According to reports, a 58-year-old man, born in the Netherlands and residing on the island of Ibiza, has died after consuming poison from buffo toad. It was the Civil Guard agents who found the body on April 23 in a wooded area of Rosa Lisa, in the municipality of Santa Eulària.
At first the causes of death were unknown, but the forensic study of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Ibiza has determined that the cause of death was the ingestion generated by the poison of .
Although this type of death is closely related to community rituals, which rose to fame by involving (although already exonerated) the adult film actor Nacho Vidaleverything indicates that in this case the deceased man was alone.
What is the rite of the bufo toad?
snort is a genus of anuran amphibians in the family buffoonerywhich includes the species European toad.
It is present in North Africa, the Middle East, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Eurasia. They are characterized by having a stocky shape and short legs. As a curiosity, they lack a tail, teeth and have horizontal pupils. The skin is thick, dry and warty.
In Spain, the Gredos toad (Bufo bufo gredoscola), which is limited to the Sierra de Gredos, in the center of the peninsula, is considered a synonym of buff spinous. It is also poisonous, although this type of species present in our country is not very toxic.
The rite of the bufo toad, whose origin is located in Mexico, where it is very popular, consists of smoking bufotenine, which is the poison that is extracted from the toad bufo alvarius, which is its scientific name. It is one of the hallucinogenic most powerful found in nature, and which is also present in other amphibians, some plants and mushrooms.
To extract the venom from the bufo toad, you have to press its four skin glands.
Bufotenin is found in only one of the 463 varieties of toad that exist in the world, the bufo alvarius.
It has a hallucinogenic activity similar to that produced by other toxic substances such as ayahuasca (it is used in rites to ‘detoxify’ you from things that do not make you happy) or mescaline (poison extracted from two types of cactus).
However, its effects are more intense than those of these toxins mentioned above. The bufo toad produces more immediate symptoms and, above all, more dangerous for our body.
Specifically, the substance that the amphibian contains is called 5-MeO-DMT, which is a drug that is marketed in the deep web (Hidden and Deep Internet) and that has spread like wildfire to all corners of the world.
What are the effects of this poison?
The consumption of this poison produces a ‘trip’ that usually lasts between 15 and 20 minutes. And it has important effects on our health:
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Tachycardia
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loss of consciousness
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hallucinations
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And, in the worst case, death.
The explanation is that the secretions of the huff huff contain bufadienolides, which are cardiotoxic substances that have an effect similar to that of the drug digoxinwhich is used to treat heart failure and arrhythmias but which in overdose can cause death from cardiorespiratory arrest.
For an overdose of this medicine, there is an antidote, called anti-digoxin antibodiesalthough currently there is no specific treatment for bufotenine toxicity.
In South American countries, where it is used in shamanic rituals quite often, shamans use it as a treatment for addictions or mental health disorders such as depression. But the reality is that all these applications have no scientific foundation.
deadly with dogs too
The Dr. Maria Rosario Moyanofrom the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, explains in an article published in which the animals that are most affected by this type of poisoning are dogs.
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“By keeping the toads in the mouth, the release of toxins from the parotid gland into the oral cavity is stimulated.”
In this case, the symptoms appear 15 minutes after contact with the toad. The first thing to do is wash with plenty of water, only if the dog is conscious, and if it has been poisoned, the symptoms are that it presents convulsions, arrhythmias and even signs of shock.
For this reason, it is important to be aware of everything that the dog puts in its mouth, monitor its symptoms and go as quickly as possible to a veterinarian at the slightest suspicion.
If it does not respond to treatment, the animal will die three hours after the poisoning.