New Zealander Matthew Dawson-Clarke died in Peru after drinking a powerful brew of tobacco tea, in preparation for an ayahuasca ceremony.

The phone call came out of the blue. Lyndie Dawson-Clarke was at home on a Sunday afternoon, Father's Day. A strange woman's voice came through the phone line, with a heavy accent. "I'm so sorry for your loss," said the voice.

It was at that point that Lyndie Dawson-Clarke ran screaming out of the house into the driveway.

Her 24-year-old son Matthew, who had been travelling overseas, had been dead for three days. This was the first she'd heard of it.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT/ABC The Peruvian Amazon is a destination for thousands of travellers.

Dawson-Clarke had left New Zealand to travel to Peru, on a break from his job crewing on a super-cruiser in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. He'd told his mother he planned to try ayahuasca, an ancient Amazonian drug known locally as "the medicine".

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Ayahuasca is a vine that grows only in the Amazon region. When brewed with other natural jungle ingredients it produces one of the world's most powerful hallucinogens. Users are promised spiritual, physical and mental healing and growth.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT/ABC British child-actor-turned-ayahuasca-shaman Freddie Findlay.

In an exclusive interview with Australia's ABC TV show Foreign Correspondent to air this week, Dawson-Clarke's family speaks for the first time about their ordeal and the mysterious circumstances in which their son lost his life.

Dawson-Clarke died in September 2015 after drinking a powerful brew of tobacco tea, in preparation for an ayahuasca ceremony. His mother, Lyndie says she doesn't seek to prevent young people from trying ayahuasca, but she hopes they will think seriously before they decide whether to do it. "I'm not here to tell people what to do with their lives," she says, "I'm just here to say 'be aware'."

Tens of thousands of travellers are flocking to the Amazon to chase the ayahuasca plant. As word of its power spreads on the internet, it is becoming increasingly popular, an "it" drug. There have been celebrity endorsements from the likes of Sting and Lindsay Lohan. Even the characters Eddie and Patsy claim to be doing ayahuasca in the recent AbFab movie.

SUPPLIED There have been another five known deaths connected with ayahuasca retreats in Peru since Matthew Dawson-Clarke's death deep in the Amazon rainforest.

Ayahuasca's psychoactive properties come from the combination of its two main ingredients: the native ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaves, which contain the natural psychedelic compound dimethyltryptamine or DMT. In South America, advocates of ayahuasca market it widely.

There have been another five known deaths connected with ayahuasca retreats in Peru since Dawson-Clarke's death. And while an "Ayahuasca Safety Association" is in its infancy in Peru, aimed at providing better safety standards for the many tourists coming to consume the drug, there is little sign of any substantive progress.

Many retreats still operate without adequate first aid equipment or trained staff. Some 17 ayahuasca retreats are properly registered with local authorities and can legally host foreign tourists, but upwards of 50 are currently operating in the Iquitos region illegally. They include, Kapitari, the retreat where Matthew Dawson-Clarke died.