Getting High Injecting Snake Venom

We met with a guy who's been injecting himself with snake venom for 20 years and he looks better than ever.
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Check out Steve's Comment Response video here! http://bit.ly/Venom-Response
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The hemotoxins which attack human blood cells in a tree viper's venom can result in an agonising death in less than 30 minutes. The neurotoxins in a cobra bite can kill a person in half that time. for the past 20 years Steve Ludwin has been sticking all this lovely deadly snake juice in a syringe and mainlining it all the way to immortality. Privately milking an array of deadly snakes including rattlesnakes, monocled cobras, and a few casual vipers thrown in to the mix, Steve has been injecting what would for any normal human be fatal amounts venom into his body since the late 80s.

The basic principle - laid out by pioneer herpetologist, Bill Haast, who died last year at the age of 100 - is that regular exposure to the venom results in the body developing an immunity. Steve claims to not only never get ill, but that cobra venom is the ultimate pick me up, with effects lasting a days after injecting, making Steve stronger, faster and more resilient. Finally it looks like mainstream scientific research might be catching up.

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STEVE LUDWIN: I'm going to show
you the effects of the

hemotoxin in venom
on blood, OK?

And you can already see pretty
quickly, it's kind of

congealing.

It's quite gloopy.

And I'm beginning to wonder if
that's such a good thing to be

happening in my body.

Sometimes I think, god,
that can't be good.

I don't have a medical
background.

I have no fucking idea what
it's doing to my body.

If I did die due to snake venom
or whatever, I'm sure

it'll be quite funny
to a lot of people.

And they'll go, you see?

You see?

And even to myself, as I was
floating out of my body and

looking down below, I'm sure
I'd be laughing my ass off.

Like, you idiot.

You're not supposed to inject
snake venom, you fool.

My name is Steve Ludwin, and
I've been self-immunizing with

various snake venoms for
well over 20 years now.

I'm kind of embarrassed.

I mean, I don't know have
that medical background.

I don't even have a proper

American high school education.

There's been quite a few doctors
and scientists that

have been horrified by my lack
of having things that are

sterile and stuff like that.

We have our Lower Baja
rattlesnake.

And bang.

You see that?

That's one unhappy
rattle snake.

Relax.

I've always been
in good health.

I haven't had something
like the flu in

coming up on nine winters.

And as I've gotten older,
people have started to

comment, oh wow, you don't seem
like you're 46 years old.

I had some doctors do tests on
my skin, and they were all

kind of a little bit baffled.

All right, buddy.

Up.

This girl doesn't really
like it very much.

This is why I'm always nervous
holding a viper because they

can spin their fangs around and
actually go through their

lip to get your fingers.

This snake is not wanting
to be milked.

Sometimes that happens.

I had quite an unusual
sort of upbringing.

I'm the son of a Pan Am pilot.

I had a real "Catch Me
If You Can" Leonardo

DiCaprio sort of lifestyle.

I had a credit card.

It just said Pan Am on it with
my name, Steve Ludwin, and I

could get on any plane,
as long as I was

wearing a tie, for free.

My father took me down to the
Miami Serpetarium, when I was

about nine years old, and I got
to meet this now famous

herpetologist called
Bill Haast.

He was the first westerner to
start injecting himself with

snake venom.

He started in 1948.

I was very young and
impressionable.

I loved snakes.

From that moment on after
meeting him, I was like wow,

you can become immune
to snake venom?

This is crazy.

That's called vaccinology.

It's the oldest form of
medicine apparently.

When I was about 17, I was like,
I've got to get that

venom into me somehow.

This is called a Pope's tree
viper, and I'm a little bit

wary of them.

But it's a beautiful snake.

Don't know if you can
see those fangs.

Do you see that fang?

It's a hemotoxin and it's going
to cause massive tissue

destruction.

People have died from these
snakes, so you do not want

that on your finger.

I moved to London in 1987, and I
started working in East End.

It was called The Vivarium.

And basically my job for 1 pound
60 an hour was to unpack

cobras and scorpions and
tarantulas and reptiles for

zoos and laboratories.

See you later.

I started bringing the
venomous snakes home.

My first time doing
it was crazy.

I had never even milked a snake
before, and I just kind

of had to figure it
out on my own.

So what I would do is I would
take a scalpel and scratch

like two little scratch
marks into my arm.

I would take a little bit of the
venom, and I would drop it

into the cut.

And you could feel it
the first time.

It was like ah, that burns.

I quickly washed it off
because I was scared.

I was like, what is
this going to do?

