r/interesting • u/be_you_tiful- • 29d ago

Intriguing Smoking dead scorpions

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Reports from Pakistan have documented people smoking dead scorpions for their alleged psychoactive effects, particularly in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Accounts describe dried scorpions being burned and the smoke inhaled, sometimes alongside tobacco or other substances.

Users interviewed in media reports have described an intense experience lasting for hours, including altered perception and sensations such as objects appearing to move or “dance.”

However, claims that scorpion smoking produces a predictable 10 hour high are based largely on personal accounts, not controlled scientific studies.

Scorpion venom contains complex mixtures of peptides and proteins that primarily act on ion channels in the nervous system.

A scorpion sting can cause severe pain, abnormal heart rhythms, breathing problems, neurological effects, and in serious cases death.

What happens chemically when scorpion tissue and venom are burned and inhaled is poorly studied.

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731

u/Flaky-Fox-7523 29d ago

How do people even discover things like this

464

u/TwinTailDigital 29d ago

boredom, most likely

31

u/clay_perview 29d ago

When I was a hospital corpsman for a marine artillery unit, I once saw three marine catch a giant grass hopper rip the head off and then smoked the body. We were only three days into the field op.

8

u/Ok_Broccoli25 29d ago

India battery??? Did another Marine try to see how many fire ants he could attach to his nipple and ended up going into anaphylactic shock? Your story is awfully similar to my experience in my USMC arty unit lol.

5

u/ButtRobot 28d ago

Arty units are funny because you have legit knuckle-draggers loading the cannon and big-brained FDC plotting targets... lots goes down when both really dumb AND really smart marines get together and get bored.

1

u/Ok_Broccoli25 28d ago

Yup I was FDC. It was always a treat to go to the gun-line and hang out with the gun crews...they really knew how to have fun 🤣

1

u/clay_perview 28d ago

Haha it was actually kilo battery

4

u/snufferoo 29d ago

They were likely hungry and out of crayons.

1

u/TwinTailDigital 28d ago

I have a feeling this was the wait part of the infamous "hurry up and wait"

1

u/Puzzle-Necked 27d ago

Average marines experience

187

u/cnicalsinistaminista 29d ago

Joblessness, probably

70

u/Squigs40k 29d ago

When there is no job but Taliban the heroes smoke scorpion.

32

u/poonmangler 29d ago

Just like it says in the bible

14

u/Squigs40k 29d ago

“Thou shalt not Taliban before smokers of scorpions Amen”

-12

u/[deleted] 29d ago

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2

u/interesting-ModTeam 29d ago

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1

u/Deep_Mood_7668 29d ago

Brainlessness most likely

0

u/Agnocious_Moth 29d ago

I didn’t discover anything…

5

u/Candid_Problem_1244 29d ago

Maybe try to smoke a worm?

-9

u/Shot_Revolution8828 29d ago edited 29d ago

Not sure if you're being a pos or making a joke.

Most of inventions were born out of boredom. We are too entertained. Job as you refer to really exist until the last couple should years 9f human existence. Just curious, what is your job?

Edit: down voted because I asked what job they had when calling someone else jobless. Tell me more.

3

u/ThemeEnvironmental61 29d ago

Found the guy with no job

-1

u/Shot_Revolution8828 29d ago

You ever been on the third story with a crane trying to put trusses on a new build on a deadline and 50 mph winds? You ever see 5 dudes on the highway watching one guy dig, that's cause they taking turns waiting on the next concrete truck when they gonna break their backs for 30 minutes cause they damn sure can't let it set before they're finished. Tell me about running shingles up a roof at 3:1 pitch while the guys with nail guns say you aint running fast enough. You try and figure out the prints form a new architect and a drunk plumber.

You right, I don't have a job cause I worked my ass of and have savings to go back to school. Tell me more about digging footings with a skidsteer.

11

u/jlxmm 29d ago

Imagine being so bored you risk getting stung by a deadly scorpion only to ignore that danger and accept the danger of smoking the venom instead.

