WASHINGTON (TND) — A common adage park rangers will tell visitors before going into Yellowstone goes something like this: “Remember folks, this isn’t Disneyland. These animals will kill you.”
To emphasize the point, there are signs throughout America’s national parks to not touch or feed the wildlife that live in these spaces.
Now there’s another commandment: please do not lick the toads (or make any tongue-contact at all).
The Sonoran desert toad (bufo alvarius) – also known as the Colorado river toad – is one of the largest toads found in North America, growing up to seven inches wide on average. The toads also happen to secret a deadly toxin from external skin glands (parotoid glands) on their back, neck and shoulders. The toxin makes people sick if they touch the toad or, especially, somehow get the poison in their mouths.
However, this toad’s toxic coating also contains a powerful hallucinogenic known as 5-MeO-DMT – colloquially known as Five-methoxy, The power and Toad venom. People have been collecting more and more of the toad’s secretion to then smoke, which creates a variety of sensations over a 15-minute-to-2-hour duration, including enhancement of tactile awareness; experiencing bright colors and moving environments; a sense of “oneness”; and a variety of emotions ranging from extreme fear to euphoria. Podcaster Joe Rogan, a known practitioner of and advocate for psychedelics, called his experience with this "toadally" natural hallucinogen "probably the most terrifying experience" he's had with psychedelics.
He also claimed that during his time under the effects of the drug he felt like he had "ceased to exist."
5-MeO-DMT is a Schedule 1 substance under U.S. law, which means it is not accepted for medical use and is likely to be abused.
“Hey there! Here is the “ribbiting” late night content no one asked for. Yet here we are,” the National Park Service wrote in a Facebook post. “As we say with most things you come across in a national park, whether it be a banana slug, unfamiliar mushroom, or a large toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please refrain from licking. Thank you.”
The practice has picked up in popularity so much such that in recent years the Sonoran desert toad has been listed as “threatened” in New Mexico. The New York Times Magazine reported the first case of someone being arrested for possessing the toad’s secretions in 1994. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter wrote in his memoir about using 5-MeO-DMT therapy as a form of addiction treatment.
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