Fig 1. WBAC or World Bufo Alvarius Congress logo
The WBAC or “World Bufo Alvarius Congress” is a world-class international congress that has been happening in Mexico City on the month of July for the last 2 years, being the first edition from July 27th to July 29th, 2018. The central theme of this congress is the Incilius alvarius toad (syn. Bufo alvarius) and everything related to its psychedelic secretion which contains a psychoactive tryptamine called 5-MeO-DMT. This molecule produces a wide range of experiences, among them the most transcendent being an apparent spiritual experience or peak experience if we use psychological terms.
The congress is organized by a diverse society of individuals from different parts of the world with different backgrounds, but is mainly managed by a small group of facilitators, therapists and researchers that belong to two groups: “Asociación de Terapeutas del Bufo Alvarius” led by Pit Prieto and “Medicina Sagrada CDMX” led by Mario Garnier, the latter used to work for a major media corporation called Televisa before becoming an expert in everything related to the Bufo alvarius toad. Both groups are deeply involved in the business of recollection, distribution and application of psychoactive toad secretion in humans. They run therapeutic sessions in private apartments located in Mexico City as well as neoshamanic ceremonies out in natural environments, in exchange of monetary compensation in most cases. These sessions can be completely free of charge or have a price of hundreds of dollars, as the popular mexican saying goes: depending the toad, the stone. The mission of these groups is unknown to me, but let’s assume they are well-intentioned. Let us assume they do what they do to help in the betterment of humankind through the facilitation of psychedelic experiences in humans. Let’s think the best of them.
I noticed that their stance in relation to the use of this magical substance that comes from this particular desert amphibian was, let’s say, conservative. They don’t approve the use of toad secretion outside therapeutic or neoshamanic settings, and openly despise the concept of recreational or psychonautic use of this element in solo or accompanied environments. They are not the only ones that feel this way about toad secretion use, a lot of toad facilitators around the world express similar points of view, under the premise that it is very dangerous to have this experience without the supervision of a facilitator or neoshaman.
There are three possible ways to experience Bufo alvarius toad secretion: alone, accompanied by a sitter or under the supervision of a facilitator. On all of these settings, the experience of the individual can be quite similar, however smoking this secretion alone can be dangerous since there is a slight risk of dying by pulmonary aspiration of vomit. Since 5-MeO-DMT causes dissociative effects, the solo traveler might find himself incapacitated to put him or herself in recovery position, therefore dying. The probability of vomiting can be reduced by a margin of 90% if the experience is done on an empty stomach, this is why it is recommended to fast and avoid alcoholic beverages beforehand. On the other hand, when done under the supervision of a sitter (significant other, friend of family) or a toad facilitator the risk of death is lowered even more, since the only thing that they need to watch out for is that the user doesn’t hurt him or herself, and in case of vomit to simply set the user’s body in recovery position and make sure the person is breathing normally.
Fig 2. Recovery position
Last year I published a blog post titled “How to smoke toad without neoshamans”, in which I shared my experience with the molecule as well as my opinion about paying large sums of money versus paying the same amount of money for 1 gram of toad secretion, which is equivalent to 15 doses. My post was removed twice from the Bufo alvarius Facebook group in which Pit Prieto is admin, they even banned me. In such post I left perfectly clear that I did not endorse doing it solo without sitter under any circumstance, but that I believed it to be totally plausible to do it with the knowledgeable sitter of your preference, not only because some of us prefer to have peak experiences outside neoshamanic settings but also because it seems to me that the prices offered by most neoshamans or facilitators is insanely high, considering that they are generating a profit of more than 1000% per session (yes, you read that right). Assuming that the cost of a full gram of toad secretion is $75 USD and that they burn 66 mg per session, the dose would have a cost of $5 USD. A single dose can be sold at up to $250 USD in ceremonies overseas, but here in Mexico the session has an average price of $75 USD with “certified toad facilitators”. If a single dose costs them $5 USD and they sell them at $75 USD, this represents a Return of Investment (ROI) of 1400%, and if it is sold at $250 USD the ROI is of nothing less than 4900%, this revenue percentages would cause a peak spiritual experience to any financial analyst just by looking at the numbers. But let’s keep our positive thinking and assume that money is not a factor. The purpose of this publication goes beyond money or setting preferences, it’s about the attempt of trying to monopolize toad secretion traffic, as well as the impact this phenomena is having on the lives of these amphibians that cannot defend themselves from the relentless chasing of humans trying to exploit their 5-MeO-DMT containing parotid glands.
Fig 3. Toad facilitator having a peak experience
The first publication in history about the psychedelic use of Bufo alvarius toad secretion was written in 1983 by a north-american under the alias of “Albert Most”. The pamphlet is titled: “Bufo alvarius: The psychedelic toad of the Sonoran desert”, in which the author thoroughly explains where to identify and how to extract toad secretion from Bufo alvarius, as well as tips and recommendations on its use for psychedelic or psychonautic purposes. Nowhere on the pamphlet does it say that this secretion should be exclusively used by neoshamans or therapists, much less that it shouldn’t be used for psychedelic or psychonautic purposes. In fact, between 1980 and 2010, its neoshamanic use was practically inexistent if compared to its independent psychonautic use. Any person that knew about this compound, may it be organic or synthetic, used to low-key share their experiences in psychedelic events and years later on internet forums about drug use in general and psychedelics in particular. Finally, due to its intense popularization and abuse, the USA government prohibited both 5-MeO-DMT and possession of Sonoran Desert toad secretion on January 19th, 2011. However it was and still is totally legal to extract, possess, buy and sell here in Mexico.
Fig 4. Psychedelic legend Ralph Metzner, extracting bufo toad venom back in 1992
Regarding my banned publication, I decided to call Pit Prieto’s cellphone and complain to him about the action taken on my article and my account, asking him to reconsider the censorship that I believed was unjustified. We talked for half hour about several subjects. I was surprised to hear all the negative stories he told me: from users that smoked 5-MeO-DMT in insanely high amounts, causing themselves psychotic breaks to stories of facilitators that abused and molested women while they were unconscious during the dissociative trance this molecule produces. All this he told me with a preoccupied tone, telling me he didn’t recommend promoting the use of this substance in an independent manner or with a sitter of our election, and that that was the reason he decided to delete my publication and kick my ass out of the Facebook group. As much as I understand his point of view, he is the President of the Mexican Association of Bufo Alvarius Therapists, therefore he is not precisely an impartial and unbiased character on the use of toad secretion. I finally decided to create a group of my own called “Salvia Sapo y Keta”, in which people could freely express their experiences, thoughts and questions regarding recreational, therapeutic, psychonautic or shamanic use of Salvia divinorum, Bufo alvarius secretion, Ketamine and other psychedelics, without them having to worry about being censored or banned for speaking their mind. If Pit Prieto hadn’t censored me, I wouldn’t have created this Facebook group.
I decided not to invite Pit to this group since I assumed the level of freedom in which we talk about these substances would not be appreciated by him, nevertheless I decided to invite Mario Garnier, since I heard some of his podcasts in YouTube and seemed to me a pretty rational dude, that gives science its rightful place and a chilled-out character overall. A month after I sent him the group invite he finally accepted. Surprised, I showed off to the group that we had a giant among us, while at the same time warning everyone that it seemed to me Mario Garnier and his friends had a more conservative stance regarding Bufo alvarius secretion.
“Sup everyone, it’s an honor for me to mention you all that Mario Garnier is now member of this group haha, this sr. is an expert in Bufo alvarius toad and he has a podcast in YouTube that is called “Sacred Medicine CDMX” that has a lot of valuable info on 5-MeO-DMT and toad. Also, he is the organizer of ‘WBAC: World Bufo Alvarius Congress’. What else can you ask for? In my personal opinion, he and his group of friends are a little on the conservative side in relation to the use of this psychedelic substance, as well as having a tendency for some kind-of elitist ideas regarding toad secretion use, BUT they are very knowledgeable and they appreciate scientific research accepting the evidence that comes up, especially Mario. Cool!”
Several weeks later I shared a post originally published by a sustainable toad secretion collector named Carlos Barraza. This guy is member of an association called “Fundación Bufo Alvarius Sonora A.C.” which is 100% from the state of Sonora and are fully committed to the sustainable extraction of toad medicine by only collecting in the desert when the toad is not hibernating and releasing the toad back to the wild once they obtain some secretion. I shared this post because, as mentioned earlier, I believe everyone has the right to experience this without expensive intermediaries. These guys provide unadulterated secretion to both facilitators and resellers. I did not discover them, they already had a reputation of their own. Not more than 24 hours had passed when I received the following message from Mario Garnier in my inbox:
Mario Garnier: “You can’t have a Foundation that protects the toad and also have the business of sale and exploitation of toads at the same time. I know everyone that has Foundations and I want to tell you that these Foundations use toad protection as marketing. I know all of them. I saw them arrive. Blessings and good day”.
