The Colorado River Toad: Nature's Gift of 5-MeO-DMT

Perhaps the most interesting psychoactive substance on earth involves neither a plant nor substance concocted by human laboratories. The substance is known as 5-MeO-DMT and one of the most potent sources for the psychoactive is an animal. To be more exact, the source in question is actually a toad.

The bufo alvarius or Colorado River Toad is a venomous amphibian that contains concentrated quantities of 5-MeO-DMT as well as another less-potent psychoactive substance known as bufotenin. The toad is indigenous to areas of the Sonoran Desert in Southeastern California, Southern Arizona, and Southwestern New Mexico. The toad relies on water for part of its life cycle, so does not live far from shallow pools and streams. Human intervention in the form of irrigation in the Sonoran Desert has actually benefited this particular toad and increased the size of its niche within the ecosystem. The Colorado River Toad is also the largest North American toad.

The truly unique quality of the Colorado River Toad is the contents of its venom. Through specialized glands on its back, the toad can secrete a milky substance when threatened by predators or prodded by man. This milky secretion contains high levels of 5-MeO-DMT and is what is collected by recreational users. The venom can be collected without harming the toad, although the toad takes significant periods of time to produce more venom in its glands.

5-MeO-DMT is structurally similar, though quite different from the more commonly known psychoactive drug, DMT. Furthermore, DMT is currently a schedule 1 controlled substance in the United States and is illegal to sell, possess, or use. On the other hand, 5-MeO-DMT is relatively unknown, and knowledge about the substance and the Colorado River toad is limited to its sort of cult status within the drug-using community. 5-MeO-DMT shows its psychoactive properties in doses as small as three-to-five milligrams, and a single toad can yield nearly seventy-five milligrams of the substance in a single milking.