The drug-addicted ones will always find methods to get ‘high’. A Pakistani news site, Dawn had reported on the increasing trend in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of people smoking dead scorpions to get a different experience altogether.
As far as one scorpion smoker is concerned, the experience causes a ‘wild high’ which lasts for almost 10 hours, with the initial six of those hours being severely painful than the pleasant one. “I guess is unsurprising being that users are literally smoking venom,” he added. According to him, things eventually would turn more enjoyable.
“Everything appears like it is dancing… The roads, the vehicles, everything in front of me,” said Sohbat Khan, a 74-year-old former user who initiated back in the mid-‘60s. “It’s a worst form of addiction.”
A former member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s narcotics control department, identified as Azeemullah told Dawn that the increasing popularity in scorpion smoking has other effects as well. Scorpions can also be used for medicinal purposes. However, recreational use may result in a scorpion shortage. “We need laws in place to stop the killing of scorpions,” he said. It is learnt that the scorpion smoking is not easy to track. The UN is not keeping any record or data on such practice.
