Review: Truth and Consequences for Whistleblowers
Top: The Sonoran Desert toad and chemical structures of 5-MeO-DMT Visual: Base image Saguaro National Park; Illustration by Undark
W hen Johannes Reckweg arrived in the Netherlands in 2016 to work on his master’s program in neuropsychology, he didn’t expect to learn about a psychedelic compound commonly found in a toad that lives half a world away. But his research on stimulants led him to another substance that quickly piqued his interest: 5-MeO-DMT.
“It sparked my fascination with this topic of pharmacological or psychopharmacological research and how drugs affect human behavior,” Reckweg said.
While the natural hallucinogen can be found in some plants and fungi, its best-known source is the Sonoran Desert toad, a greenish gray amphibian that roams the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. To get the psychedelic, poachers squeeze the toad’s glands to secrete a milky toxin that contains 5-MeO-DMT, along with other molecules. Though the toad usually survives this process, conservationists warn that rising demand in the once obscure psychoactive compound has put pressure on the toad population. They call it yet another risk for an amphibian already threatened by dry weather, a shrinking habitat, and disease.
Now, amid a global renaissance in psychedelics as medicine, scientists are working to study and develop synthetic formulations of 5-MeO-DMT for hard-to-treat mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The laboratory formulations seem unlikely to curb recreational toad squeezers, but limited studies suggest that 5-MeO-DMT could have a real medicinal value — though further research needs to be done.