It kind of swelled up and my
heart started pounding, not

because of the venom, because
it was like, oh my god, is

this going to stop?

Is it going to kill me?

I had no idea.

Since people have kind of heard
what I've been doing and

stuff like that, I've seen
a lot of people bitching.

They're worse than like "Star
Trek" fans, to be honest with

you, reptile people sometimes.

I always thought when the
internet came, I was like,

wow, you can communicate with
other people that have the

same passion about
these animals.

But it's not the case.

There's a lot of bitchiness and
who has the biggest snake.

I don't keep big snakes.

Guys that keep big snakes
are hiding a secret.

This is the last hemotoxic
snake that goes into my

snakebite cocktail.

This is called an
eyelash viper.

This is one of the scariest
snakes that I own.

This the snake that bit me.

The worst pain that I've
ever had in my life.

And I've had lots of accidents
with venom.

But it felt like you had put
your hand down on a marble

table and someone took a
sledgehammer and smashed it

onto your pinky.

But the funny thing is that that
pain never subsided for

eight fucking hours.

And I had some scientists in the
States saying get yourself

to the hospital.

This is not a good snake
to be bitten by.

But I kind of waited it out.

I had confidence that I
was going to be OK.

But it's a really aggressive
snake, and it's

really tricky to milk.

There you go.

Whoa, there's lots of venom
coming out there.

Thank you.

So those are our hemotoxins.

I posted a really beautiful
snake that I have on YouTube.

It's called a macrops
pit viper.

Just because I'm handling
this snake,

it's called free handling.

There's death threats and people
have just gone crazy.

I could poke it in my eye
a million times and

it would not bite.

"These snakes can and
will kill you.

Everybody take a
good long look.

The moron attached to that arm
is the reason why you have

trouble keeping your reptiles
legally." I'm not a moron

attached to this arm.

Oh, yes I am.

"To think we lock up pedophiles
and murderers when

sickos like this are free
to roam our streets.

What's wrong with the world
these days?" Now, I think

that's somebody being
sarcastic.

OK, here is a good one.

"You, to put it kindly, are
an ignorant fucktard.

I sincerely hope you
get bit hard.

And I strongly dissuade anyone
watching this video from

repeating the actions of this
small-penised individual.

Stupid dick hammer."
Now, that's good.

That's good.

This next snake is the Naja
kaouthia which is responsible

for a lot of deaths
every year.

In the time that I've been
working with this snake, I've

had some injections where I was
a little bit cocky with it

and got the dilution
sort of wrong.

They were like volcanoes.

I had three of them.

I had two on this leg
and one down here.

And they were growing and
growing and burning.

And for days, I was
like, oh god, I

could feel this pressure.

I touched it and goo
shot out five foot

across onto the carpet.

And I was just like,
oh my god.

Oh fuck.

I'm fucked here.

And I got this massive
needle for

injecting horses or something.

I put on some ACDC and it just
gave me the strength just to--

against all your will, just push
this down and you could

feel it going down
into something.

Do I have the nucleus yet?

I'm pulling on this.

No, I don't think I've
got the nucleus.

I think I've gone through it.

Pull it back out, hit the
nucleus, and it was just like

pwaaachh, just pulling back on
the most disgusting stuff that

you'd ever want to see.

And I was like, oh, I'm just
going to squeeze it.

And I squeezed this, but it
actually made a sound.

It was like peuh.

I looked down in there
and there was a

fucking hole in my leg.

I could see inside my leg where
all the tissue had sort

of rotted away.

And I noticed flies coming
to it immediately.

And it stunk.

It was like death.

It was rotting.

I never want that
happening again.

You hear it?

This is not the hemotoxic
snake.

This is something that's got
the neurotoxin, the Naja

kaouthia, which is the
monocled cobra.

Simple.

And let go.

Since I've kind of discovered
the possibilities with the

neurotoxins in this cobra venom,
I've been using it in

sporting activities recently
and kind of testing it.

It's Kind of added a little
bit of extra speed into my

normal abilities.

I've been doing tests on my
skateboard from my house into

the West End.

I see how fast I can
get in there.

I just use the roads, and
I think the cobra

venom helps with that.

It's just sort of like, I go
in between cars, I go in

between buses, I go in the
middle of the road.

I just cane it.

I feel like I've got so
much energy and speed.

When I'm skating, I've learned
to actually start

moving like a snake.

And I found myself just kind
of using that S-shape--

carving and carving, and it
actually starts giving you a

little bit of power.

-William Haast, director of the
Serpetarium, has had much

experience in handling cobras.

