Illegal Botanicals (U.S.A.)

[Amomynous]

I'm not missing any illegal botanicals am I?

Yes, you are. It's just that some of those are named in the various regulations (like the CSA), but there are many others. It depends upon what's in them.

And some of those are not explicitly named as far as I can tell. I mean, where does that list come from? Can you find any reference that shows that some of those are to be treated any differently than the other materials that have been discussed? Seriously, what is your reference, beyond postings on random drug boards?

The CSA names marijuana, poppy straw, coca leaves explicitly. Where did the other ones come from? Where, for example, are magic mushrooms named?

[Anonymous]

Who said anything about clearly and openly?

It depends on what Nation you live in...

And some of those are not explicitly named as far as I can tell. I mean, where does that list come from? Can you find any reference that shows that some of those are to be treated any differently than the other materials that have been discussed? Seriously, what is your reference, beyond postings on random drug boards?

The CSA names marijuana, poppy straw, coca leaves explicitly. Where did the other ones come from? Where, for example, are magic mushrooms named?

Erowid is one of the main sources I got for these. That list is concerning the USA only.

Dried Psilocybin containing mushrooms are def. illegal. Growing them? Who knows?

Khat may or may not be legal to cultivate, I think it is.

Which other ones would you contest?

If anybody would like to add or remove botanicals for the "Illegal USA Botanicals" list please post them with an explanation!

I THINK I've pretty much got it covered for the Nation, we could break it down state by state I suppose if the state differs from National law, for example, the whole Lophophora genus is illegal in CA.

Shitty, huh?

[Anonymous]

I'm going to have to say now Khat is legal to cultivate.

From what I can tell all the other ones are illegal in the USA, except maybe Coca leafs/plants, fresh mushrooms and Poppies.

I also still believe that it is our right to cultivate and possess any botanical in their living or dried forms.

*Update*- "Khat" ~ Catha edulis is legal to cultivate and possess in the USA.

[dogbane26]

I don't know for sure if Catha edulis is legal or not to grow in the US.  

I know greenstranger used to sell live plants for 20.00 and then by the time I was ready to place an order , they said they no longer sell them cause it was made illegal, im not sure if it was a federal law though.   It was once listed in Sunset Garden book as an ornamental plant according to their website.  

I know it will grow very well in Southern Georgia and throughout Florida.  

I don't see why it should be illegal.

When i lived in Florida i had a plant growing outside in the ground and when it got down to 20 F one night it was the only plant I didn't even bother to cover since I heard it can tolerate freezes and is a subtropical plant.   It was fine.  Ive heard it can tolerate  drought as well.  

I am so sick of people saying plants are bad.  

Truth is people are bad, look at what they do to the environment.  

Plants deserve to grow wherever they would like to.  Kudzu, Buckthorn, Purple Loosestrife, Peyote, Cannabis have done far less damage to ecosystems than humans have.    

Buckthorn didn't cut down huge areas of the amazon rainforest now did it?  

Ok -Peyote isn't invasive or a weed, i was just using it as an example since it is seen as bad like the other meantioned ones.  

Saying any plant is bad is absurd.  

Coca shouldnt be illegal.  Just cause some idiots in the US are addicted to it doesnt mean the US should fly over places in Latin America and spray dangerous chemicals on it as well as poison other food plants which make the native people sick.  

Hey I think coca should be what we should be waking up to everday, not that other crap called coffee.  

I hate coffee.  Id rather drink a cup of coca leaf tea or chew some leaves in the morning to wake up.  

Its alot better than drinking coffee or mountain dew.   At least coca provides alot of nutrients as well.    

Of course I could chew betel nuts but they have been linked to mouth cancer.  

Betel palms are good at absorbing copper from the soil. Probably more efficient than other plants are.   Betel nuts contain far more copper than is necessary and that is believed to be what causes the mouth cancer.  

