PCP users eat (their own) tongues

[snopes]

Comment: One of my favorite drug-related horror stories was about the
young man and young woman who "ate their own tongues" while high on PCP.
The story differs as to whether each ate their own tongue, or they somehow
managed to eat each other's.

I could see them biting the end of their tongue off and swallowing, even an epileptic can do that (I wouldn't count that as eating their own tongue). But actually getting enough of their tongue out to bite off and them eating it seems a bit of a stretch.

[LadyLockeout]

The tongue also has offshoots from two or three rather major arteries converging underneath. If a PCP user were to bite off the whole tongue, so to speak, I highly doubt they would survive unless they received immediate medical attention.

ETA: Here is a first hand example of massive blood loss through the tongue WARNING: Sad story. Involves depression and guns.

[FiveMonkeys]

Hey. I'm the guy that originally sent this comment in, and looking back, I realized I didn't offer much information.
The first time I heard this myth was from my older siblings who claimed they'd "heard it on the news". I was very young at the time, maybe around 10 years old, which would date this around 1997. Siblings do like to screw with each other, of course, so I took it with a grain of salt.
It was later repeated by one of my middle school health teachers. The guy was fond of well-meaning anti-drug scarelore, however. I haven't really heard of it since, but I always assumed that was because PCP itself has sort of fallen out of vogue.

Originally Posted by LadyLockeout

The tongue also has offshoots from two or three rather major arteries converging underneath. If a PCP user were to bite off the whole tongue, so to speak, I highly doubt they would survive unless they received immediate medical attention.

Just to clarify: yeah, that's right. The legend doesn't state what happens to the kids after the tongue-eating, so it's generally implied that they die.
The first time I heard it, I was told that a young couple took PCP, and a few minutes later, the guy turned to the girl and said: "Hey, watch this," and began giggling gleefully as he "chewed up" his own tongue. The story ended with the girl freaking out and trying to call and ambulance.
The second time I heard it, the couple were high on PCP, began making out, and subsequently bit one another's tongues off. So this version adds a nice "sex is bad" note to the whole "drugs are bad" message.
Specifically, I was wondering if anyone else had even heard of this myth, or (better yet) if somebody could come with a some solid information on it, like a new article.
It bears a certain resemblance to the 'face-peeling' myth already features on Snopes, but other than that, I've found bupkis.

[LadyLockeout]

While I can't point you towards a specific origin of the legend in question, I can honestly say that it would not shock me at all if it had in fact happened to a pcp user somewhere. PCP is a drug that will cause a dissociative state, and since it was originally developed as a tranquilizer/anasthesia, it dulls pain receptors. Much like when you have a novocaine shot and bite the inside of your mouth without meaning to do so, or feeling it when you do. Unlike novocaine though, it can produce severe psychotic reactions and hallucinations. There are documented cases of people self injuring almost to the point of death because they could tell or feel what they were doing to themselves. It's logical to assume that a PCP user could in fact have bitten through his/her own tongue in a psychotic state.

My $.02 is that it's a myth that no doubt has some grain of truth to it somewhere, but no specific point of origin.

[ichabodius]

Why would you eat want to eat your own tongue. You wouldn't be able to enjoy its taste!