My brother, who handles snakes alot, milks the snakes and then drinks the venom to build up an immunity. The other month he was bitten by a Tiger Snake, usually lethal and didn't die. Can you build up an immunity to venom by drinking it and smoking it? (apparently you get high from this)
2007-10-23 02:54:05 · 6 answers · asked by Nic 3 in Pets ➔ Reptiles
It's totally impossible to acquire a venom tolerance by drinking or smoking snake venom. Your stomach's digestive acids destroy the protein in the venom, effectively rendering it harmless. Smoking the venom will cause no harm or tolerance simply because the heat of the burning tobacco destroys the venom. The only possible danger to the handler by drinking the venom is that if the handler has an open sore in his mouth, on his lips or in the lining of his throat or stomach, he could envenomate himself by having the venom enter his bloodstream thru the open sore.
2007-10-23 08:56:58 · answer #1 · answered by Toe Cutter 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've never heard of smoking venom.
I have heard some cases of people drinking amounts of venom to prove they're "tough". In most cases the venom is counteracted by the stomach acid, if there's an ulcer, then the outcome may be much worse.
With regards to building up immunity, there have been cases where people inject themselves with small amounts of venom to build an immunity. One example I know of is a man who runs a snake farm in Florida, can't remember his name, but he claims it has saved him on a few occasions.
As far as drinking and smoking it goes I would think that would do more harm than good. And with regards to innoculating one's self, that seems too much risk to me.
2007-10-23 04:31:25 · answer #2 · answered by hippiewhomper57 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
like someone else said bill is the guy that does the self injection, also ray hunter (cobraman) does it. how would you smoke venom ? and drinking it wont do anything unless you have a ucler or cut. your brother has a tiger snake where did he get it from are you talking about the aussie tiger snake ? did he have it importated.
any responsible venomous keeper does not milk snakes, unless they do venom production.
2007-10-23 06:32:49 · answer #3 · answered by joeparker67 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope. for 2 motives: a million) nicely, that's sparkling 2) Sucking the poison out is a fantasy. It does now not something. i'd want to objective to identification the snake, keep him calm, & get him medical help ASAP. EDIT: @ Rabbit is going Moo - actual, there are poisonous snakes (i.e. in case you ate them that's advisable to be poisoned) yet you're ultimate that, in this context, the snake would desire to be called venomous, now not poisonous.
2016-11-09 06:56:33 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some people have built up an immunity to venom by allowing snakes to bite them (most notably, Bill Haast), but most people that try this actually develop a SENSITIVITY to the venom!
In some cases, a snake will not inject venom during a bite. This is known as a "dry bite". This may have happened to your brother.
I highly doubt that drinking or smoking snake venom is widely practiced, but some people will try anything for a high. It is undoubtedly very dangerous.
2007-10-23 04:38:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 5⤋
Go ahead and give it a try and call us when you're not dead.
I wouldn't recommend it.
2007-10-23 05:47:55 · answer #6 · answered by howldine 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