Incautious use of ayahuasca has claimed yet another life. Claims for the South American drug are numerous – and contradictory. It has been suggested as a hallucinogenic tea for calming Brazilian prisoners and as a “jungle brew” that could help drug addicts. However, it is said to taste “as acrid as battery acid” while causing both visions and vomiting among the “loonies in lotus land” who indulge. Scientist and expert on hallucinogenic plants Richard Evans Schultes explained in 1976: