Sohbat Khan has a routine he has been practicing since the 1960s: he smokes dead scorpions.
In some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, this practice is repeated among those seeking a very particular effect. They dry the animal, burn it, and inhale the smoke, sometimes mixed with tobacco. As they describe it, the ‘trip’ can last up to 10 hours, with alterations in perception so intense that objects seem to move, as if everything around you were dancing.
What’s curious is that science still has no clear answers. Scorpion venom is made up of peptides and proteins that attack the ion channels of the nervous system, and at normal doses it can cause extreme pain, arrhythmias, or respiratory failure. No one has thoroughly studied what happens when that venom is burned and inhaled, so every account remains just that: a personal experience, not medical certainty.