Man drinks potion for good luck: doesn't get any

Reuters Photo: A skinned frog is put into a blender to make a drink popular with working-class... LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Peru's government warned people to be wary of fake medicine men offering cure-all miracle herb potions on Tuesday, after a bogus brew killed a man hoping to shake off a spell of bad luck.

Alternative medicine is popular throughout the Andean nation, where newspapers are full of colorful ads from self-proclaimed "shamans" offering to improve anything from customers' luck to their ability to attract a mate.

The poisoning death of a man this week who hired a curer to improve his family's bad luck led the government to warn people away from clandestine or street-corner practices, warning the potions used could kill or cause long-term illness."Avoid consuming brews made with herbs of questionable origin or hallucinogenic plants prepared by so-called Shamans," the country's Health Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that genuine Shamans from the country's north sometimes consumed natural hallucinogens such as the San Pedro cactus in their rituals, but did not administer them to patients. link