Bufotenine 61to production of so much saliva that medical observers intervened to prevent
the person from breathing it into her lungs and drowning. Other physical
effects can include high blood pressure and a feeling that one’s air supply is
inadequate. Researchers who gave the substance to dogs reported that they
howled in an unnerving manner for hours.
Although bufotenine lowers pulse rate, it has been described as a heart
stimulant. Overdose from products with the substance can cause death from
heart failure, although the fatal poisoning may be from chemicals other than
bufotenine in the products.
Abuse factors.Stories claim that licking bufotenine toads can produce hal-
lucinations. Some persons familiar with the animals scoff at those tales, but
there is a known case of a child being poisoned from licking one. Controversy
arose when an Australian horse won a race and tested positive for bufotenine,
a substance banned from the sport. Lacking any other explanation, bewildered
observers at first jokingly speculated that the horse had eaten a toad, but
investigators later focused on a variety of pasture grass containing bufotenine.
Typically toad venom is harvested, dried, and smoked. One authority says
that swallowing enough venom to cause hallucinations would be fatal. Smok-
ers, however, are apparently not automatically poisoned by the product, al-
though reportedly some persons have instantly passed out upon inhaling the
smoke. Smokers have reported altered consciousness and hallucinations in-
volving sight, sound, smell, and touch. In research studies volunteers who
took bufotenine have experienced psychedelic effects, such as mild visual hal-
lucinations (seeing geometric shapes), distortions of time and space, and in-
tense emotional experiences.
One authority notes that analysis of seeds used by Argentine shamans re-
veals bufotenine as their sole alkaloid, a finding suggesting that bufotenine is
indeed psychedelic. Nonetheless, scientific research has not confirmed that the
pure drug, as opposed to natural products containing this drug along with
many other chemicals, is a psychedelic. For example, some toad venom having
bufotenine is also a source of a hallucinogen called 5-MeO-DMT, and a person
who uses this venom may be experiencing effects from 5-MeO-DMT rather
than bufotenine. (Not everyone finds 5-MeO-DMT pleasant. Scientist A.
McDonald, who engaged in self-experimentation, reported “an intense feeling
of unease quite unlike the effects ofDMT. My scientific curiosity has not yet
proved sufficient to try it a second time.”)
Although news media stories have described bufotenine as more powerful
thanLSD, researchers find that the substance does not readily cross from the
bloodstream into brain tissue. Evidence also exists that a person’s physical
condition might affect bufotenine’s hallucinogenic impact. Some authorities
say the drug’s apparent hallucinogenic qualities are caused instead by its abil-
ity to lower heart rate enough to produce oxygen starvation in the optic
nerves, causing a person to “see stars.” Some natural products containing
bufotenine (such as some kinds of seeds and toads) are unquestionably psy-
chedelic, but no scientific consensus exists about the psychedelic qualities of
pure bufotenine.
Drug interactions.Not enough scientific information to report.
Cancer.Not enough scientific information to report.