People get up to some weird things when it comes to drugs. I mean, snorting lines of peppermint powder and getting high off used sanitary pads are apparently things people do nowadays. Yeah.
The latest craze to seize people’s attention isn’t quite on the level of sanitary pads but it is no less messed up because it involves stressing out a bunch of frogs from South America.
Originating from the Amazon basin, this drug is called kambo and it is derived from the secretions of the Phyllomedusa bicolor (aka the giant monkey frog).
Don’t try this at home, kids.
Here’s the catch: these secretions are only produced by the giant monkey frog when they’re incredibly stressed out and thinks it is in danger.
If there is a silver lining to stressing out these poor amphibians, it’s that while these frogs are subjected to humiliating acts like being tied spread-eagle to sticks or being smacked on the head, at least they’re not killed and are released afterwards, presumably for another secretion extraction sesh later.
Unsurprisingly, kambo is mainly advocated by alternative medicine people rather than scientists and hasn’t been supported by medical evidence. However, the stuff is apparently super dope as it’s been used by the Indigenous people of Brazil and Peru for ages due to its serious healing powers.
The drug itself is a natural opioid that’s 40 times stronger than morphine, which makes it a mega-effective painkiller, and apparently it is good for other things like depression and impotence.
That being said, using kambo is a whole ordeal in itself. To take it, you basically have to burn dots into your skin before the drug is applied to your burned flesh. After an hour of vomiting and feeling like rubbish, the good stuff finally kicks in and all your ailments will be cured. Apparently.
If all this hasn’t deterred you from kambo, then you’ll be pleased to know that you won’t need to embark on an Indiana Jones-esque adventure to the Amazon to try this stuff.
People around the world have learned the craft of kambo ceremonies so you can just visit them instead of getting lost in a South American rainforest. The other option is to do a training course on the kambo stuff so you can apply frog secretions on yourself and others.
You know what, thanks but no thanks. Keep your kambo, I’m gonna spare those poor frogs some pain and stick to good ol’ fashioned Panadol, viagra, and therapy instead.