The Colorado River toad is famous for secreting a strong hallucinogen.(Image credit: Mark Newman via Getty Images)ShareShare by:
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Back in 2022, the U.S. National Park Service put up a fuzzy picture of a toad, captured by a night-vision wildlife camera and paired with a facetious warning:
As we advise concerning nearly all objects you encounter within a national park, be it a banana slug, unknown fungus, or a sizable toad featuring glowing eyes in the darkness, please avoid licking it. We appreciate your cooperation.
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It’s accurate that a certain toad present in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico exudes a strong psychoactive substance via its skin — but licking these toads is more apt to result in a hospital visit than a hallucinatory experience.
The Colorado River toad (Incilius alvarius), likewise known as the Sonoran Desert toad, includes venom glands positioned on its head which discharge the chemical 5-MeO-DMT.
“I consider it to be among the strongest hallucinogens available,” stated David E. Nichols, a professor emeritus of pharmacology at Purdue University, who was the initial person to formulate a synthetic version of 5-MeO-DMT.
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5-MeO-DMT stands as a chemical impacting the brain through interaction with serotonin receptors. The effects of this drug endure approximately 15 to 30 minutes, potentially eliciting feelings of bliss, oblivion, instances resembling near-death experiences, and memory loss. As per Nichols, the substance might even precipitate a complete breakdown of one’s sense of self, leading to a state where the user can’t recall even taking a drug.
Nonetheless, 5-MeO-DMT doesn’t lead to any psychedelic reactions when consumed orally, thus licking the substance off a toad isn’t going to trigger a high — it calls for more elaborate techniques like smoking. Beyond that, authorities caution that licking these toads could be notably perilous.
“Licking a toad is a definite no,” Haley Dourron, a postdoctoral researcher from Linköping University based in Sweden, stated to Live Science via email. “Even pets that have licked the toad have had to undergo urgent medical attention.”
This is because Colorado River toads likewise excrete chemicals categorized as cardiac glycosides. These compounds enhance the strength of heart muscle contractions, and their impact on the heart’s functionality has the potential to quickly escalate into a dangerous predicament, perhaps sparking fatal cardiac arrhythmias.
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Nevertheless, the potential hazards to well-being haven’t dissuaded illegal hunters from rounding up Colorado River toads to chemically refine the 5-MeO-DMT on their skin for recreational purposes.
“Toads are undergoing systematic removal by poachers to extract their secretions for trafficking,” Robert Villa, a community outreach assistant employed at the University of Arizona, communicated with Live Science through email. Colorado River toads already grapple with fluctuating rain habits, habitat diminishment, fungal diseases as well as contamination, Villa mentioned, pointing out that poachers merely heighten the risk to their preservation.
The potential of 5-MeO-DMT
While procuring 5-MeO-DMT via wild toads is precarious and prohibited, investigators are intrigued by the prospects presented by synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, connected to the hallucinogenic substance DMT. In contrast to more established hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin, limited insight has been achieved concerning 5-MeO-DMT coupled with its influence on the brain.
“Currently, over 100 individuals have undergone brain scans throughout trips induced by typical hallucinogens like LSD and psilocybin,” Dourron clarified. “Currently there are no available brain scanning studies regarding the operation of 5-MeO-DMT.”
Hallucinatory experiences triggered by 5-MeO-DMT frequently show stark differences from experiences related to conventional hallucinogens. Instead of conventional hallucinations such as fractal patterns, some 5-MeO-DMT users narrate encountering a full “white-out.”
“They could sense as though they’ve been thrown into a ‘void’ or confronted a feeling of nothingness,” Dourron articulated.
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The odd repercussions of the substance have sparked Dourron to analyze if 5-MeO-DMT results originate from similar brain passageways to those impaired during specific seizure types. Other researchers are probing into the likelihood of 5-MeO-DMT serving as an antidepressant. Initial data indicate that the substance alleviates depressive indications within a single day, accompanied by improvements persisting for at least one week post-treatment. In contrast to other hallucinogenic drugs being analyzed for their antidepressant qualities, like psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT’s span proves notably shorter, implying that treatment sessions could be wrapped up swiftly.
“5-MeO-DMT represents a notably fascinating compound, however, ultimately, I suspect it possibly operates according to a distinct collection of rules in contrast to other, more rigorously studied hallucinogenic substances,” Dourron remarked. “Solely science will unveil the precise nature of this playbook.”
Disclaimer
The information presented in this piece serves solely informational intentions and lacks the intention to supply health guidance.
TOPICSLife’s Little Mysteries
Marilyn PerkinsContent Manager
Marilyn Perkins serves as the content manager for Live Science. She functions as a science author and artist residing in Los Angeles, California. She finished her master’s degree in science writing at Johns Hopkins in addition to her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience acquired from Pomona College. Her literary contributions have appeared in multiple outlets featuring New Scientist, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health magazine plus Penn Today, in addition to her recognition as the recipient of the 2024 National Association of Science Writers Excellence in Institutional Writing Award, short-form section.
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