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A review by bioniclib
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
4.0
We listened to this on long car rides because it keeps Pam from going stir-crazy and helps drown out Weezy whiney "are we there yet". As with all of the stuff I've read (or listened to) by Pollan, there was oodles of interesting stuff. This was a series of three essays on three plants and his experience with each.
The first was on opium. In it the danger of knowledge is at the fore. It seems that you can grow opium plants legally...but if you knowingly cut one of the pods to extract the opium, you're breaking the law. If you accidentally cut it, that's ok. Sorta. It's filled with lots of info on how over-powered law enforcement is when it comes to the war on drugs.
The second was on caffeine. Pollan does something I've not done since I was 9 years old, lived without drinking any caffeinated beverages on the regular. This one highlights how arbitrary the War on Drugs is. Caffeine is a mood altering drug. But because there's buckets of money to be made, it's not regulated. Ok, I guess the War on Drugs isn't arbitrary, it's subject to Capitalistic whims.
The third was on mescaline. Not mezcal, which I thought it was at first, that's tequila. Mescaline is peyote. This makes it three-for-three with War on Drugs mentions. This is most definitely illegal. Except for use in a Native American religious ritual. In fact, the ritual is used by a religion that popped up long AFTER the Europeans colonized America. It's interesting that they were given an exception. Now the trouble is, new age white people are co-opting the ceremony.
All really good stuff!
The first was on opium. In it the danger of knowledge is at the fore. It seems that you can grow opium plants legally...but if you knowingly cut one of the pods to extract the opium, you're breaking the law. If you accidentally cut it, that's ok. Sorta. It's filled with lots of info on how over-powered law enforcement is when it comes to the war on drugs.
The second was on caffeine. Pollan does something I've not done since I was 9 years old, lived without drinking any caffeinated beverages on the regular. This one highlights how arbitrary the War on Drugs is. Caffeine is a mood altering drug. But because there's buckets of money to be made, it's not regulated. Ok, I guess the War on Drugs isn't arbitrary, it's subject to Capitalistic whims.
The third was on mescaline. Not mezcal, which I thought it was at first, that's tequila. Mescaline is peyote. This makes it three-for-three with War on Drugs mentions. This is most definitely illegal. Except for use in a Native American religious ritual. In fact, the ritual is used by a religion that popped up long AFTER the Europeans colonized America. It's interesting that they were given an exception. Now the trouble is, new age white people are co-opting the ceremony.
All really good stuff!