Alex Alcibar: “You should publish these arguments in Salvia Sapo y Keta group. I’m not saying you publish them everywhere or in Pit Prieto’s group, where there is a different vibe. Both the Salvia Sapo y Keta group as well as the Kawuabonga page were created with the purpose of informing individuals so they decide what’s more convenient to them in relation to psychedelics, without censorship or ideological dogmas. Maybe you saw them arrive, but others saw YOU arrive and make a WBAC. And ultimately, the one who saw everyone arrive is Ken (Albert Most) and he even published a pamphlet for psychonautic use in general. I have always maintained my stance that the ideal thing to do is to use synthetic 5-MeO-DMT and sustainable Toad secretion as an alternative if there is no other choice. But I do not agree that this should be exclusively managed by a private group of “facilitators” and “neoshamans”. That’s where you guys lose me.
He replied “Thanks”, left the group and blocked me.
I must admit I was shocked by the close-minded attitude of Mario, I honestly didn’t suspect he would take such an infantile attitude; that was until I shared this incident on the group and found out several things: That in previous WBAC editions, there was an attempt to create a “Fair Trade Toad” project, in which it was established the intention to control the collection of toad secretion in agreement with indigenous Sonoran tribes. This would create an apparent sustainable system of collection, distribution and sale of toad secretion in the whole country. Everything was set and ready to be signed, until at the last minute most Sonoran tribes dropped out of this agreement dramatically, yelling that no one would monopolize toad secretion and that they could pretty much go fuck themselves. The “Fair Trade Toad” project did not completely fulfill and some tribes not only did not accept but published a manifesto in which they promised they would fight to protect the toad from over exploitation as well as presenting legal documentation to the relevant national competences to prohibit random people to exploit the Sonoran toad. This also turned out to be bullshit and nobody really cared about this tantrum. Everything went and remains business as usual: You’ve got the toad, you sell it.
Going even deeper in the group’s feedback, I also found out that certain Sonoran foundations that are committed to sustainable collection, like the Fundación Bufo Alvarius Sonora A.C. are not invited to the WBAC, not even to voice their opinion. But random individuals that go to WBAC to “represent” Sonora are totally unknown to the Sonoran community, like the case of Daniel Oriol speaker at WBAC 2020. Weird. To conclude, please see this comment from Carlos Barraza about Mario Garnier:
“Mario Garnier is far from being the Toad savior, we have worked hard for years without making much noise, even if that caused us to grow slowly. We wanted natural growth, nothing too accelerated. This has not been the case thanks to so much events, documentaries, congress and now that the cat is out of the box we have no option but to do what we believe to be the best way towards regulation so as to avoid prohibition, since it CAN happen. We are so sad that there can be animals forever and due to bad practices we might put them in danger or even worse. Now Mr. Garnier says he saw us arrive, LMAO that is funny. Must I remind him that I sold him his first grams during some time, as well as introducing him to Mr. Toad for the first time since he convinced me saying he was a journalist, thats why we accepted to take him in. He also should remember we kindly ask him to fuck off from Sonora since he wanted to exploit our lands and he was not welcomed in Punta Chueca, along with his girlfriend that accompanied him. He always uses the same pretext to enter: That he is a journalist.”
I don’t want to make and incredibly long post, I just want to warn everyone that a massive boom of use and abuse of psychedelic substances is just around the corner. This means that the three aspects of any transcendent event come with it: The good, the bad and the ugly. In the case of Bufo alvarius, the good is the experience itself, the bad is our human ambition and the ugly is the destiny of the poor toads, since so far we haven’t been able to prove as humanity that we can reach an agreement on sustainability and even less when there are thousands of dollars revolving in the mix. As conclusion, I must say that the WBAC seems to me a phenomenal idea, much needed and enriching. I invite everyone to check it out, but be aware that there might be a hidden agenda by the organizers. And even more important: Will we be at the height of the circumstances? As far as my own personal stance, I would prefer, choose and promote synthetic 5-MeO-DMT over Toad secretion any day of the week. I also feel we should all fight for decriminalization of all psychedelics and its eventual legalization for simple cognitive liberty reasons. Fortunately I figured out my life mission and it’s about divulgation of information about psychedelics, educating about the risks and benefits and trying to be as impartial and neutral as possible, being aware that it’s very difficult since we are human beings. That being said, I am not going to tell people how they should have a psychedelic experience, but I can definitely create spaces where people speak out their mind, especially in my main language (Spanish) since in English speaking communities they seem to be much better informed.
