Toad Licking: The Latest High

[boulder]

Licking toads will not give you warts or produce a fairy prince, but it might get you high. It isn't exactly an epidemic, but the Drug Enforcement Administration says toad licking is the latest way to hallucinate. "It sounds like a fairy tale gone wrong, doesn't it?" said Robert K. Sager, chief of the DEA's laboratory in San Francisco. "Now, I don't think this is going to be a great problem because people don't go around licking toads as a habit." The culprit: the Cane toad. "They're beautiful toads," Sager Said. "People like them." The Cane toad, which can grow to the size of a dinner plate, produces a toxin called bufotenine, which the toad secretes to ward off predators. When licked raw. or cooked, the toxin acts as a hallucinogen. In the Southwest recently, several dogs have died after eating Cane toads, and the DEA has had bufotenine turn up at its research labs from time to time after drug arrests. In Washoe County, the prospect of gonzo toad lickers in our midst produced a few chuckles in the offices of the county's Consolidated Narcotics Unit.

 

"We're not aware of any toad-licking problems," said Sparks police Lt. Tim Gonyo, who heads the unit. "As far as we're aware of, toad-licking has not hit Washoe County." Local pet store operators reacted with astonishment. "That's pretty gross," said Michele Robinette, manager of Reno's Pets Unlimited. "That's a new one, and we've heard a lot of strange things around here." Robinette said she knew of no area pet stores that peddle the mind-altering amphibian. The green and red toads produce the same toxin found in amanita mushrooms, cohoba seeds and other plants. Indians in South America have used the toxin for its hallucinogenic qualities for years in religious ceremonies, and some tribes have used it in blowguns to kill dinner. Bufotenine is considered a controlled, dangerous substance and is therefore illegal.

 

However, it is not against the law to own a Cane toad. a favorite of aquarium afficionados. "If you had a toad. we would have to prove you were licking it on purpose, or you had given it to someone to lick on purpose," Sager explained. The Cane toad has come into some renown in Australia. where four people died last year after partaking of its marbled flesh. (Depending on the size of the toad and the concentrations of toxin consumed. bufotenine can be fatal). The toad was imported to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to kill the Greyback beetle, which was destroying sugar-can@ in Queensland. The toad adapted beautifully, multiplied in the millions and ate everything - except for the beetle. Last fall, officials in Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city, announced an elaborate plan to eradicate the poisonous toads, which today pose a major threat to the continent's fauna and wildlife. In recent years, toad licking has become popular in the Australian outback, prompting Queensland's government to classify the toad slime as an illegal substance under its Drug Misuse Act. "That's how this whole cycle started - a lack of dope in the Australian outback," Sager said. "There, they are killing the toads, drying the skins and making tea. Yummy, huh?"

Edited January 3, 2003 by boulder

[Ferre]

hehehe,....see, there's more toad lickin' goin on down there ::

http://www.clubs.nl/ClubsData/67948/incoming/g34.gif

[nelly]

hehehe,....see, there's more toad lickin' goin on down there  ::

http://www.clubs.nl/ClubsData/67948/incoming/g34.gif

I am an Aussie & Toad licking has been around for years. I knew of people doing it 15 years ago , Like mushies, Day tura etc. I dont think you would call this a new phase. However maybe it is in America. However dogs die all the time here in Queensland from cane toads. They only have to drink water they have been swimming in, & have died. Sooo be careful.