But he still treats them with
the greatest respect.

Gather 'round, folks,
but not too close.

STEVE LUDWIN: Bill Haast really
is my Beatles and

Rolling Stones and Beach Boys
all wrapped in one.

He died last year.

He was just like two
weeks shy of 101.

He'd say that he hasn't been
sick a day in his life, and it

made me start thinking, OK, wow,
there's something here.

He was really my parameter
of sort of

going, is this dangerous?

It's working for this guy.

He was treating people with
polio, people with MS. He had

like 4,000 patients.

He had people that couldn't
even walk.

And with the right doses and the
right ingredients of his

medicines that contained various
snake venoms, people--

I've seen footage of it--

they're playing basketball.

But the FDA heard about what he
was doing and they shut him

down, even though he was having
such success with it.

But the other thing that
Bill Haast did,

which is totally amazing--

it's miraculous.

It almost sounds
like a messiah.

Because he was immune to these
snake venoms, he's given his

blood to snakebite victims
that are dying,

and then they survive.

I've milked all the snakes.

And I've got hemotoxins
in one glass.

This is the one that kind
of had the cocktails.

So I'm drawing that venom
up into this syringe.

So here's what I was
saying earlier.

There's no such thing as
a poisonous snake.

It is not poison.

You see that venom
coming out there?

See it on my finger?

You can do this.

Completely safely.

If you don't freeze it,
it's just like food.

It's a protein, it
breaks down.

So I have months and months
worth of various venoms.

This is the hemotoxin.

I'm going to put six.

What I have here is water
for injections.

I will start on the actual raw
venom, and then what we'll do

is we'll use that injection.

The first time I tried
using the snake

venom was pretty scary.

There was no internet
back then.

But it felt really natural.

It felt like it was instinct.

This is not diluted.

This is the pure venom.

So now, we're going
to do an injection

with the diluted hemotoxin.

The benefits to the hemotoxins,
I'm not too sure.

I feel like I need another
20 years to do it.

I had some doctors test my DNA
telomeres and when I was 42, I

scored as a 28-year-old.

Perhaps there are
some anti-aging

properties to snake venom.

It could all end tomorrow
as well.

I'm not saying I'm invincible.

This is the shot glass that
has the cobra venom, the

neurotoxin.

Get it all out.

I'm going with two
drops of this.

This actual cobra that we're
using is more venomous than a

king cobra.

One drop of cobra venom can
kill 20 to 30 grown men.

Yeow.

Yeah, I mean it just feels--

yeow.

Feels like a bee sting
to start off with.

That cobra venom does have
a bit of pain to it.

It's like "Man Versus Food,"
spicy chicken challenge.

Oh, you motherfucker.

I'm 46 now.

I'll have to see how many years
I can go on continuing

doing this.

But you do think that it is
quite taxing on the body.

It is possible in two years
time, my kidneys fail and I

die due to the venom of all
those years, of all those

toxins, all the swelling,
all the decomposing

flesh and the bruising.

It all has to filter through
your kidneys and your liver.

And it's really bad stuff to
be going through there.

Yeow, OK.

That was a little bit
more than five mil.

People want to know what
it feels like.

It feels like injecting
Tabasco sauce and

rubbing it in a cut.

It just burns.

I will take another syringe
here, and just basically bring

that raw venom down with the
needle, which I quite

like to work that.

Diluting is something that's
been quite new to me over like

the last four years that
I've learned how

to do and work properly.

I was a bit nervous today when
I was milking the snakes.

But when I do these injections,
I don't think

anything of that.

Once I know that the dilutions
are right, it's as normal as

anything for me now.

I always kind of note the time
just in case if I ever did

have any problems where I did
need to visit the hospital

again, I would know.

The one time I did have a
serious overdose, I injected

three raw venoms a
couple years ago.

And I only wanted to put
down a little bit in.

And as I was pressing
it, just ooop--

the whole thing went in.

Within 45 minutes, my hand
was like a baseball mitt.

The venom was swimming
in my body.

I had some friends
come over because

they knew I was fucked.

They were saying, go to the
hospital, go to the hospital.

And I just didn't want to.

And the next morning, I kept
on waking up and it wasn't

going down.

So I got begged to go
to the hospital.

They saw my arm and they
said, what happened?

And I said snakebite.

Three doctors came out
and they said, well,

what snake bit you?

And I had to just say, well,
I didn't get bit.

There's three snakes.

I purposely injected
it into my arm.

They didn't know what to say,
and the next thing I know, I

was being taken into
another room.

