Illegal Botanicals (U.S.A.)

[dogbane26]

That would be an interesting exam to take.    

Ya know im in organic chemistry and the only lab we did so far that had to do with plants was separating carotenes from green leafy plants.  

We used column chromatography, and before that i think we did a distillation.  

Ive been looking on siu site and there are different tests you can do to determine if a plant has: saponins, alkaloids, ketones, terpenes, essential oils..etc.  

I cant find the exact article i found before,  but i think that would be an interesting lab.  Too bad chemistry is usually boring.    

I mean it doesnt tell you what kind of alkaloids but it would tell you if alkaloids in general are present or not.  

I think ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry is interesting but i hate chemistry and dont want to take anymore if i dont have to.

[Anonymous]

I notice in your entheogenic declaration you say anyone 17-years-of age. IS that your age?

Nope, I'm 19.

Boomer, Your veiws on cannabis are silly... If you don't want kids doing stupid shit to get it... um... make it legal! Duh!

I can get cannabis sooooooooo much easier than alcohol!!!

[boomer2]

Someone who worked for the DEA is not an impartial source of info on pot.

"I have this on good information first hand form Sasha Shulgin who for twenty years analyzed drugs for the DEA in court cases."

Sasha and Ann Shulgin are two of the most respected authorities on the chemistry and actions of entheogenic drugs, especially the phenylethylamines and the tryptamines,. He has also written articles on the stupidity of drug laws and is for the legalization of many natural plant drugs and for chemical drugs for research.

His two books which contain over almost 400 recipes for creating such drugs cost him his DEA permit.

HE is also an expert on drugs and drug abuse and misuse of drugs.

He originally worked for Dow chemicals in 1940s and 1950s and one day he found that most of the essential oils of spices where chemically related to amphetamine and mescaline.  He was the first to synthesize MDA and MDMA from several essential oils of spices from Myristicine and Safrole from Nutmeg and Mace, From Safrole from Sassafrass, Apiole and Dill Apiole from Parsley and Spanish Dill, Fenyl Oil from Fenyl seed.

He learned to use pipyronol to synthesize MDA.

Many people do not known that in 1014, Georges Alles, a Frenchman created MDA and MMMA (the latter is different then MDMA) as food suppressants.  HE created them from synthesis of amphetamine.

Gave 5 and 10 mg injections every hour or so looking for food depressants and finally left them on the shelf because he was not using a dose large enough for a psychoactive stimulant effect.  The dose for MDA and MMDA was 75 to 125 milligrams.

So Sasha worked for the DEA in court cases to show what the illicit drugs were that the DEA were charging individuals with possession and sales, as well as every drug they confiscated in their normal every day busts.

Even ethnobotanist, Richard Evans Schultes, had testified about drugs in court on many occasions for the Government.

They were the real experts.

Anyway I am staying out of this argument form here one because I have more pressing work to finish.

Have a shroomy day.

Sasha has done more for the psychedelic community inthe last twenty years then most of the scholars who have written about his compounds, from dom (STO), Bromo (2CB), Mdm (X) MEM (EVE), MDA (the Love Drug) the 2-c compounds, and many more.

I have been lucky to have experienced over 26 of his creations.

boomer2

[dogbane26]

I have been lucky to have experienced over 26 of his creations.

boomer2

Well you can do whatever you want with the man-made crap, i will stick to using plants in their natural forms.  

I mean Salvia is on the news now because of the 10x extracts.  The mazatecs never used it that way  just like the incas didnt snort cocaine.  

I think chemistry has caused alot of problems even though it is usually credited with saving mankinds problems.  

Biology is blamed on evolution and i get sick of hearing that.  Philosophy and Anthropology classes are alot worse when it comes to their view on religion.

If biology is to blame on evolution then i would say chemistry is to blame for making alot of plants illegal.  

Some chemist decides to isolate one chemical and then a bunch of idiots use it irresponsibly and society will say: bad and illegal.  

coca= bad.

I dont see it that way.  Cocaine= bad.  Not coca.

[Anonymous]

What the hell happened to this thread?

Dude, cannabis should be legal, get outta here.

[dogbane26]

I didn't say it should be illegal.  

I said the synthetics should be illegal.  

Actually everything should be legal if it was responsible people that used them but usually it isnt.  

You get people who steal or do stupid stuff just to get their fix.  

They ruin it for the rest of us.  

It is like with the speed limit.  They say it is 65 but i can drive safely at 80 mph.  Just like i can drink 6 beers and drive safe home.  

