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:
1: The Truth About Opium by William H. Brereton DWP (up)
read more essays here
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
The Hindu religion was inspired by drug use.
If psychoactive drugs had never been criminalized, science would never have had any reason or excuse for creating SSRIs that muck about unpredictably with brain chemistry. Chewing the coca leaf daily would be one of many readily available "miracle treatments" for depression.
The drug war controls the very way that we are allowed to see the world. The Drug War is thus a meta-injustice, not just a handful of bad legal statutes.
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.
"In consciousness dwells the wondrous, with it man attains the realm beyond the material, and the peyote tells us where to find it." --Antonin Arnaud
That's the problem with prohibition. It is not ultimately a health question but a question about priorities and sensibilities -- and those topics are open to lively debate and should not be the province of science, especially when natural law itself says mother nature is ours.
Let's pass a constitutional amendment to remove Kansas from the Union, and any other state where the racist politicians leverage the drug war to crack down on minorities.
If we cared about the elderly in 'homes', we would be bringing in shamanic empaths and curanderos from Latin America to help cheer them up and expand their mental abilities. We would also immediately decriminalize the many drugs that could help safely when used wisely.
The idea that "drugs" have no medical benefits is not science, it is philosophy, and bad philosophy at that. It is based on the idea that benefits must be molecularly demonstratable and not created from mere knock-on psychological effects of drug use, time-honored tho' they be.
The worst form of government is not communism, socialism or even unbridled capitalism. The worst form of government is a Christian Science Theocracy, in which the government controls how much you are allowed to think and feel in life.
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.
Copyright 2026, Brian Ballard Quass
Contact: quass@quass.com
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