That disgraceful cobra vemon

It's not common to get a grasp of a variety of illegal substances in the USA, but that same hefty price in Delhi can get you a taste of cobra venom! A pinch of powdered venom to spike your drink (referred to by the street names K-72 or K-76) can cost five to ten times as much as other illicit drugs in India. But that price is fairly justified given the amount of delectation it is offering, which is relatively massive. Indian youth prefer it because it can increase sensations and ramp up energy, similar to a bump of cocaine, “within budget”.

Because of the reputation of its high-class high, smugglers dealing in “black” can get roughly 20 million rupees from just a liter of the venom. About 200 snakes have to sacrifice their lives for it. Authorities helping to stop this illegal trade have reported criminals with c*ndo*s full of snake venom and large glass containers full of the precious liquid, worth more than $15,000,000.

The stiff price makes it unaffordable for lower middle classes, but there's a fix for it too, i.e., via a more direct route. There are dealers in some cities in India that sell snakebites for recreational purposes. These dealers are either stand-alone salesmen or a part of “snake dens”—where a person can spend hours in a bite-induced stupor. The innumerable accounts of these dens that exist suggest they are present in dangerous neighborhoods of major cities across India. Some so-called snake dens have a variety of snakes to choose from, each graded as providing mild, moderate, or severe effects.Bites ranging from cobras, kraits, and other elapids are offered. But regardless of the species involved, snake venoms used recreationally, in dens or otherwise, are potentially deadly, and some are notorious killers with annual death tolls in the thousands.

The high from snake venom is not an immediate effect, it takes a little while before you really start to feel the intoxication. But somewhere between thirty minutes and two hours after a bite, it hits you. The neurotoxins take hold. Dizziness. Blurred vision. And then—euphoria.

Some experiences quote :

• “Cobra venom makes you feel kind of charged.”

• “It’s different, but similar at the same time; it seems to make you feel more keen to be active. And physically more able. But it’s different because there’s not so much of a mood change and no drippy nose the next day.”

• “good, clean high”

• Filled with “tremendous energy,”

• Some compare it to the feeling of cocaine, but “cleaner.” Clean because it does not cause side effects like cocaine does during initial use (bloody nose, trouble breathing, abnormal heart rhythms, paranoia etc ) Heavy cocaine use can damage many parts of the body. It can cause a lost sense of smell, reduced cognitive abilities, inflammation of nose tissues, lung damage, increased risk of nervous system disorders etc. But cobra venom has not been reported to bear such effects. All it does is KILL!

Though a cobra-based drug for humans has yet to make it to market, one can buy a toxin from cobra venom called cobroxin that is used by veterinarians as a horse analgesic to dope up horses and run ’em. It’s illegal to use in races, but it’s not illegal as a therapeutic. So if the venomous bites are providing pain relief plus a dopamine rush, that would be pretty tempting for many of the people who turn to other illegal substances.

One of the reasons people seek out opiates is to get rid of the pain and there’s good evidence that cobra venom contains strong painkillers. Experiments in the early twentieth century found low doses of cobra venom could provide complete analgesia in patients with terrible pain that other opiates couldn’t alleviate. There are several components from venoms known to do exactly that. One of the most researched is apamin, a component of bee venom, which shuts down calcium-dependent potassium channels to make neurons easier to trigger. In high doses, it can cause tremors and convulsions, but at lower doses, something interesting happens.

All the components of most venoms and what they do are not known. Though studies are discovering more every day, most still focus on one type of molecule at a time—proteins, peptides, lipids, or small molecules—because it requires lots of expensive equipment and specialized knowledge to separate and sequence each molecule type. Scientists are not really looking to uncover all the venom’s components— just the ones that cause the worst symptoms, so they know how to treat a bite.

From: Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry by Christie Wilcox

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