A Psychedelic Craze Has Taken Hold Among The Rich, Toad Venom

A new psychedelic craze has taken hold among the rich, one that you might not expect. Sure there’s MDMA, mushrooms, and LSD, but Toad has gained steadily in popularity recently. 

Toad, known as 5-MeO-DMT, DMT, or Bufo, has been touted by Mike Tyson, Chelsea Handler, and reality TV star Christina Haack. Hunter Biden has credited the drug with helping him overcome drug addiction. 

What type of an effect does Toad have? Bufo, the venom of a Sonoran desert toad, gives the user a feeling of death and dying, followed by a sense of rebirth. “It’s almost like dying and being reborn… It’s almost like you’re dying, you’re submissive, you’re humble, you’re vulnerable—but you’re invincible still in all,” Tyson told Joe Rogan in 2019.

Johns Hopkins published a paper in 2019 that described Bufo as having a positive effect on depression and anxiety. About 80 people participated in a Bufo session, without 80 percent reporting improvements in anxiety and depression. 

One wealthy friend of journalist Alex Kuczynski, who wrote about Toad for Town & Country, but wanted to remain anonymous because she comes from a well-known family, had experienced severe childhood trauma and spent time in talk therapy. Deciding it wasn’t enough, she participated in a Bufo “ceremony.” She experienced an outburst of rage during her trip, but afterward, she felt very much at peace.

She continued to see her therapist, and “He said, ‘Wow, you’re doing amazingly. You do not have depression.’ It was a huge energetic shift.” The Toad had helped her achieve what he could not during the year and a half she had been seeing him. 

However, this is not a party drug. It’s an intense, often life-changing experience, according to Malibu dispensary owner Tamer El-Shakhs. “I don’t think you would want to do it—or need to do it—more than a couple of times,” El-Shaks told the journalist.