The Sonoran Desert toad has parotoid glands that emit a potent toxin (Picture: Getty Images)

People are apparently licking one of the biggest toads in North America in order to get high – and the US National Park Service is warning against it.

The Sonoran Desert toad, also called the Colorado river toad, measures seven inches and makes a ‘weak, low-pitched toot, lasting less than a second’, the park service wrote on Facebook.

They have prominent parotoid glands that emit a potent toxin. But rather than run from the amphibians, some people have been seeking them out.

‘It can make you sick if you handle the frog or get the poison in your mouth,’ the park service wrote.

The US National Park Service is telling people to not lick the Sonoran Desert toad (Picture: Getty Images)

‘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. Thank you. Toot!’

Parks service officials also shared a black-and-white photograph of a toad at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona ‘staring into your soul’.

Only some toads can induce a high, and the level varies from animal to animal. People can get high from licking the back of a toad or storing the toxins they secrete and using them later.

Common experiences of toad-licking are euphoria and hallucinations, but some of the bad effects include anxiety, nausea, seizures and even death.

One of the most famous toad-lickers is former world champion boxer Mike Tyson, who opened up about his experience ‘tripping’ on the Sonoran Desert toad at a conference on psychedelics, microdosing and medicine last year.

‘I “died” during my first trip,’ said Tyson at the time.

‘In my trips I’ve seen that death is beautiful. Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep. The toad has taught me that I’m not going to be here forever. There’s an expiration date.’

Tyson admitted that he used cocaine and other heavy drugs and ‘was a wreck’ before he ‘did the toad’.

‘The toughest opponent I ever faced was myself. I had low self-esteem. People with big egos often have low self-esteem. We use our ego to subsidize that. The toad strips the ego,’ Tyson said.

‘It has made me more creative and helps me focus. I’m more present as a businessman and entrepreneur.’

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The Sonoran Desert toad has glands that emit a potent toxin.