People buying unregulated frog toxin off the internet for miracle cures, some for concocted reasons like "removing the COVID-19 vaccine," and having it administered by clueless self-proclaimed shaman-types, are dying. The harvesting of frogs for this toxin is also very bad for the rainforest.
I had a friend ask me how he should go about managing a substance abuse problem. We live in Los Angeles and I suggested he try the appropriate variant of Alcoholics Anonymous, as the program is very successful here. He decided to try a treatment like this and, while currently missing, was last known to still have a substance abuse problem.
"There are so many serious adverse reactions," says Jan Keppel Hesselink, a pain physician and director at the Institute for Neuropathic Pain in the Netherlands, who has authored numerous research papers on kambo. "More and more people are getting very sick or even dying because the people administering kambo have no clue about medicine."
Despite all of this, thousands of kambo users swear the poison has improved their health, and the number of providers is on the rise. Although kambo has been banned in Australia and Brazil after highly publicized deaths in those countries, it's legal in California, with no regulations or government oversight. That means the claims of practitioners largely go unchallenged.
"When we imbibe of the frog, the frog is a symbol of transformation," Carrick says. "…It can actually adapt to an aqueous environment and also a terrestrial one, right? So in taking the kambo, we take on the ability to be flexible."
The vomiting alone is enough to make me say no.
Featured Image for illustrative purposes not Phyllomedusa bicolor
