A Very Scary Trend In Asia And The Middle East That Hopefully Wont Become Popular In The United States!

I couldn't imagine eating one

It is not uncommon for places in places like Arizona, Southern California and New Mexico and Mexico to find scorpion jewelry, paper-weights, and people actually eating them....either straight on a skewer or in a lollipop or even on a pizza! People even get them as tattoos which I guess isn't so bad.

Smoking scorpions

Smoking scorpions seems to be a huge trend in places like Asia and the Middle East. Laws against drug use in these areas have caused the cost of "street drugs" to sky rocket leaving people searching for a cheaper way to get high. Apparently it gives you an instant insane high that can last for about 10 hours!

Hallucinations

However the first 6 hours is intensely painful. After the pain subsides people say that the high is said to be euphoric, often causing hallucinations.

People enjoy most of the hallucinations

Part of the hallucinations is that "everything" appears to be dancing. Some of the less favorable side effects are loss of both long and short term memory, stomach problems, sleep paralysis, eating disorders and even death!

Addicts

With all the bad side effects, especially the first 6 hours of intense pain, addicts apparently think the 4 hours of the "enjoyable" high is worth it.

Does not discriminate against age

Unfortunately even older people have started smoking it. One person said they were 60 when they started! While other elder addicts have realized that their bodies can't handle it and have gone back to street drugs after smoking scorpions for nearly 50 years!

Worse than most other drugs

This trend is not something new. It's been around for over 60 years. While some people can kill these scorpions on their own with out going through a "middle man" others prefer to meet with a dealer. Addicts are usually fairly lazy and aren't dedicated enough to take the time to hunt them themselves. There is over 1,700 different species of scorpions of which only 25 are said to be fatal to humans, which is probably why some choose to meet their "dealer" and pay the equivalent of $2.25 US dollars to just be stung by the scorpion in order to get their high. Laws are trying to come to be against the killing of scorpions. The Venom in their tails is what gives the addictive high. People in the medical field are concerned of there being a shortage of scorpions as it is useful in medical treatments. Scorpion venom has been found to have antimicrobial and anticancer effects, be effective as an insecticide, and useful as a potassium channel blocker for cardiac arrest treatment.

Done mostly in secret places

There hasn't been much research study done on why it is so addictive because most get high in secret places.

Different methods

There are a few ways people achieve their high through the scorpion. One way is once the scorpion is killed it is left in the sun to dry out. Basically just becoming a carcass. Another method is to burn the scorpion on coal until it dies, then the scorpion is left on a special stove to continue to cook until it turns to powder. Some inhale the smoke as it is burning on the stove. A more "seasoned" addict will usually crush the dried tail of it and roll it up in tobacco and smoke it like that. A person can also buy scorpions in a public market for just a few cents and get high from smoking the tails.

Smoking since he was 20 years old

A man that has been smoking it since he was 20 said

"Hashish and heroin's so-called relief is nothing in front of scorpion."

Sad to think that with a high so debilitating, they wouldn't be capable of achieving any success in life.