Coca leaves absorb good nutrients from the soil.  Tobacco ive heard doesnt cause cancer because of the tar, it is the other toxic radioactive elements that tobacco plants are so efficient at absorbing.

[dogbane26]

I wish i lived somewhere tropical where I could grow all kinds of plants ( tropical fruits as well as medicinals and entheogens).  

Australia is nice but then again they have many botanicals they can grow and we can't such as Peyote, but then again Kratom I think is illegal there.  

There laws are just as dumb as ours in the US.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter where you live, these botanicals can be grown all over the world!

[dogbane26]

They can be grown everywhere but not legally.  

Peyote won't grow outdoors in Canada but it will indoors and it is legal to grow there.  

I was in Toronto onetime and i visited this store and they had peyote plants in the front window of the store.  

http://www.sacredseed.com/

You cant see them on that picture but when you are inside the store that is where they are.  

I think thats pretty messed up how they are legal in Canada but the plant is native to the US, and Mexico.

[Anonymous]

Ya only two places in the world were it's natural haitat exist is the only two places in the world weres it illegal.

They should just write a big sign that says- "GOD YOU FUCKED UP, WHY'D YOU PUT THESE STUPID CACTI HERE? WE'RE GONNA MAKE YOUR CREATION ILLEGAL, YOU (GOD) MADE A MISTAKE!"

[Anonymous]

Hopefully one day I will have my own Ethnobotanical forums, here what I'd prohibit on my trade forums...


Prohibited Material on my trade forums-

Any and all non-botanical drugs, in fact you should only be trading botanicals or things related to botanicals, shamanism, etc.

Cannabis plant material containing THC (Hemp seeds are ok)

Mushroom material containing Psilocybin or Psilocin (Spores and Mycliuem are ok)

Dead or dried (non-living) mescaline containing Cactus material (Living Cacti and seeds are ok)

Erythroxylum coca plants or any plant material containing cocaine (seeds are ok)

Papaver somniferum plant material or any plant material containing morphine (seeds are ok)

No discussion of psychoactivity, drug preperation or anything that could be precieved as illegal in the trade forums.


Any other suggestions?

[JRL]

My suggestion is that you stop dreaming and speaking and do it.

[Anonymous]

That's good advice... if only I had large piles of money

[boomer2]

Teo days:

That's good advice... if only I had large piles of money

Hey, I get 1000 megabytes for $100 dollars a year.  I used about 450 megabytes of my 1000 megabyte space and my website has over 14,800 photographs on the site, including hundreds of pages of data related to shrooms.  And all of my images open to a full screen size of 7 1/2 to 8 inches high each.

So do like JRL said:

My suggestion is that you stop dreaming and speaking and do it.

You do not need the amount of space I have for a small botanical website.There are already hundreds of them on the www.

A domain name cost $5.00 a year for a name for your site, usually paid at a price of $50.00 for five years or $100.00 for ten years.

Then you can buy website space from $50.00 a year for several hundred megabytes of space and can have your own forums.

It is not expensive and if you are old enough to work, then that small  amount of money is nothing for anyone who really wants to do what they keep dreaming of.

Over 2 and a half million people have visited my site in the last ten years, however, I started my site with 30 megabyes at $30.00 a month for a site selling hand-painted mushroom t-shirts.  Then i found a server who charged me $100 dollars for 1000 megabytes per year.  I pay for that out of my own pocket.

Some sites ask for donations and even you tried to ask members here to donate to several sites that you thought worthy of getting donations.

So why not start your own site. It cost almost nothing.

But look at 3DShrooms site sacredshrooms.org.

Only about ten to 15 posts in the last year period. Some sites get a few people looking but not posting or staying.  3Dshroom was an administrator at the Shroomery and  left the Shroomery after they gave him a hard time. So he took their skins and opened sacred shrooms.

 He posted a lot of pages copied from the shroomery and moved them to his new site, and I was a major contributor.  Now people come there and post porn-bots all over the site and no new posts from members.  

