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Animals Getting High!


Nobody stops thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you’ve been to some of those places, you think, ”How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?


It turns out animals have vices just like we do. Intoxicating substances usually come from a natural source, and many animals consume these “natural drugs” on a regular basis. While some of these animals have mechanisms to avoid getting intoxicated, a few intentionally seek the psychoactive effects for recreational use.


Household Pets - Drug of Choice: Hallucinogens


Veterinarians routinely warn pet owners to keep their dogs and cats from licking toads, as many species secrete hallucinogens from skin. Internet abounds with stories and videos of pets that behave abnormally after getting a lick, and some even go back for more. One dog owner reported her Cocker Spaniel’s troubling lapse into habitual toad-sucking, until she mellowed out a bit with age.


Horses - Drug of Choice: locoweed

Horses prefer to get high on potted locoweed, type of legume that acts as a mind-altering drug. Locoweed is to horses what nicotine is to people: an extremely addictive drug that kills them slowly over the course of several years. During the lean winter months, locoweed is the only green plant available in some pastures. Horses first seek it out for its nutritious goodness, but keep coming back for its psychoactive effects


Bighorn sheep - Drug of Choice: like to get high on narcotic lichen

And luckily for them, in the vast wilderness of the Canadian Rockies lives a unique species of yellow-green lichen that will screw you up.


The lichen is extremely rare (it can take decades for them to grow over a single rock) and only grow in very inhospitable regions of the Rockies.

Despite the fact that it is dangerous to get at and contains no nutritional value, the sheep will risk life and limb to get some. 

Once they reach the lichen, many sheep will grind their teeth down to the gums if it’s necessary to get their “fix”. Local humans noted that these sheep often displayed strange behavior in comparison to their un-addicted herd mates.


Cicadas - Drug of Choice: Fungal Hallucinogens

Fungal Hallucinogens Send Cicadas on Sex Binges. A cicada-infecting fungus produces drugs that make the insects literally mate their butts off. Losing body parts would surely slow most organisms down, and yet for the fungal-infected cicadas, “two-thirds of their body might be missing, and they would be whistling as they walk down the street,”


Wallaby- Drug of Choice: Opium


Poppy farmers on the Australian island of Tasmania have reported wallabies entering their fields to consume the plants, which are grown as the raw materials for prescription painkillers. After eating the poppies, the small, kangaroo-like animals would run around in circles before finally passing out,


Rough-toothed Dolphin - Drug of Choice: Tetrodotoxin

In 1995, marine biologist Lisa Steiner was observing a school of rough-toothed dolphins near the Azores (map) when she noticed a few of them pushing around an inflated pufferfish.  Odd behavior, given that pufferfish produce tetrodotoxin, one of the most toxic and lethal substances known on Earth. The dolphins were consuming minute amounts of tetrodotoxin to get high. 


Domestic Cat - Drug of Choice: Catnip

Garfield had his lasagna, but most house cats prefer the effects of catnip (Nepeta cataria). 

A member of the mint family, the catnip plant produces an intoxicating chemical called nepetalactone, which, when inhaled or ingested, causes reactions such as anxiety, hyperactivity, sleepiness, and drooling. One of the most familiar examples of animals using drugs is that of cats and catnip. Many cat owners have witnessed their pets’ enthusiasm when presented with this potent herb, which often produces humorous changes in their behavior ,And it’s not just Fluffy that feels the effect of catnip: Lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, and lynxes also respond to catnip, which grows in the wild worldwide. The effect is harmless and generally wears off after about 15 minutes.


Caterpillars - Drug of Choice: Coke


Drug cartels in Columbia have a more than the CIA to worry about. Unlike most insects, the caterpillar feeds on the leaves of coca plants. The caterpillar larvae of the Eloria noyesi moth, found in Peru and Colombia, feeds exclusively on coca plants, eating as many as 50 leaves each day. Most insects avoid the bush, which is the raw ingredient of cocaine, because it can make them severely ill or kill them, but caterpillars are completely resistant to the drug. Colombian researchers have argued this quality could make the caterpillars a valuable asset in the struggle to destroy illegal coca plantations. 



Reindeer Shrooming up Friend - Drug of Choice: Amanita muscaria mushrooms 


In Siberia, reindeer are common—and so is the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. Biologists have documented reindeer getting high enough to fly Santa’s sleigh, causing them to act almost as if drunk, running around aimlessly, making strange noises, and twitching their heads. In fact, a few researchers have argued that the combination of reindeer and hallucinogenic mushrooms is the origin for the Santa story :)



ALSO THE CIRCLE OF PISS:

  1. Reindeer eat mushrooms and pee.

  2. Humans collect the pee and get high.

  3. Humans pee, and reindeer drink their own people-filtered-urine to get high again.

  4. The reindeer pee, and the circle begins anew.


Capuchin Monkeys and Lemurs - Drug of Choice: These two species love to get high on hallucinogenic millipedes.

Yes, both capuchin monkeys in South America and lemurs in Madagascar have learned how to get high off of passing insects. Apparently, several species of millipedes squirt out a poisonous compound when agitated. Unfortunately, millipede venom is also filled with cyanide, which is deadly to pretty much everything. Of course the risk of agonizing death has never stopped anyone from getting high, so the capuchins (one of mankind’s closest relatives) gather in huge groups and swap hits of ‘pede.





Chimps smoking

A female chimp in a Zhengzhou zoo in Henan province, China, reportedly took up smoking as a result of sexual frustration. Chimps in South Africa have also been filmed sucking on cancer sticks.


Cows - Drug of Choice: Grazing on Locoweed


Cows along with sheep and horses, will sometimes seek out “locoweed” .This plant acts as a tranquilizer, putting animals into a stupor of calmness. Many times, animals will stand in place for extended periods after consuming locoweed, seemingly uninterested in socialization or any other activity. Once an animal begins to graze on locoweed, it is very difficult for them to stop.


So is there something magical about drugs and alcohol with us humans? So what's our fascination and why do some of us like them so much?! Actually, before we try and answer that one, let's conclude: we are not alone. Some of the drugs we use, abuse, and become addicted to today were actually "discovered" by animals first.


For example, you know why we have coffee today? Well, the "legend of the dancing goats" says that coffee beans were first discovered in a field in Ethiopia by a goat herder who noticed that his goats were acting weird sometimes, running around and dancing wildly. He couldn't figure out why and so decided to study them.He saw them eating small red berries on a certain shrub found in the area—turns out those were coffee plants. After eating the berries with the coffee beans inside, the goats started their "dancing." Legend also has it that the goat herder also started eating the berries and dancing with them!


Back to our question…so why do we (or at least some of us) and our animal counterparts like these natural-occurring substances and synthetic or man-made drugs? The answer is simple…blame it on our brains!


We have evolved a brain that allows us to see, hear, taste, move, think, etc., and also to repeat things that feel good. That happens because a part of our brain sends out feel-good signals when we do something we enjoy, like eating good food, playing a video game, kicking a goal in soccer, listening to our favorite music, or going upside-down on a roller coaster. The system that says to us, "Hey, that was good, do it again!" is called the "reward system."


Turns out that alcohol and drugs affect this system really well; they are effective at going right to our brain's "reward system" and putting it into high gear.This very effective stimulation of the reward system is why many people can become addicted to drugs, since feeling good is what drives much of our behavior. Drugs, in a sense, trick the system that has evolved for helping us in our world and instead can turn our world upside down......

So on a closing note sometime back a friend asked my opinion about mandatory drug testing. I said I believed in drug testing a long time ago. All through the nineties I tested everything. :)




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