AceShowbiz - Former boxing ace Mike Tyson smoked toad venom on a dare and now credits the hallucinogen for making him a better businessman.

The heavyweight boxing champion, dubbed Iron Mike, was a "wreck" when he first tried the psychedelic drug, which is collected from the Bufo Alvarius amphibian species and then dried, before being turned into a crystal that can be smoked - and the trip taught him an important lesson.

"I 'died' during my first trip. In my trips I've seen that death is beautiful. Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep," he told The New York Post at Wonderland, a conference in Miami, Florida dedicated to psychedelics, microdosing and medicine.

"The toad has taught me that I'm not going to be here forever. There's an expiration date."

Tyson puffed away on the venom after being dared to try it, figuring he had nothing to lose.

"I did it as a dare. I was doing heavy drugs like cocaine, so why not? It's another dimension. Before I did the toad, I was a wreck."

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," he explained.

The former fighter-turned-businessman - who is working on two brands of cannabis - says the substance has enabled him to "focus" a lot better after he used it 53 times in the last four years.

"It has made me more creative and helps me focus. I'm more present as a businessman and entrepreneur. People see the difference (in me). It speaks for itself," Tyson added.

"If you knew me in 1989 you knew a different person. My mind isn't sophisticated enough to fathom what happened, but life has improved."

"The toad's whole purpose is to reach your highest potential. I look at the world differently. We're all the same. Everything is love."