And one of the female doctors
just came in and was just

yelling at me and just
saying, you idiot.

You can't do this.

And they were telling me you're
going to die, and

you're going to lose your arm.

I was in intensive care
for three days.

But I was kind of calm
throughout the whole thing.

I don't want to ever
repeat it.

Since I had heard that the
Americans and the Chinese got

busted injecting race horses
with cobra venom and it was

making them outperform
their abilities, I

immediately got excited.

And I thought boxing would be a
great thing to kind of see--

is it possible that I could
outperform my ability?

I was working it harder last
year when I was on my own.

I actually felt like something
was happening.

I was like holy shit, this
stuff is working.

It's amazing.

You're discreet, but you can
get away with it in London.

Bear Grylls.

I hate that guy.

In those films, he's like,
oh, here's the snake.

And you can just bit
its head off.

And he does.

He's killed snakes on TV.

That's my fucking family you're
fucking around with.

Sorry, just kidding.

One thing I have noticed is that
I'm not really feeling

the pain, so that could be the
other thing that helped those

horses along.

Why not find out why it's
doing these things.

If it's taking away pain,
if it's giving you

confidence, or whatever.

Why not give it to your army?

Christopher Columbus didn't
go looking for America to

discover America.

He was looking for the
fountain of youth.

What does mankind want?

They want to live longer.

Everyone wants to live longer.

Apparently, there's something in
snake venom that helps its

food to accept death.

I did feel that once.

As I was lying there, and I
could feel the numbness in my

head and stuff, I had this
complete feeling of, oh well,

I might die here, but I felt
really happy to die.

My heart's pounding.

You're alive for a good
6 to 12 hours.

Like Starbucks has
nothing on this.

Yeah, I must admit that
it doesn't feel great.

It's kind of like
Jell-O in there.

And god knows what it's
doing in there.

I wish I understood what's
happening beneath that skin.

The next day is always the same
with the cobra venom.

It just feels like you're
beaten up anyway.

And then I have a good sort of
four days where I feel kind of

quite charged.

Come on, let's box.

Come on.

Come on.

There you go.

-So how many years have
you been doing this?

STEVE LUDWIN: Over 20 years,
probably like 22 years--

-So you've been quite
lucky then, really.

Is there a risk that you
take that venom and it

could just kill you?

STEVE LUDWIN: It is kind of a
little bit playing with fire.

I've had maybe three incidents
in my life where it was

borderline life threatening.

-What you're saying is it's
similar to someone taking

heroin or cocaine
and injecting it

and taking a gamble.

So you're gambling with your
life every time you take it.

STEVE LUDWIN: I've gotten so
used to it, I do it without

thinking about it.

And because I know the amounts
and I know not to push it and

where not to push it
and stuff, it seems

really safe to me.

This certainly isn't physically
addictive or it

isn't pleasurable.

-So you believe you could stop
tomorrow and stop taking it,

stop doing it?

STEVE LUDWIN: Yeah.

Yeah.

I'd like to do that very soon.

I've done it for so long.

I'd like to actually spend--

I'd like to take a year off.

-And you've done that,
you managed that?

STEVE LUDWIN: No, I've
never done it.

I've never not done it.

But I'd like to take
like a year off.

-So you're not going to know
if it's addictive until you

try it, are you?

-Is it possible you could be
addicted to pain then, if you

know what I mean?

The way it hurts.

STEVE LUDWIN: I think if I was,
I would have other things

in my life.

I'd be a boxer like you.

-Yeah, true, true, true.

STEVE LUDWIN: The day after
going boxing, my arm just was

even more swollen than
the day before.

But I felt like a truck
had hit me.

I felt like I was being digested
from the inside.

I was walking around like the
Elephant Man for a day.

I can kind of remember it, but
I was like in a dream state.

I felt like I had been injected
with a thousand

energy drinks.

It just felt slightly wrong.

I would really like to work
with a forward-thinking

company that is going to go,
OK kid, we like your ideas.

Let's start researching this.

And around-the-clock
and get it done.

I visited the University of
Southern California a couple

years ago, and I met a professor
Frank Markland, I

believe his name is.

He's been working with
copperhead venom.

Copperhead venom is the North
American pit viper that's

being used.

They've been studying the
effects on breast cancer

cells, ovarian cancer.

It actually inhibits the growth
of tumors and basically

kind of kills off
cancer cells.

So there there's real excitement
around that.

Yeah, the possibilities of a
cancer cure someday with snake

venom, I'd put my money on it.

Banana?

Banana.