Cape Town - Police in Somalia have classified a particular kind of ant as a drug, after discovering that people were steaming the insects and inhaling their vapour to get high, the BBC reported.
Odorous house ants, whose scientific name is tapinoma sessile, are known to contain formic acid.
According to Africa News Daily, there are accounts of birds appearing “drunk” after eating large quantities of these ants, and a security officer has told TV station Somali Cable that humans are deliberately using it to similar effect, says the news website.
In an investigation carried out by the #Somalia police they have found out that the odorous house ant is a drug, and they listed it in the drugs list. These ants are netted put into a cooking pan with water and the steam that comes out is sniffed and within a fraction of a second pic.twitter.com/EzM11tHWmv
— Abdulkadir Farah Dulyar (@qorane23) July 8, 2022
“They cut off the ants’ bottoms, then they put them in the pan with the lid on – after it’s boiled for a while people sit around and hover over it, and they get high,” say authorities.
Authorities suggest that there is now a “shortage” of these ants because people are going out and looking for them.
Doctors, however, warn that coming into contact with formic acid can cause dizziness, nausea and vomiting, citing a report from Africa News Daily.
Meanwhile, research shows that while the effects of smoking catnip are clearly subjective based on the healthy mix of people who say it works and those who claim it does not, the fact of the matter is that seemingly thousands of people try this each year in order to get high.
However, according to the website recoveryfirst.org, catnip has been used since ancient times for its sedative properties when ingested, and is of course well-known to elicit a significant response in domestic cats.
IOL