As much as drugs today are associated with all sorts of synthetic substances created in laboratories, they have actually existed for millennia, and some of them don’t even have to go through “cooking” to have powerful effects on the human mind.

The hallucinogenic honey extracted from certain combs in the Himalayas is a clear example of this. In the following lines we will see what this psychoactive substance looks like and what effects it produces after consumption.

What is hallucinogenic honey?

Hallucinogenic honey is a type of honey made by the giant bees of the Himalayas when they feed on the flowers of a species of rhododendron common in the area. These flowers contain a type of toxic called grayatoxin whose effects on the activity of the human nervous system are significant if consumed properly.

This substance is more reddish in colour than is usual in the honey sold in any supermarket, and it tastes different.

The psychoactive effects that it produces, moreover, make some people who risk their lives to reach these beehives , located at the top of large stone walls in mountainous areas of Nepal, venture into their search every year . Usually, ladders of several tens of meters, made of bamboo, are used to reach them.

The Kirat Kulung people are usually the ones who go in search of this substance on a regular basis, as it is part of the remedies they have used for centuries to try to combat certain diseases.

Due to the difficulties in obtaining it and the high risk associated with reaching the honeycombs, hallucinogenic honey is sold on the black market at a fairly high price , of more than 100 euros per kilo. Moreover, the person who ventures to risk his life to expose himself to the danger of these cliffs is assisted by many assistants, who form teams of up to ten individuals.

However, several beekeepers around the world, especially in Turkey and the United States of America, also make a similar product by taking advantage of contexts where when rhododendrons bloom the bees have little more food available, so the amount of grayatoxins that pass into the final product is high.

The effects of this substance

Grayatoxins, which are present in high concentrations in the blood, increase the amount of acetylcholine available in the human brain.

Acetylcholine, in turn, is an element used by the neurons of the nervous system to communicate with each other, so it is fully involved in physiological and psychological processes.

When an excess of acetylcholine floods the brain, a phenomenon known as cholinergic syndrome appears. The effects of hallucinogenic honey intoxication are, in short, those resulting from the union of hallucinations and the symptoms of this syndrome, which produces gastrointestinal problems, vomiting, tearing and urinary incontinence.

Normally, the effects of hallucinogenic honey appear between a quarter of an hour and an hour after it has been ingested, but both the intensity of the effects and their duration are very difficult to know in advance, since one of the particularities of this product is that it is sold without knowing exactly the concentration of grayatoxins it contains.

However, as the effects are not immediate but several minutes pass between ingestion and appearance , there is a danger of binge eating, not being aware that all the toxins ingested will have a very negative effect on health.

Its traditional use

As in many other cultures, villages in Nepal routinely use home remedies whose effectiveness has not been scientifically proven in clinical studies. In particular, they usually ingest this food after purging themselves to combat cough and other symptoms of relatively common diseases .

Thus, the psychotropic effects of this honey are not the main reason why it is consumed in those villages where its use is traditional, although they have possibly contributed to give it an image of food with unique and significantly different qualities from normal honey.

The lack of controls and ignorance can make this substance endanger the life of the patients , since it alters the heart rate sensibly, making it drop a lot. If we add to that that it is used in people whose health is not good, the risk increases even more.