It’s become a toad-al nightmare out west.
The National Park Service has put out a PSA pleading with nature-goers to stop licking toads in the wild to get high off their gland-secreted psychedelic substance, 5-MeO-DMT.
But toad licking for a ribbeting buzz — once spoofed on “Family Guy” — particularly from the Sonoran desert toad aka Colorado River toad, comes with many serious health risks, the NPS warned in a recent Facebook post.
“These toads have prominent parotoid glands that secrete a potent toxin. It can make you sick if you handle the frog or get the poison in your mouth,” the service advised.
“As we say with most things you come across in a national park, whether it be a banana slug, unfamiliar mushroom, or a large toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please refrain from licking.”
Poison control also indicates that “not only is this illegal (5-MEO-DMT is a DEA schedule I drug), it’s also quite dangerous.”
“Licking or swallowing can lead to numbness of the mouth and throat as well as severe and life-threatening effects on the heart as a result of the digoxin-like compounds and catecholamines described above,” the agency warns.
“These effects include irregular rhythm of the heart, heart block, reduced blood pressure and cardiac arrest.”
Despite all of this, numerous celebrities — including boxer Mike Tyson — and others can’t get enough of tripping on toad venom.
“I realized I had purpose in life,” Victoria Barbera, who created toad-milking psychedelic “Bufo therapy,” told The Post of its effects.
The Colorado River toad, usually found in parts of California, Arizona and New Mexico, is one of North America’s tallest at 7 inches. It’s also known to make a call described by the NPS as a “weak, low-pitched toot, lasting less than a second.”