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Crazy Scientist’s Corner: Animals Used As Drugs

By greenexpander ⋅ November 7, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Many of us know that many plants are used to alter brain function, changing for a brief amount of time perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. Scientists extended this research to animals and, even though it’s still at the beginning, they came up with some interesting finds. Early scientists and alchemists experimented with all kinds of animals. From these animals, the most popular were toads, scorpions and snakes.

Bees can burrow psychoactive properties from a plant called Atropa belladonna. The tropane alkaloids from this plant are transfered from bees to their honey; people that eat this honey experience some mind-altering effects. Aside from honey, effects such as increasing the intensity of colors and the perception of geometric forms can be transmitted through a sting. Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere and can cause fatal indigestion. Symptoms of poisoning include dilated pupils, blurred vision, constipation or confusion.

Perhaps the most well-known animal inducing and aphrodisiac state is the cantharis or the Spanish Fly. Made from its wings and dangerous in high doses, cantharides is used to prolong erections. Cantharides are illegal in the United States unless a physician prescribed them to treat certain types of warts. Many internet shops advertise these products but these are no more than simply cayenne pepper in capsules.

It’s not just about psychoactive insects, some fish also have some special properties. Apparently, the puffer fish has been used as a psychoactive ingredient in the making of the zombie drug. Some of this fish produce a neurotoxin in their internal organs powerful enough to kill its predators. This toxin known as tetrodotoxin, also found in the Blue-Ringed Octopus and the Cone Snail, is a very powerful poison, 1200 times deadlier than cyanide. According to studies, a single Puffer has enough poison to kill 30 adult humans. ‘Dream fish’ or ‘nightmare fish’, named so because they cause hallucinations, have been found In South Africa and Hawaii. Species known to cause these effects are Mugil cephalus, Neomyxus chaptalli, Mulloidichthys samoensis and the Upeneus arge.

Amphibian toxins have been used for a long time by tribes that applied them to their spears. Tribes in the Peruvian Amazon believe that rubbing wounds with the poison of the Phyllomedusa bicolor will help them communicate with animal spirits. Still, scientists only classify this as a ‘pseudo-hallucinogen’. The evidence that amphibian toxins can be used to produce psychoactive effects is not conclusive.

Cobra venom is not necessarily a bad thing for certain parts in India. Some holy men smoke cobra venom for its psychoactive effects. Venom glands from the king cobra and the common cobra are dried and mixed with cannabis. Normally, the king cobra’s venom is not that toxic but injected in large quantities can kill an adult elephant in 3 hours. It attacks the nervous system eventually causing paralysis and death. Documents from the 8th century AD even mention ‘the saliva of a snake’ used as a psychoactive substance.

Although not as well known as the other animals, birds with psychoactive effects do exist. Aztec documents from the 16th century speak of a bird named oconenetl that induced visions but scientists did not identify what is the exact bird. Pitohui, a South American bird, contains in its feathers and skins amphibian poisons. To eat a bird like the Pitohui, locals skin it and prepare it very carefully. Three pitohui species have various degrees of toxicity, the Hooded Pitohui is the most toxic, the Variable Pitohui is intermediate, and the Brown Pitohui is the least toxic. It still remains unknown how the birds in these species survive the poison in their bodies.

Some Arabian tribes, such as the Humr, hunt giraffes not for eating them, but to prepare a drink from its bone and marrow. This appears to cause them hallucinations, most often involving a giraffe. Still, a scientists that studies the case said the effect might be a subconscious skin.

source: The Encyclopaedia of Psychoactive Substances, Wikipedia

Tags: animals, drugs, psychoactive