SciBites: Yes, You Can Drink Snake Venom

Your eyes do not deceive you. Surprisingly, even the deadliest of snake venoms can go down the gullet safer than a bottle of beer, with some exceptions, that is. In fact, snake venom is consumed as a psychedelic (drug that causes hallucinations) in certain parts of India. The reason why lies not in the deadly concoction itself but in how it is delivered.

In the first place, venom is defined as something that is injected into your bloodstream by an animal to kill you. This differs from poison, which an animal secretes to be absorbed by the skin and linings of the body to kill you. In essence, if you bite something and you die, that is poisonous, whereas if something bites you and you die, that is venomous. 

The fact that these symptoms only show when venom is in your blood vessels means the linings of the gut are immune to direct damage from it. It’s similar to how vaccines need to be injected, not simply drunk; the stomach acid will easily dissolve it. However, if you have any opening, such as a throat infection or stomach ulcer, into your bloodstream through the digestive system, any ingested venom will act the same way as injected: deadly. Also, certain muscle-targeting toxins can damage the kidneys, and bacteria in the snake’s mouth may cause infection.

Overall, it is still unadvisable to drink venom. Source: common sense.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1752928X22000968 

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/bite-or-be-bitten.html 

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-does-snake-venom-do-to-you.html