Drug ritual teenager left at roadside in rainforest

THE BODY of a British teenager who died after drinking a hallucinogen during a tribal ritual was left by the side of the road by two frightened local men, the Columbian authorities have said.

Henry Miller, 19, from Bristol, was in a remote rainforest area of Colombia with other tourists when 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, which brings on vivid hallucinations and supposedly spiritual experiences.

He was found dead on Wednesday by a rural road outside Mocoa, the capital of the Putumayo region.

Ricardo Suarez, the local police commander, said Mr Miller, drank the psychedelic brew during a ritual led by a local shaman.

After Mr Miller’s health deteriorated, the shaman sent him to a hospital on a motorcycle with two young local men but he died en route, Mr Suarez said.

“Everything indicates that the two young men panicked and left him on the side of the road,” Mr Suarez said.

Investigators have identified and questioned the two men and the shaman but they have not yet been arrested for any crime.

Mr Miller’s father David said: “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.”