Just cause some other idiot cant drive straight shouldnt mean i should get a dwi for 6 beers or should get a speeding ticket for driving 80 mph.

Laws are kind of stupid.  Some people can drive fine and drink 6-8 beers but they need to say that oh well some dumb blond drinks 3 beers and she cant walk straight.    Ok when u cant walk that should tell u that u shouldnt be driving.

That is the test, not some breathalizer bs.

[boomer2]

You know what Teo.

I am sick of your bs.

John W. Allen

You do not know a fucking thing you are talking about and you apparently have no interest in reading anything I have suggested. It shows your ignorance.

Cannabis cup winners

[attachment=2:1gmuvedg]100_4042abc1.JPG[/attachment:1gmuvedg]

[attachment=1:1gmuvedg]100_4055abc.jpg[/attachment:1gmuvedg]

This book is written by an ancestor of mine.  this is a first edition and was the first book written on hemp for industrial use.

James Lane Allen was my father's great grand uncle.

(December 21, 1849 â€" February 18, 1925

This book was published in 1900.

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I also have the original  Newspaper article of his death written a week after his death found in one of my grandparents cedar chests after my grandfather died in 1973.

I am posting 3  of 16 parts of this article, you really do not deserve to ever see it.  You have no comprehension of how sophomoric  you comments are.


boomer2

[boomer2]

Teo.

I am posting 3  of 16 parts of this article, I have better things to do with my life than argue with someone who doesn't listen or learn.  Because all you seem to be interested is your membership in the Peyote way of life.

You have no comprehension of how sophomoric  you comments  and ideas are.

[attachment=2:29smi8cl]jameslaneallenobitnbio1.jpg[/attachment:29smi8cl]

[attachment=1:29smi8cl]jameslaneallenobitnbio2.jpg[/attachment:29smi8cl]

[attachment=0:29smi8cl]jameslaneallenobitnbio3.jpg[/attachment:29smi8cl]

in the last 32 years I have presented over 100 lectures at symposiums, conferences and workshops on four continents.  And I know what I am talking about.

boomer2

[boomer2]

That would be an interesting exam to take.    

Ya know im in organic chemistry and the only lab we did so far that had to do with plants was separating carotenes from green leafy plants.  

We used column chromatography, and before that i think we did a distillation.  

Ive been looking on siu site and there are different tests you can do to determine if a plant has: saponins, alkaloids, ketones, terpenes, essential oils..etc.  

I cant find the exact article i found before,  but i think that would be an interesting lab.  Too bad chemistry is usually boring.    

I mean it doesnt tell you what kind of alkaloids but it would tell you if alkaloids in general are present or not.  

I think ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry is interesting but i hate chemistry and dont want to take anymore if i dont have to.

Organic chemistry is where you learn about tryptamines, phenylethylamines, etc.

[Anonymous]

Boomer, you a smart dude... but your last post seem rather off topic...

Wouldn't you agree?

I am posting 3 of 16 parts of this article, I have better things to do with my life than argue with someone who doesn't listen or learn.

Then please go do something better with your time. Start your own thread and post in there.

You have no comprehension of how sophomoric you comments and ideas are.

PFFFT!!! Ahahaha! Whatever dude!

I am posting 3 of 16 parts of this article, you really do not deserve to ever see it.

I don't deserve to see it? What are you on some kind of ego trip? Get that bullshit outta my thread then!!!

Boomer, I would be glad to read and consider what you have wrote... I just think your off topic... why not strat your own thread?

[Stonehenge]

Hey Teo, calm down OK?

Boomer, I have of course heard of Shulgin and am surprised to hear of his anti-pot views. It matters not what degrees he may have or anything else. When I hear BS, I'm going to call it as I see it. Saying kids commit crime because they use pot is stupid. I don't care if the person saying it has 20 phd's or done any number of things. It's still stupid to say and people should not believe it. Even less someone like yourself who has worked in the area of entheogens. I say again that someone who worked for the DEA tends to spew the same garbage that the Bush administration does, or whatever administration happens to be in power. Those are the kinds of lies that have kept pot illegal for so long.

[Anonymous]

Ya ok, sorry Boomer, sorry Stone.

[boomer2]

Stonehenge,

you said in your post that I implied that

Saying kids commit crime because they use pot is stupid.

What I said is that kids steal so the can use pot because they cannot afford to buy it because they should be in school getting an education.

Any good parent wants their children to always have the things they were never able to have or attain in their lives.

