Smoking dead Scorpions to get High; The latest Pakistani craze
A grimly fascinating report in Pakistan's newspaper features an interview with an aging scorpion-venom addict in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan. Sohbat
Khan, 74, says..
he has been smoking scorpions to get high off the venom
since the '60s, and only recently managed to kick the habit—by switching
to opium.
"Drugs are beaten by other drugs," he sadly told a reporter, speaking
in his native Pashto. The stuff appears highly addictive, and when
Khan could not find scorpions in his village, he would travel to
Peshawar, the regional capital, to buy them in the market. The piece
does not make clear if the scorpion trade is officially tolerated by
authorities.
But the preparation method is described. A dead scorpion is first dried
in the sun or roasted on a hot coal. Often the poor critters seem to be
roasted alive. “I would inhale the smoke coming out of the fire,” Khan
said. Apparently the whole arachnid is inhaled, although the venom is
concentrated in the tail. The "high" (if we may so call it) lasts for
almost 10 hours, and the first six are said to be extremely painful, as
the body adjusts to the venom.
Those last four must be pretty darn good,
eh? "Everything appears like it is dancing," Khan said. "The roads, the
vehicles, everything in front of me." (Is he actually driving on this stuff?)
Although an elderly user was featured, the habit is said to be catching
on among the region's youth. Some mix the roasted scorpion tail with
hashish and tobacco to smoke it in a cigarette. Khan seemed to prefer
his scorpion venom straight, smoking the roasted remains in a nacha, or small hash pipe.
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