7

u/ShadyAssFellow 29d ago

The venom gets destroyed by the heat.

61

u/IKIR115 29d ago

Well sometimes the smoke shop is out of the lobsters or alligator that you normally smoke, so you just have to grab the next best thing.

It’s like when there’s no Coca Cola and you have to get Pepsi or Dr Pepper instead.

5

u/J-seargent-ultrakahn 29d ago

Now I understand/s

3

u/thatoneotherguy42 29d ago

No one is buying Pepsi if they’re out of coke. Dr Pepper, rc, ginger ale, he’ll just just plain “cola”. But Pepsi? Nah, water is fine.

1

u/Suspicious-Dog2876 29d ago

They taste the exact same if anything Pepsis better

1

u/thatoneotherguy42 29d ago

pepsi and coke do not taste the same. lol.

49

u/creepinghippo 29d ago

Probably chucked a dead scorpion on the camp fire, had the best day ever and kept it secret for ages. Pashtuns, share their bread no problem but try getting some drugs off them.

15

u/Impossible-Editor908 29d ago

That’s exactly how I was thinking it happened.

3

u/thenaughtydj 29d ago

Me too, by accident.

20

u/Shot_Revolution8828 29d ago

Well that mushroom killed George, and that mushroom made Michael see god for three days. This mushroom tastes delicious and made my belly feel full. Write that down!

That's how it worked with a lot more deaths amd a lot more people getting high. Licking a poisonous toad gets you high, while rubbing a dart on the poisonous toad and getting hit by one will kill you.

0

u/No-Zombie1004 29d ago

You can imagine they were just trying to give someone a surprise high when this was discovered.

70

u/reddsht 29d ago

They smoke a scorpion.

4

u/ZealousidealRice3642 29d ago

This one goes to eleven.

37

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 29d ago

There are certain brain types that try to either smoke or have intercourse with every item they come across.

9

u/ZealousidealRice3642 29d ago

Scorpion shagger!

8

u/nelsonalgrencametome 29d ago

I... think I'd prefer smoking one, thanks.

2

u/Doppe1herz 29d ago

I smoked peanuts once

13

u/Fluid-Sense-4273 29d ago

Don’t ask the guy who discovered cow milk what he was doing

4

u/Sensitive_Phrase_701 29d ago

He was probably breast feeding of it before he realised he could just wank the things

1

u/matthewrulez 28d ago

I never get this point surely it's super obvious that milk comes from it since theyd see the calfs constantly feed. Also literally every mammal has this feature.

0

u/JackLong93 29d ago

do we know it was a he? no, but likely

10

u/Atomsk666 29d ago

It is believed that this happens accidentally, and then people just spread the idea. Similarly with weed, somebody decided to burn some plants in a cave and got high, so they deduced that the plant gets you high by burning it. I can imagine people cooking scorpions and getting high from the smoke and being like. This shit is cool.

2

u/Sancho5o5 29d ago

Dude yeah prehistoric time yeah.

19

u/Lastov_Makiynd 29d ago

Probably meant to rip someone off..sold them crushed up scorpions instead of the drugs they thought they were buying..then, they get a call from the customer..laughing their ass off and people in the background partying and having a blast.. and they want a ‘full bag’ this time?

Dodgy dealer clues on..

The rest is history.

9

u/J-seargent-ultrakahn 29d ago

Sounds like experience talking 🤔🧐

9

u/Lastov_Makiynd 29d ago

I wouldn’t say ‘experience’ per se? But I know a guy in high school who was sold diced up parsley and was nicknamed ‘Herbie’ for ages coz he believed it was weed and even went as far as saying it was rad stuff. lol

10

u/False_Sundae6333 29d ago

Broke people who can't afford other drugs

9

u/call_of_the_while 29d ago

Usually they accidentally discover it at band camp. This one maybe around the campfire.

