Message to tourists: Don’t put your mouth on the Sonoran Desert toad, also known as the Colorado River toad, for access to its psychedelic toxins, warns the National Park Service.
“These toads have prominent parotoid glands that secrete a potent toxin. It can make you sick if you handle the frog or get the poison in your mouth. As we say with most things you come across in a national park … please refrain from licking,” the NPS wrote in a Halloween Facebook post.
The toxin secreted by the toad contains a psychedelic chemical, 5-MeO-DMT, that some users call the God molecule for its powerful hallucinatory effects.