People whose parents and grandparents were never able to afford to go to college and now we have a few generations of young adults who are able to advance their roles in life by becoming educated and being able to raise a family decently.

As for Sasha, He was a court chemist who only verified the chemical identities of drugs analysed for cases brought before the federal courts.

I want to share a tale frpm Dick Schultes.

In Florida, there was a case of a man arrested for possession of marijuana.  He insisted his pot was Cannabis rudaralis, and was not sativa or indica so therefore it was not illegal to possess, since the law read that both C. sativa and C. indica were illegal to possess, sell, etc., C. ruderalis was not on any law books so it was considered not illegal.

So the attorney for the defendant went to Harvard after contacting Dr. Norman Zinberg, a pro marijuana supporter from Harvard who was also in the crowd with Alpert, Cohen, Schiller, Leary and Metzner and others involved inteh firt uses of drugs in psychotherapy.  And Norman Zinberg was an advocate for legal marijuana.

Norman Zinberg was also a close friend of Henry and Clare Booth Luce, the editors and publishers to Life and Time magazine.  They were celebrity druggies in the late 1950s and 1960s and were advocates for the legalization of marijuana and LSD.  J. Edgar hoover detested them and in their magazines they helped to spread the awareness that marijuana and other drugs were not dangerous if used in the right set and setting.

They published hundreds of articles over the years that were pro drug. And so This fellow on trial in Florida soon learned that the leading espert in plant identification, Ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, was going to come and testify for him on his behalf over his marijuana possession charge.

Well here is what happened.  During that time  line, in order to analyze the marijuana, the chemist had to crush the leaves.  Sop according to Richard Evans Schultes, it would be almost impossible to determine which of the three varieties of Cannabis the defendant had possessed.

So, in order to not lose his case, the District Attorney droped the mai9n charges against the person whoo had majijuana and had him pay a fine tot he court.  In that manner, he was able to take control of the case again and by dropping the charges, he made it possible to keep the pot illegal because now the defendant did not have any reason to appeal his case to a higher court which may have, at that time, been able to overturn the Marijuana Tax Act which was the governing law against marijuana.

Eventually, it was Tim Leary's pot charges which overturned the 1939 Marijuana Tax Act.
you see, the purpose of that act was that if yuo had an ounce of marijuana, you were required by federal law to pay a $100.00 tax for each ounce of marijuana you possess.

So if you went into a federal tax office and paid the $100.00 tax on your ounce of pot, the feds would then turn you over tot he state, county and local authorities for breaking their laws and you wouold then go to jail for up to ten years or more.

Here is the catch which Tim Leary;s lawyers used to knowck the Marijuana Tax Axt out the door.

In this country, our revolution began with the Boston Tea Party, in regards to the outrageous taxes over  the taxining of the Tea.  See, in America, if you pay yor tazes you cannot be sent to jail.

It is what was known as 'taxation Without Representation." So that ended the Marijuana Tax Act which was the primary law making marijuana illegal.

So now we have a dozen or more states which have laws making marijuana possession for small amounts classified under law as being decriminalized.  So then you ae now fined a $100.00 for having anywhere form 45 grams down to a joint.

Only this time you pay a fine and do not go to jail.  So nothing has really changed in that regards.  The government is still stealing form its citizens.

A similar example of how we think times and things have change but really haven't is the great myth of Robin Hood, a character, Robin of Locksley, most likely a real human figure from the past who allegedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.

In the days of Robin Hood, it was illegal to shoot the King's deer.  You could go to gaol, be tortured or just hung for killing a deer in order to feed you family because of a weak economy.  that was because everyone who had a farm had to give their crops tot he king to feed the troops who protect the king and his land and supposedly his people.

Kinda like today

Your family is hungry, yo go out and shoot a deer to feed your family or maybe you steal a chicken,  Well the only difference today is that they will not kill or hang you but you will go to gaol for the same crime your ancestors were punished horribly for committing the same crime.

Here is a little bit about the third Cannabis,  Schultes helped write some grat articles while at Harvard about marijuana.  I used some of his research and also through personal communication when I helped Mark Merlin in drafting the first re-edit of his original book, Man and Marijuana.  Now Rob Clarke of Marijuana Botany has taken over the final edit and has become co-author. I personally added more than one hundred pages of new data to the original 1971 manuscript while I worked with Mark at the U of H in the mid 1990s for which I was paid several thousands of dollars.  It has taken mark more than 12 years to get to the  book and during that period I published nine little books and 4 cd-rom books, and built my big web site.

