![\"Kambo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/18119183992ff6c45ba9bc775d05a27a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nPolice have charged a man with manslaughter over a fatal ceremonial ritual involving South American hallucinogen ayahuasca and the frog poison, kambo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jarrad Antonovich collapsed while attending the Dreaming Arts Festival at a property at Collins Creek near Kyogle in the NSW Northern Rivers region on October 17, 2021.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old was treated by paramedics but died at the scene.<\/p>\n
A NSW Coronial inquest in 2024 found he died from a perforated oesophagus.<\/p>\n
Police said he had consumed prohibited substances, kambo and ayahuasca.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, police arrested a 52-year-old man in the Northern Rivers town of Coorabell and charged him with manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Police will allege that the man supplied Mr Antonovich with ayahuasca while hosting a retreat at the property and delayed seeking medical treatment when the man\u2019s health deteriorated.<\/p>\n
He was granted bail and will return to Lismore Local Court on Monday, March 30.<\/p>\n
What are kambo and ayahuasca?<\/p>\n
Kambo is a poison harvested from the back of an Amazonian tree frog and used in South America for purging or cleansing rituals.<\/p>\n
It was classified as a prohibited substance in Australia in 2021.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Kambo frog is used for medicinal purposes in South America, but health authorities warn of\u00a0 (Facebook: Viva Kambo)<\/p>\n
Ayahuasca is a vine native to South America that is boiled in a brew, turning it into a powerful hallucinogen.<\/p>\n
It was banned in Australia in 2022.<\/p>\n
The death of Mr Antonovich has been the subject of a NSW Coronial Inquiry.<\/p>\n
They investigated whether excessive vomiting, often associated with ayahuasca and kambo ceremonies, caused the tear that led to his death.<\/p>\n
The inquiry was suspended in May 2024 with a coroner finding sufficient evidence to refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions for Criminal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged a man with manslaughter over a fatal ceremonial ritual involving South American hallucinogen ayahuasca and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,259262,259265,259267,259264,259263,259266,24275,44],"class_list":["post-519155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ayahuasca","tag-dreaming-arts-festival","tag-frog-poison","tag-jarrad-antonovich","tag-kambo","tag-kyogle","tag-manslaughter","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}