the people who run these places do it for all the wrong reasons and don't take the proper precautions which ads to the danger. They see this sacred ritual as nothing more than a business.
 
Folley said:
I won't even begin on how fucking wrong it was that they dumped his body on the side of the road.
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That's a tad presumptuous given the lack of details in the story.
Speculating on "how fucking wrong" someone's actions are might need a bit more evidence, donchya think?
There are a range of explanations as to why his body was apparently located "by the side of a road".
Pretty ambiguous.
 
You really think Fox is giving you the full story (in ~5 vague paragraphs) but you just have to read between the lines?
Ok...
I take it you've not experienced the vast difference between what news companies (particularly corporate - especially Fox/Murdoch) report and what the actual details of the story are.

I've never witnessed any event first-hand that has made "the news" that wasn't twisted into pushing a sensationalist agenda, a fabrication or - especially in instances involving drugs - propaganda.
This is obviously tragic, but half a sentence in very brief article is not enough to condemn "they" who "dumped his body on the road".

There just isn't any evidence that such a thing took place. The article doesn't say that - and even if it did i'd be sceptical - these kinds of incidents require proper investigation, not just media-fuelled speculation.
The media lies, man!
It is the problem with our news sound-byte culture; so little information, so much inference (and I'm not directing that at you, Folley - it's the culture at large)
 
even if they dumped his body by the side of the road, if he was already dead it's better for his corpse to be gotten rid of anonymously than have more people's lives ruined.
 
Pictured: British tourist Henry Miller who died after 'taking hallucinogenic drugs...

Pictured: British tourist Henry Miller who died after 'taking hallucinogenic drugs in tribal ritual'
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Daily Mirror

Apr 26, 2014 14:02
By Jessica Best

With reader comments

The 19-year-old, believed to have taken Yage, was said by his family to be a popular, polite young man.

This is the first picture of British teenager Henry Miller, who died in Colombia after reportedly taking hallucinogenic drugs during a tribal ritual. The 19-year-old, from Bristol, was in a remote rainforest area with other tourists when it is believed he took the drug with a local tribe. Mr Miller, who was due to go to university in September, is understood to have taken Yage - a drink made from leaves which brings on vivid hallucinations and supposedly spiritual experiences.

His family today paid tribute to him as a "polite, popular" young man with a "great sense of humour". They told MailOnline: "Henry was an adventurous person who travelled extensively. He was polite, popular, with a great sense of humour and was very much loved by his family and his many friends."

A fellow traveller said Mr Miller drank a cup of the drug twice, on Sunday and Tuesday, while in the remote town of Mocoa in the Putumayo region. The man, who wished to remain unnamed, met Mr Miller on Sunday when they travelled together from a hostel in Mocoa to land belonging to a local shaman. He said the drug had no effect on Mr Miller the first time but on the second occasion he became very ill.

He said the group of about eight people, including Mr Miller, were all sick after drinking the drug, a normal reaction to its unpleasant taste. But while the rest of the group came around from the "trip", Mr Miller did not. He said: "He just got worse and worse. He was lying face down on the ground making very weird breathing noises. We picked him up and put him in a chair.

"He wasn't speaking, he was lashing out with his hands and feet. Then he started making weird animal noises, pig sounds and at one point he tried to fly. He kept saying, 'What's going on, oh my God' and holding his face." The shaman's family told the tourists they would look after him but when they woke up in the morning Mr Miller was not there.

Police arrived and showed them a picture of Mr Miller's body, which was reported to have been dumped by a dirt road. The unnamed traveller, who lives in France, said police told them he had a crack on his head and that they thought he may have fallen or been thrown from a motorbike. He said: "Henry was a complete innocent. He had no ego, he was very kind. He was the last person this should have happened to."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of a British national on April 23 in Colombia. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this very difficult time."
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pictured-henry-miller-who-died-3460839
 
The shaman's family told the tourists they would look after him but when they woke up in the morning Mr Miller was not there.
Click to expand...
...police told them he had a crack on his head and that they thought he may have fallen or been thrown from a motorbike.
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Some version of the story don't report this important part of the story and leave the reader with the impression that it was the brew itself that killed him.

Daily Mail
BBC News
 
Merged.

Interesting differences between the articles.
Edgar shade's says
...police told them he had a crack on his head and that they thought he may have fallen or been thrown from a motorbike.
Click to expand...
whereas mine says
In a statement published by the BBC, the family said the ritual involved a drink made from local plant infusions, and "it is likely that a reaction to this drink was the cause" of his death.
Click to expand...
 
treezy z said:
even if they dumped his body by the side of the road, if he was already dead it's better for his corpse to be gotten rid of anonymously than have more people's lives ruined.
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Yes I agree with this, if he was already dead, then there was nothing more to do about it. I would probably not want to be the local tribesman to report that some white kid had died in my village while ingesting my homemade hallucinogenic brew. Becoming a public scapegoat in colombia seems less than desirable.
 
The whole tone of the report is set up to create a tragic victim of unscrupulous foreign types who ARENT LIKE US! They have no morals, no sense of the value of human life and give bad drugs to nice boys from civilised countries. He is referred to as a polite young man with no ego. So the suggestion is that he wasn't secretly using phenethylamines and dope and anything else he can get his hands on back home whilst succesfully hiding this from his parents. Because polite young men don't do this, right? I'm not saying he was, but how would they know? There are many drug tourists in the world, from those that jump on a coach to Amsterdam from the UK to get stoned in cafes to those that fly to Phnom Penh to smoke opium and party on smack and yaaba. Heading off to Colombia to partake of a local ayahuasca brew having done the chemicals at home looks to me like another version of this. The fact that the (usually) young people who do this are participating in their own rituals of adulthood and exploration and that this risk-taking is a necessary part of developing as a a human is one of the complex socio-psychological contexts that explain drug use. Newspapers will NEVER explain this. They are not NEWS papers, they are entertainment businesses which use "real-life" events as the basis for stories which reinforce people in their beliefs and prejudices. Challenging people to think again will not increase their profits, sadly. 8( Mr Angry.
 
^ top post.
Classic media manipuation...oh, but those terrible "negligent" foreigners, right?
Bollocks.
 
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