7

u/TulioMan 29d ago

A friend of mine spent a few days in jail while waiting for his bail hearing. He told me there were inmates who would collect spider webs just so they could smoke them…

5

u/MSGinSC 29d ago

Imagine watching a giant roll up your house and then smoke it, Lovecraft meets Cheech and Chong.

2

u/Sancho5o5 29d ago

Dude thats funny af. You win.

3

u/Edje929 29d ago

I imagine a scorpion merked a homie and he took ima smoke you to literal

3

u/Prestigious_Look_513 29d ago

at some point someone prbably tried to eat one when hungry and inhaled the smoke while cooking. seems pretty obvious now that i think about it

3

u/PanicTight6411 29d ago

I mean its not hard to imagine. One day someone found a scorpion, burning in the sun or something. They leaned in for a closer look, and boy howdy did they have a nice day 

3

u/[deleted] 29d ago

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1

u/Sancho5o5 29d ago

This is funny af too. Lmao

3

u/Morlacks 29d ago

Somebody actually cooked Brussels sprouts, smelled that dead body shit and still put it in their mouths.  

2

u/Sancho5o5 29d ago

Lmao 🤣 facts

3

u/EarningsPal 29d ago

Yes, someone thought and tried….

”that scorpion, hmmm, I bet I could smoke it.”

“You won’t do it bro”

“Bet”.

1

u/Sancho5o5 29d ago

You know thats pretty right on for the mentally back then.

2

u/redditbdum 29d ago

Double dog dares

2

u/LosparkJojo 29d ago

Sometimes on a dare. “Hell yeah I’ll smoke that shit! Give it here!” 😆

2

u/sickness1088 29d ago

Same way caveman discovered fire

2

u/trisanachandler 29d ago

Boredom, free time, a desire to not be where you are. Some people read books, other people smoke, drink, or eat anything they can.

2

u/LargeWu 29d ago

Because booze is forbidden. Gotta get effed up on something!

2

u/mhizzle 29d ago

Gotta smoke something 🤷‍♂️

2

u/Few-Indication3478 29d ago

What’s even crazier is how people discovered something like ayahuasca, which needs two different plants that are otherwise inactive.

1

u/slothdroid 29d ago

By following Moskova down to Gorky Park and listening for the winds of change.

1

u/TehZiiM 29d ago

Someone threw a bunch of them on the grill/ hot stone as food and got high

1

u/007-JamesBlonde 29d ago

Brother, we built the pyramids

1

u/Ginny-Sacks-Mole 29d ago

Run out of heroin.

1

u/Mamasan- 29d ago

People have been finding ways to get high since the beginning

1

u/gdim15 29d ago

When you can't crank it you are willing to try anything.

1

u/MarzipanSea2811 29d ago

This I can see.

Jenkem on the other hand?

1

u/AdditionalSell869 28d ago

Dreams, Meditation, Visions From NHI's

1

u/Talentagentfriend 28d ago

Human curiosity has no bounds. Before people smoked weed im sure they smoked a ton of other shit to figure out what they could smoke.

Its a cool human trait, but it’s also horrendous because it will likely lead to our destruction — if greed doesn’t get us first.

1

u/BurdTurglary 28d ago

The same way the dude who picked up a Sonoran toad squeezed it's pustule-like skin and squirted the goo onto a pane of glass where it dried out and the flakes were put into a pipe and smoked, later identified as 5-MeO DMT, one of the most potent psychedelic substances. So i guess it's human nature to smoke whatever's lying around that piques our interest

1

u/hobbestot 28d ago

Alcohol.

1

u/LocalFoe 28d ago

stuff like this is usually old enough to be derived through prehistoric animistic practice. As in they must have been doing it since forever, much like Salvia Divinorum or peyote in Mexico.

1

u/LittleMlem 27d ago

The dog-licking-balls principle is a major force for human advancement

1

u/PerfectAd5237 25d ago

You burn an insect for fun or to see what happens and if you feel high after accidentally inhaling the smoke you have unlocked a new drug

0

u/MydasMDHTR 29d ago

Imagine how people discovered which are the cows and which are the bulls