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
----------------------------------------------------------
#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.
----------------------------------------------------------
#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
----------------------------------------------------------
#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
----------------------------------------------------------
#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.
----------------------------------------------------------
#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.
----------------------------------------------------------
#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
----------------------------------------------------------
#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
----------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1: The Truth About Opium by William H. Brereton DWP (up)
read more essays here
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
For those who want to understand what's going on with the drug war from a philosophical point of view, I recommend chapter six of "Eugenics and Other Evils" by GK Chesterton.
Oregon has decided to go back to the braindead plan of treating substance use as a police matter. Might as well arrest people at home since America has already spread their drug-hating Christian Science religion all over the world.
The most addictive drugs have a bunch of great uses, like treating pain and inspiring great literature. Prohibition causes addiction by making their use as problematic as possible and denying knowledge and choices. It's always wrong to blame drugs.
"Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death." -Jean Cocteau
Imagine if there were drugs for which dependency was a feature, not a bug. People would stop peddling that junk, right? Wrong. Just ask your psychiatrist.
If there was free speech in America, we would see billboards demanding freedom to use psychoactive substances for religious purposes, or to heal, or to follow-up on the research of William James regarding the nature of human consciousness.
The FDA tells us that MDMA is not safe. This is the same FDA that signs off on Big Pharma drugs whose advertised side effects include death itself.
Someday those books about weird state laws will be full of factoids like: "In Alabama, you could be jailed for 20 years for conspiring to eat a mushroom."
When people tell us there's nothing to be gained from using mind-improving drugs, they are embarrassing themselves. Users benefit from such drugs precisely to the extent that they are educated and open-minded. Loudmouth abstainers are telling us that they lack these traits.
Racist drug warriors make cities dangerous with drug prohibition -- then they use that danger as an excuse to send in the National Guard.
Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us
No cookies, no ads.
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.
Copyright 2026, Brian Ballard Quass
Contact: quass@quass.com
(up)