102 lines
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102 lines
4.1 KiB
Standard ML
View: kiss a toad and trip
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Path: uuwest!spies!apple!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!panix!gcf
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From: gcf@panix.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
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Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,alt.drugs,alt.aquaria
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Subject: How Do You Feel After You Lick a Toad?
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Keywords: everything in this article is a keyword
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Message-ID: <834@panix.UUCP>
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Date: 31 Jan 90 03:06:51 GMT
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Reply-To: gcf@panix.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
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Followup-To: talk.bizarre
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Organization: Beauty in the Beast
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Lines: 86
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[It's true. I swear it's true, I read it in the paper
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and I'm printing it here, verbatim, except for the parts
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I took out to avoid prosecution. This story has it all:
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drugs, -*--, toads, Australia, aquaria, the sacred,
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lawnmowers, someone called Stephanie, and slime. I could
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post this in _every_ newsgroup on the system, but I chose
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just the ones _you_ read. How about that?]
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"How do you feel after you lick a toad?"
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By Ellen Uzelac of the Baltimore Sun, quoted without permission.
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San Fransisco -- Licking toads will not give you warts
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or produce a fairy prince, but it might get you high.
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It isn't exactly an epidemic, but the Drug Enforcement
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Administration says toad licking is the latest way to
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hallucinate.
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"It sounds like a fairy tale gone wrong, doesn't it?" said
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Robert K. Sager, chief of the DEA's laboratory in San
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Fransisco. "Now, I don't think this is going to be a great
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problem because people don't go around licking toads as a
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habit." [Speak for yourself, Bob.]
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The culprit: the Cane toad.
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"They're beautiful toads," Sager said. "People like them."
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[Mmmm.]
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The Cane toad, which can grow to the size of a dinner plate,
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produces a toxin called bufotenine, which the toad secretes
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to ward off predators. When licked raw, or cooked, the
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toxin acts as a hallucinogen.
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In the Southwest recently, several dogs have died after
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eating Cane toads, and the DEA has had bufotenine turn up at
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its research labs from time to time after drug arrests.
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The green-and-red toads produce the same toxin that is found
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in amanita mushrooms, cohoba seeds and other plants.
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Indians in South America have used the toxin for its
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mind-altering qualities for years in religious ceremonies,
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and some tribes have used it in blowguns to kill dinner.
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Bufotenine is considered a controlled, dangerous substance
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and is therefore illegal. However, it is not against the
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law to own a Cane toad, A FAVORITE OF AQUARIUM AFICIONADOS.
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[Emphasis ours, Richard.]
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"If you had a toad, we would have to prove you were licking
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it on purpose, or you had given it to someone to lick on
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purpose," Sager explained.
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The Cane toad has come into some renown in Australia, where
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four people died last year after partaking of its marbled
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flesh. (Depending on the size of the toad and the
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concentrations of toxin consumed, bufotenine can be fatal.)
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The toad was imported to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to
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kill the Greyback beetle, which was destroying sugar cane in
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Queensland. The toad adapted beautifully, MULTIPLIED IN THE
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MILLIONS and ate everything -- except for the beetle.
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Last fall, officials in Brisbane, Australia's third-largest
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city, announced an elaborate plan to eradicate the poisonous
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toads, which today pose a major threat to the continent's
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fauna and wildlife.
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In her book, "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History," Stephanie
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Lewis describes a toad population so out of control that
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when she mows her lawn she encounters "one cane toad to every
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two square meters, leaving all the trimmings of carcasses,
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guts and stench" in the cut grass. ...
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In recent years, toad licking has become popular in the
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Australian outback, prompting Queensland's government to
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classify toad slime as an illegal substance under its Drug
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Misuse Act. ...
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"This is what you call a desperation high. It's the sort of
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thing you do when you run out of dope," [Sager] added. "It's
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BIZARRE behavior. Man has always found ways to get off and
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he's found some weird ways to do it."
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[Tell us about it. Eh, -*--?]
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