Mark was very busy with his classes at the university, he also has six books (colored pamphlets of Hawaiian plants of all kinds, Coastal Plants, Native Plants, Introduced species, etc, plus his other major drug book contributions and several dozen articles in journals like economic botany which he recently wrote an update on his original poppy book.

Well I was going to post the reprint cover of the J of Economic Botany (the same journal where Mushroom Ethnomycologist Rl. Gordon Wasson reviewed the first four of Carlos Castanedas books) and the title page but my eyes are sore now from wearing my glasses since 4 am this morn.

Later.

boomer2

The return of Ruderalis, the third forgotten strain of hemp after sativa and indica.

This wild hemp strain, once discarded as useless, is making a comeback among both serious breeders and casual croppers.

Deep in the North American woods lurks a recent addition to the marijuana gene pool: Ruderalis hybrids! The forests and fields are coming alive with resinated plants, blasting their way to maturity under the intense light of the summer sun, long before the buzzing of choppers or moldy autumn weather.

Until recently, Ruderalis had been almost unanimously given a bad name by cultivators and breeders alike. Early Dutch seed pioneers like Super Sativa Seed Club voiced their concerns about Ruderalis early in the homegrown revolution. This was all with understandable reason, as pure Ruderalis varieties are almost completely devoid of THC and come with a host of other problems for the grower or breeder.

Breeding programs between Ruderalis and drug type strains can and have produced plants of notable quality. The aim of this article is to shine some light on this recent advance in marijuana breeding and pave the way to what could be the future of outdoor marijuana cultivation for many areas of the world.

What is Ruderalis?

Cannabis Ruderalis is a subspecies of Cannabis Sativa. The term was originally used in the former Soviet Union to describe the varieties of hemp that had escaped cultivation and adapted to the surrounding region.

Similar Ruderalis populations can be found in most of the areas where hemp cultivation was once prevalent. The most notable region in North America is the midwest, though populations occur sporadically throughout the United States and Canada. Without the human hand aiding in selection, these plants have lost many of the traits they were originally selected for, and have acclimatized to their locale.

Though they contain little THC, these plants hold large potential for use in breeding, both in hemp and marijuana applications. Early flowering and resistance to locally significant insect and disease pressures are but a few of the important traits present in these feral populations.

Thankfully, despite years of US government sponsored eradication programs, these wild plants still remain in bountiful abundance.

Early efforts

The first documented experiments in crossing drug strain varieties with their Ruderalis cousins were performed by Ernest Small of Agriculture Canada in Ontario during the 1970's, for the aiding in the purposes of taxonomic classification. Crosses between these strains usually produced offspring of intermediate THC levels, with a few that leaned more towards the high THC end of the spectrum. It was concluded during this research that hybrids between drug and non-drug (both ruderal and hemp cultivars were tested) generally produced progeny of intermediate potency.1

Perhaps the most known efforts to incorporate Ruderalis traits into drug hybrids are those of Nevil, proprietor of the original Seed Bank, and the person largely responsible for the original dispersion of many of today's drug varieties.

During the 1980's, Nevil experimented with crossing Ruderalis strains to plants such as Mexican, Skunk#1 and several Indicas, in hopes of combining the early flowering of the Ruderalis with the potency and flavor of the others.

Although some of Neville's crosses matured much earlier than previous marijuana strains, they tended to be low in potency, unstable in terms of maturity, and often sported buds that were leafy with shrunken calyxes.

BC's Mighty Mite

About this time, on British Columbia's Gulf islands, an outdoor grower was noticing that his October finishing strain always threw out a few plants that finished much earlier � by late July or early August. After several years of selections for this early flowering trait, the Mighty Mite strain was born.2 Mighty Mite effectively incorporated the auto-flowering trait, while retaining the habit and potency of its drug cultivar heritage.

For those in the know, Mighty Mite quickly became a popular outdoor strain for filling the traditional late summer drought in BC's pot market before the market was flooded with regular seasonal outdoor bud. Slowly, over the years, these genetics have spread further amongst underground pot growers and been used most successfully in hybridizations with more potent strains.

Aside from getting crops in before cops and other thieves can plunder them, these early plants have allowed growers to produce plants with much more commercial appeal than traditional Northern latitude outdoor marijuana.