And now no more photographs at the site. All the original photos have gone.

So even if you start a site, you really need to have knowledge of what you are promoting and if you do not have that knowledge then no one will hang at your site.

Spirit Plantrs has also gone through several owners over the years, went down for a while, lost a whole program one time and came back again and now are back again.  And this is a good site.

Also it is not good to have sales promos at your site if you want to maintain a good membership.

I sell nothing on my site outside of my mushroom forays tours to Thailand every year which I have been doing since 1987.  2009 is my last group of explorers going to Thailand and Cambodia.  And they have to be in school (college level) in order to attend.

But JRL said it well.

Quit dreaming about it and do something about it.

boomer2

[Anonymous]

Excellent post boomer, I didn't know it could be so cheap... I'm not very good with computers.

I'll take what you said into consideration.

[Amomynous]

But look at 3DShrooms site sacredshrooms.org.

Only about ten to 15 posts in the last year period. Some sites get a few people looking but not posting or staying.  3Dshroom was an administrator at the Shroomery and  left the Shroomery after they gave him a hard time. So he took their skins and opened sacred shrooms.

 He posted a lot of pages copied from the shroomery and moved them to his new site, and I was a major contributor.  Now people come there and post porn-bots all over the site and no new posts from members.  

And now no more photographs at the site. All the original photos have gone.

So even if you start a site, you really need to have knowledge of what you are promoting and if you do not have that knowledge then no one will hang at your site.

This is very true. It cost almost nothing to throw up a website, and in a few days you could install the software and learn it well enough to host a forum.

But there are hundreds of dead and dying sites in the Internet. Unless you can a) figure out why the Internet needs a new ethnobotanical site, b) provides it, c) tell people about it effectively, and d) maintain it, yours would just be one of those.

So the first question to be answered if you want to follow your dream is: what would this site provide that other's don't, and why would people want to spend there precious time there, as opposed to at other sites?

If you can answer that, the rest can follow.

(Points c and d, above, are important. A forum can only be as good as the community that uses it.

[boomer2]

Good points Amomynous,

When I ran my first shroom site for six months, the sales sucked and I had to print shirts form my art, which was not as good selling as were the hand-painted shirts, then I added the shroom guide and put about 4,000 shroom images up and more people came, Then the Thailand and Cambodia shroom adventures and then I started to post my articles and published papers and then more and more people came to visit.

At erowid.org, I, along with Fire and Earth published the Safe-Pik Guide I wrote in the late 1970s. Inless than 8 years, almost one million people have viewed the book.  Image if I would have posted that book on the net and sold it for a dollar a copy to download it, the way all new journal publications are being sold on the net.

My Australian Shroom guide has been visited by over 300,000 people but about a few years back the counter loss itself when close to 800,000 views.  So it had to start over.

Pretty soon, my whole site download will be available as an e-book, along withmy Bibliography of Entheogenic Fungi and will be sold by Amazon as will my book, Magic mushrooms of the PNW, all new revised with all 22 species of psilocybian fungi from the Pacific Northwest.

My klids said it was time to start making money, but I sell more of my books, batiks, and hand-painted T-Shirts, as well as my CD-Roms, Only two left in print since one is now online at Erowid and they are working to post the Psilocybian cultivation for a free download as well as Magic Mushrooms in Some Third World Countries at erowid.org.

So I have made money form my work, from my art, expecially sad for the few who do not like my art whatsoever, because there are people who come on line and blast it yet both Alex Grey and Larry Carlson have both given me kudos for my art, as simple as it is.  So the criticism no longer bothers me.

I man I get $75.00 to $150.00 for a shroom - Thai batik which I design and then have my artist put to silk what I conceive.

Not bad at all. I also make money from posters and have a small following of those who support my art styles.

Anyway, Good post you made and I hope Teo takes all of the support and critiques to heart and someday has his own botanical site.

boomer2