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Nature's Most Wanted

Have you seen these botanicals?

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

May 24, 2022





#1 Erythroxylum coca




UNLAWFUL PROVIDER OF CLARITY, GIVING HUMAN BEINGS MENTAL POWERS THAT GOD NEVER INTENDED

ALIASES: Coke -- and a variety of snarky pejorative epithets like 'blow'

FAMILY: Erythroxylaceae

LOCATION: Last seen on the eastern slopes of the Andes


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#2 Papaver somniferum




PROVIDER OF FORBIDDEN CREATIVITY THROUGH THE UNLAWFUL CREATION OF METAPHORICALLY INSTRUCTIVE DREAM IMAGERY

ALIASES: Opium poppy

FAMILY: Erythroxylaceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Eastern Mediterranean, but sightings have also been reported in North Africa and Eurasia.


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#3 Psilocybin cubensis



UNLAWFUL IMPROVEMENT OF HUMAN MIND, FIRST DEGREE THREAT TO LIQUOR INDUSTRY AND MODERN PSYCHIATRY

ALIASES: Golden Teacher, Golden Halos, Cubes, Gold Caps, Shrooms, Stropharia cubensis, Mayan name: "k'aizalaj Okox"

FAMILY: Hymenogastraceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Cuba, Southwestern USA, Northern South America, Pacific Islands, Australia


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#4 Psilocybin semilanceata




UNLAWFUL SPIRITUAL BENEFITS, POTENTIAL THREAT TO ESTABLISHED RELIGIONS

ALIASES: Liberty Caps, Panaeolus semilanceatus, Phrygian Caps, Mongui, St. John's Mushroom

FAMILY: Strophariaceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Europe, North or South America, Asia, Australia, or New Zealand


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#5 Psilocybin ovoideocystidiata




UNLAWFUL LAUGHTER MAKING, POTENTIAL THREAT TO GOD AND COUNTRY

ALIASES: Ovoids

FAMILY: Hymenogastraceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Eastern US, especially Ohio and West Virginia, but appears to be on the move. Reported sightings made in western USA and Europe.


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#6 Psilocybin azurescens




UNLAWFUL THOUGHT GENERATOR, POTENTIAL THREAT TO CONSUMERISM AND MATERIALISM

ALIASES: Flying Saucers, Blue Runners, Blue Angels, Azzies

FAMILY: Hymenogastraceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Pacific Northwest, especially Oregon and Washington state.


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#7 Psilocybin cyanescens




UNLAWFUL PROVIDER OF MENTAL FLEXIBILITY, THREAT OF GROWING NEW BRAIN CELLS IN USER

ALIASES: Blue Meanie, Wavy Cap, Wakefield, Cyan, Blue Halo, Gold Tops, Copper Tops

FAMILY: Hymenogastraceae

LOCATION: Last seen in coastal US western states. Occasional reports of sightings in Europe.







#8 Amanita muscaria




SUSPECTED OF CAUSING PLEASANT DREAMS AND INSPIRING USERS WITH NOVEL MENTAL VISTAS

ALIASES: Fly Agaric, Fly Amanita

FAMILY: Amanitaceae

LOCATION: This shroom is constantly on the move. Reported sightings span the globe, in North America, Mexico, Central America, Asia, Europe and Australia


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#9 Banisteriopsis caapi and psychotria viridis



THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY, SUSPECTED OF PROMOTING ILLEGAL SELF-INSIGHT

ALIASES: Ayahuasca, La Purga

FAMILY: Malpighiaceae

LOCATION: Last seen in South America








#10 Lophophora williamsii




THREAT TO MATERIALISM, SUSPECTED OF INSPIRING CROSS-CULTURAL DREAM IMAGES

ALIASES: Peyote, Nahuatl peyōtl, Caterpillar Cocoon

FAMILY: Cactaceae

LOCATION: Last seen in Mexico and Southwestern Texas


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Notes for essay entitled Nature's Most Wanted: Have you seen these botanicals?:

1: The Truth About Opium by William H. Brereton DWP (up)




read more essays here





Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US




Timothy Leary's wife wrote: "We went to Puerto Rico and all we did was take cocaine and read Faust to one another." And there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with that!!! The drug war is all about scaring us and making illegal drug use as dangerous as possible.

Most psychoactive substance use can be judged as recreational OR medicinal OR both. The judgements are not just determined by the circumstances of use, either, but also by the biases of those doing the judging.

Conservatives say they're against Big Government -- but they let bureaucrats decide what medicines they can use.

"The Harrison [Narcotics] Act made the drug peddler, and the drug peddler makes drug addicts.” --Robert A. Schless, 1925.

I hope that scientists will eventually find the prohibition gene so that we can eradicate this superstitious way of thinking from humankind.

Drug warriors have harnessed the perfect storm. Prohibition caters to the interests of law enforcement, psychotherapy, Big Pharma, demagogues, puritans, and materialist scientists, who believe that consciousness is no big "whoop" and that spiritual states are just flukes.

If Americans cannot handle the truth about drugs, then there is something wrong with Americans, not with drugs.

Many psychedelic fans are still drug warriors at heart. They just think that a nice big exception should be carved out for the drugs that they're suddenly finding useful.

If daily drug use and dependency are okay, then there's no logical or scientific reason why I can't smoke a nightly opium pipe.

Even when laudanum was legal in the UK, pharmacists were serving as moral adjudicators, deciding for whom they should fill such prescriptions. That's not a pharmacist's role. We need an ABC-like set-up in which the cashier does not pry into my motives for buying a substance.


Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us






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Unless otherwise indicated, no AI is used in the creation of site content. These essays represent the original ideas of their author and not the ideas that the author SHOULD have based on an algorithmic parsing of existing data. For more on this subject, consider the AI-related viewpoints to which the author subscribes as delineated in the New York Times opinion piece entitled "What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity" by Rebecca Winthrop of the Brookings Institution.

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