Warm, dry summer weather with high light values allow buds to finish bright green and rock hard, making for better bag appeal. It is impossible to tell whether the many auto-flowering strains floating around all originated in the Mighty Mite family or are a result of many similar incidents, but it is certainly the most proven of all the auto-flowering strains. The fact that Mighty Mite is an inbred line and relatively true breeding for its auto-flowering trait would make it seem likely to have been a large contributor.

DJ Short has recently speculated that Ruderalis introductions into the drug cannabis gene pool likely came from repeated selections for early flowering traits from Indica based lines rather than actually being imported from Russia or surrounding countries (CC#39, Breeding Tips). Both of these scenarios are quite possible. General consensus is that all drug, hemp and feral strains of cannabis originated from the same source gene pool, therefore, Indica varieties would also have these auto-flower genes present somewhere in their genetic makeup.

Early flowering explored

The marijuana strains most of us have been familiar with begin flowering once the night period reaches the individual plant's critical night length. This critical length varies depending on where the strain originated. Generally, there is a critical period of darkness required to begin flowering, and a second slightly longer critical dark requirement for it to ripen completely.

Many Indica varieties begin to flower when the day length drops to about 13 1/2-14 hours, while Sativas will often not begin to flower until less than a 12 hour day length is achieved.

In comparison, many of today's Ruderalis/drug strain hybrids flower automatically when they reach a given maturity, regardless of photoperiod. Even under lights on 18 hours a day, they completely mature from seed to bud in less than 90 days.

I've seen test plants from Mighty Mite hybrid lines that were started outdoors in early March, and had completely finished by late July. This could indicate that crossing auto-flowering plants to those that are photoperiod determinant lengthens a genetically predetermined period required before non-photoperiod dependent floral onset.

A second scenario is that within the ruderal strains that have been introduced to the drug gene pool there also exists genetic information of photoperiod adaptation to north latitudes.

Many of these Ruderalis/drug hybrids are also known for being very sensitive to other environmental factors. Things such as cloning, letting plants go too dry or getting pot bound can easily send them into heavy flowering.

The big unknown that still remains in these new lines of marijuana is what is actually causing the flowering on a biological level? Is there an internal clock, a genetically predetermined number of cell divisions that must take place before the plant begins to put up buds?

Another possibility is that once night-induced flowering hormone levels accumulate to certain levels within the plant it will begin to flower.

If the flowering is not dependent on having a dark period, these new cultivars could prove useful in backyard city growing situations, where streetlights and other forms of light pollution often prevent proper maturation of photoperiod dependent strains.

Problems and pitfalls

As these genetics further penetrate the drug cannabis gene pool they have potential to cause both harm and good.

Imagine getting mothers up and going for your next big crop and finding that at 60 days they all begin to go into full flower. A costly inconvenience at the least!

However, the potential for great advances is also there for the taking. How about auto-flowering Haze strains that ripen in the middle of summer, in areas where previously even the earliest Indicas would not ripen in time? Commercial growers could pull two crops per summer without ever having to worry about shading!

Breeding climate

One of the largest problems associated with breeding outdoor varieties for northern latitude areas like Canada or Holland is that the climate puts no pressure on plants to produce high psychoactivity. In fact it selects for the opposite.

So long as the breeder is selecting for high potency on a multi-parent level, potency can be upheld. However, if this same breeding program were undertaken in an environment that naturally selects for high THC plants (like highland Colombia or Thailand) the resulting average desirable cannabinoid levels would be much higher.

There is likely a threshold effect on the potential of any given strain as related to the environment it is being selected in. By incorporating auto-flower genes into the north latitude outdoor marijuana gene pool, plants would be finishing under more direct sunlight and warmer weather. This environment is much more conducive to high THC levels, thereby raising the threshold level for the particular strain.

Ruderalis and hemp

It is very likely that Ruderalis varieties have already made for an important advance in hemp cultivars. The variety FIN314 was developed from genetic material originating in Russia and seems to have the same auto-flowering trait noted in Mighty Mite and other hybrids.

FIN314 seeds that accidentally germinated in a Quebec farmer's field in early April were found in full flower by early June.3 Along with adding the possibility of twin crops in a season, this allows the oilseed variety to finish short enough to be easily harvested by current machinery, which clogs when fed the standard taller hemp varieties.

The genetic history of the parents of FIN 314 is unknown, other than that they were acquired from a germplasm collection from Russia. However, it is believed that at least one of the parents was a Ruderalis accession.4 If the widespread adoption of FIN314 by hemp farmers is any indication of the future of Ruderalis/drug hybrids with pot growers, there will be a mass dispersal in the coming years.

