Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Humans aren't the only creatures that suffer from substance abuse problems. Horses eat hallucinogenic weeds, elephants get drunk on overripe fruit and big horn sheep love narcotic lichen. Monkeys' attraction to sugar-rich and ethanol-containing fruit, in fact, may explain our own attraction to alcohol, some researchers think.
Now, dolphins may join that list. Footage from a new BBC documentary series, "Spy in the Pod," reveals what appears to be dolphins getting high off of pufferfish. Pufferfish produce a potent defensive chemical, which they eject when threatened. In small enough doses, however, the toxin seems to induce "a trance-like state" in dolphins that come into contact with it, the Daily News[sic*] reports:
At one point the dolphins are seen floating just underneath the water's surface, apparently mesmerised by their own reflections.
The dolphins' expert, deliberate handling of the terrorized puffer fish, Pilley told the Daily News, implies that this is not their first time at the hallucinogenic rodeo.
-- submitted from IRC
[* Ed.'s note: yes, it's a Daily Mail link in the quoted text, not Daily News -- FP.]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday February 18 2019, @08:27PM (2 children)
So where's the evidence of substance abuse? I see drug use, but for it to be abuse, there has to be negative overall impacts on their life.
And these are dolphins we're talking about - they swim, they play, they eat. It's not like having a few hits of puffer with their friends is going to keep them from going to work and getting the bonus they need to pay for a new Mustang they need to fill the emotional void created by worshiping money and productivity as if they mattered for their own sake.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday February 19 2019, @12:05AM
To continue this train of thought, a lot of humans use drugs without abusing them. Sugar, caffeine, alcohol, hallucinogens, etc. Usually substance abuse is a symptom or catalyst (in the sense of speeding up a process but not actively participating in it), the cause is usually poverty, psychological stress, emotional or social trauma, etc.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 20 2019, @05:41PM
Because the dolphins are smarter than us, we will never catch the family which has been pushing puffer on their fellow dolphins, thereby creating a puffer epidemic, in order to maximize their own intake (you're high, I'm getting more fish and more girls).