After multiple combat tours as a Navy SEAL, Marcus Capone tried talk therapy. Brain-injury clinics. Prescription drugs. Nothing worked to ease his crippling depression and anxiety.
Then he smoked the venom of the Sonoran desert toad.
“I saw why they call this the ‘God molecule’ after I got a full central nervous system reset,” said Mr. Capone, 45, who now runs a nonprofit with his wife helping hundreds of other Special Operations veterans access toad medicine.
Riding the wave of greater mainstream acceptance of psychedelics for treating mental disorders and addiction, a fast-growing retreat industry is touting the potential of the toad’s secretions. People pay anywhere from $250 for a ceremony in the East Texas woods to $8,500 for a more gilded beachfront setting in Tulum, Mexico, to consume the venom.
But in a sign of the unintended consequences of the psychedelic resurgence, scientists are warning that the scramble by users to obtain the toads — involving poaching, over-harvesting and illegal trafficking in arid expanses straddling the border with Mexico — could trigger a collapse in Sonoran desert toad populations.
Toad medicine apostles are now increasingly split between those like Mr. Capone, who support using synthetic versions that are easy to produce, and purists who say they will never stop using venom collected from the toads themselves. As retreat operators tailor experiences for therapeutic, recreational or spiritual purposes, the discussions over threats to the toad are growing more contentious.
The toad itself, found primarily in the Sonoran desert, which straddles parts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, is already thought to have been extirpated in California, where it hasn’t been found in the wild in decades. Authorities in New Mexico list it as threatened, citing excessive collection among factors.
The Sonoran desert toad can still be found in parts of Arizona and Sonora in northwest Mexico. One of the largest toads native to North America and remarkably long-lived with a life span reaching 20 years, it hibernates underground for most of the year, resurfacing to breed around the summer monsoon rains.
When the toad is threatened, it excretes toxins strong enough to kill full-grown dogs. A substance found in these toxins, 5-MeO-DMT, can be dried into crystals and smoked in a pipe, producing an intense experience generally lasting 15 to 30 minutes, in contrast to other psychedelic substances that can involve hours of hallucinating and vomiting.