Buyer beware

There are still many commercially offered Ruderalis hybrid strains that are very low quality and should barely be classed as drug varieties. At the same time, the finest Canadian outdoor pot to have crossed my path so far was from Mighty Mite derived lines that were harvested in July and August.

The future seems clear for Ruderalis/marijuana hybrids. As many governments ease up on antiquated cannabis laws, more and more people will take up growing. A couple of auto-flowers on the back deck will likely fit the lifestyle of many more folks than would an indoor grow room.

Demand for stabilized, auto-flowering hybrids of high drug value, in combination with saner drug laws, will pressure marijuana breeders to move forward on bringing these to fruition.

Until then, the ability to have marijuana crops maturing at any time of the growing season should wreak havoc on CAMP style police tactics that have been accustomed to only searching for plants one or two months of the year. This, if for no other reason, seems ample enough to plant some auto-flowerers today!

References

1 Small, Ernest. 1979. The Species Problem in Cannabis Science & Semantics. Volume 1: Science. Corpus Information Services Limited. In cooperation with Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Government Publishing Center. pp.121-127
2 Poole, MIchael. Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower. Greystone Books.
3 Przytyk, Sasha. Undated article. FIN 314 in Canada, Gen-X research Inc. Regina, Sask.
4 Callaway, JC, and TT Laakonen. Undated article. Cultivation of Oilseed Varieties in Finland. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kuopio, Finland.

boomer2

The return of Ruderalis

[Stonehenge]

What I said is that kids steal so the can use pot because they cannot afford to buy it because they should be in school getting an education.

Yes, however you reword it, it still sounds like pot makes kids steal. I will say that it's probably not good for kids (hear that Teo), because they don't know how to handle it. So in that sense you have a point. My point was it should be legal for adults and I am very tired of hearing the same old "it's to protect the children" crappola. They use that line all the time. Anytime they want to take away more of our rights, it's to protect the kids. Censor the internet, take away harmless compounds, censor anything they call porn, etc. Go back a couple hundred years and it was illegal not to go to church unless you had a good excuse. Have to protect the children you know.

I've heard about several of those cases. You do always come up with interesting material.

[Amomynous]

This is a relatively confusing thread (coming to it late), but I wanted to say a few things. Paraphrasing a few posts:

"This is why growing these plants is (should be) legal..."

Is and Should Be are two different things.

I am not a lawyer, but I've spoken to competent lawyers, and the fact of the matter is that if you're growing a plant that contains a scheduled substance, you could be prosecuted for possession of that substance.  This is not to say that LEO would do this, but they could if they wanted to. If people take the risk because they are aware of the situation and decide to, that's their business. But making claims to the contrary clouds the issue, makes people less able to make conscious decisions, and is frankly unethical.  Please don't speculate when other people's freedom is on the line, without at least marking your posts as speculative. [The fact that some people don't know the difference between fact and speculation is another issue, one which I believe results from people growing up deeply in media culture -- where fact and opinion are often conflated -- but alas that's not something to be taken up in this thread. Suffice it to say that "kids today..."]

One very important subtlety here, that is often misunderstood. An extraction does not have to be performed for the act to be illegal. Intent does not have to be demonstrated for the act to be illegal. Sorry.

"Can we claim ignorance of the law?"

Not in a formal sense, but there is one way where ignorance can some to your defense. You cannot claim ignorance of the law (for example, I didn't know that X was illegal), but if you can convince a court that you didn't know a plant contained an illegal substance, then you have a good chance of going free. For example, the only way that you can legally grow San Pedro is to convince a court that you didn't know it contained mescaline (fat chance for anyone on this board). Now, risks come in different sizes, and it is extremely unlikely that anyone would be prosecuted for this; as has been pointed out, San Pedro is a common landscaping plant in warmer climates, but the fact remains: we live in an absurd, Orwellian society, and you could be arrested for growing it if it appealed to the whim of LEO.  

So this defense could best be described as the "white-haired old lady defense." In other words, all of those white-haired old ladies growing opium in their gardens would probably walk if arrested, because they could credibly convince a court that they didn't know common garden poppies contain opium. This defense would probably not work for a 19 year-old stoner with PIHKAL in his backpack and cookies to poppies.org in his browser. [This may not be the best example, because the laws on poppy straw are fairly complex, but remember: ignorance of misunderstanding of the law is not a defense.]

So complex is our legal system that just about anyone could be arrested at any time, and like the protagonist in a Kant novel we may not even know what we've done.