Oh, lots of things. But for one thing, Powell wouldn’t mock the Colorado River Toad the way he did in the first book (or commenting facetiously about his buddy who suggested smoking toad skins ) since it’s an actual thing. Incilius alvarius’ defensive poison has actual hallucinogenic and psychotropic properties.
The poison on the back of a typical toad can kill a dog, so be careful, or it will fuck you up. First nations folk would actually lick the toads and just suffer the bad trip until they got accustomed to the toxins. But that’s a rough ride.
Since the late twentieth century cultivators would raise and milk toad venom and then distill the desired chemistries into a powder that can be ingested or smoked (much like cannibis, rolled into cigarettes, smoked from a pipe or mixed into edibles), hence yeah, when Powell heard about it, it registered as smoking toad skins though thankfully, the frogs survive the process.
Powell’s 'tude about drugs was informed by the 60s mind-expansion movement to try different stuff and see what broadens your perspective. And so the 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine / bufotenin cocktail would actually fit right into his philosophy. If I remember right, he talked about trying peyote, which was a really bad trip for him.
All that said, there’s self-awareness related stuff that I would want to throw in, since the western psychiatric model is not great for dealing with mental illness or for reconciling living in a toxic society. Drugs are commonly used to self medicate but even then can be so much more effective when we’re aware that’s what we’re doing, and this is a point often missed in drug culture, in recovery culture and in the mental health sector all together.
Oh, lots of things. But for one thing, Powell wouldn’t mock the Colorado River Toad the way he did in the first book (or commenting facetiously about his buddy who suggested smoking toad skins ) since it’s an actual thing. Incilius alvarius’ defensive poison has actual hallucinogenic and psychotropic properties.
The poison on the back of a typical toad can kill a dog, so be careful, or it will fuck you up. First nations folk would actually lick the toads and just suffer the bad trip until they got accustomed to the toxins. But that’s a rough ride.
Since the late twentieth century cultivators would raise and milk toad venom and then distill the desired chemistries into a powder that can be ingested or smoked (much like cannibis, rolled into cigarettes, smoked from a pipe or mixed into edibles), hence yeah, when Powell heard about it, it registered as smoking toad skins though thankfully, the frogs survive the process.
Powell’s 'tude about drugs was informed by the 60s mind-expansion movement to try different stuff and see what broadens your perspective. And so the 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine / bufotenin cocktail would actually fit right into his philosophy. If I remember right, he talked about trying peyote, which was a really bad trip for him.
All that said, there’s self-awareness related stuff that I would want to throw in, since the western psychiatric model is not great for dealing with mental illness or for reconciling living in a toxic society. Drugs are commonly used to self medicate but even then can be so much more effective when we’re aware that’s what we’re doing, and this is a point often missed in drug culture, in recovery culture and in the mental health sector all together.