Our friends at VBS.tv have a new adventure to share. These guys never cease to amaze, this time going on a journey deep into the Amazon in search of the hallucinogenic sapo frog! Check it out:
Hey Nerdo!
For your editorial eyeballs – an new online short doc from VBS.TV we just did called The Sapo Diaries. It is part travel, part anthropology, part journalism, all drugs, lots of mosquitos, and a dash of morbidly named creatures like the “Penis” fish. Yes, Vice goes down the Amazon in search of the psychedelic Sapo frog. This is the story that comes from trying to take one of the world’s most elusive drug experience.
What follows below is not your standard copy, I admit it’s long. But we can’t tell the story with out being descriptive. The viewer has to invest in the time in order to meander along with us down this tale.
If you don’t want the spoiler below you can dive in here for the The Sapo Diaries on VBS.TV & don’t forget the bug repellant .
I’ll let our guide Hamilton Morris pick it up from here:
There is an Amazonian frog called Phyllomedusa Bicolor or the Sapo which I have been reading about for years. It is totally different from the psychedelic toads found in North America. The Sapo’s venom produces an effect much closer to morphine than LSD, but really it’s not like either of those things. It’s a distinctly vomitous dissociative experience unlike anything else I’ve ever encountered.
There has been a lot written about the chemistry of the venom, and it has been said to have a diverse array of effects. Some people think its a miracle opioid which will yield new non-addictive pain killers, others think its a super potent stimulant and appetite suppressant, and even a strange psychedelic capable of tuning hunters into the mindset of their prey. In the 80’s researchers found one of the constituents of Sapo venom in the urine of autistic children, and developed an entire theory of autism around it.
I had to find out what this frog really does, but supposedly it cannot produce its venom in captivity. The only way to experience its unique trip is to travel down the Amazon River and catch one yourself, which is exactly what I did. – Hamilton
Aside from watching Hamilton on VBS.TV, you can also read Hamilton’s Sapo Diaries in their entirety in the Vice Brazil Issue.
Thanks for watching, let me know if you have any questions. Below is a snapshot from the trip of our guide Hamilton.
Rory
VBS.tv
