I promised to write a bit about growing psychoactive plants so here goes: everyone here grows weed although it's not legal and a while ago our government was big on getting it decriminalised so that people could do small-scale farming but then covid came along and all that legislation got put in the see you later folder. Sativa strains are grown outdoors here because we have a long growing season and not many people have indoor setups for indica strains but I might look into that as a cash crop at some point.
Right now, I am just growing native plants that I enjoy using: the first is Sceletium tortuosum aka Kanna and I was surprised to find this for sale at a local garden centre and I'm experimenting with growing it in the garden although I'll have to see how it copes with summer rainfall. This species can also be grown in hanging baskets.
Sceletium is used as a mood enhancer and it contains mesembrine, which has a similar effect as SSRI anti-depressants and studies show that it reduces anxiety. I'll need to grow quite a bit more of this and then it can either be chewed fresh or fermented and dried. If you want to know more about fermenting, see here: https://herbalistics.com.au/preparation-of-kanna-from-sceletium-tortuosum/
The next plant is Catha edulis aka Khat, the plant form of the party drug Cat. It contains the same alkaloids in the leaves and is chewed. Although it is regarded as a drug, this tree is native to my country and the entire Eastern part of Africa and it's not illegal to grow. Supplying and selling is a different matter
This is still a baby bush that was grown from a cutting but I will keep it as a bush, in a large pot. The leaves are a little bitter and there's a lot of chewing involved, you pick the young shoots for eating. It's not bad once in a while, like drinking too much coffee
This last one falls in the category of don't try this at home, folks and is Boophone disticha or Tumbleweed. I was given the bulb as a gift and it has spectacular flowers and I don't intend to try it. Mine is just sprouting again after dying back in winter.
It's hallucinogenic, containing compounds similar to scopolamine but also contains toxic cardiac glycosides and was used as an arrow poison and for divination purposes in the past. It's also used medicinally to treat abscesses and other wounds. I just think it's pretty and it's native to the area I live in and a natural fit for my garden.
These are my "fun" plants and I grow other traditional medicinal plants in the garden, I'll go into those another time.
I think hallucinogenic is same as ‘Bakung Leaves’
I've had this discussion before, and the leaves of this very useful as a first treatment of a bone fracture in my hometown.
https://peakd.com/hive-120078/@aswita/bakung-leaves-for-first-aid
It seems that Bakung is Crinum asiaticum so it is a little different to mine but many lily family plants are useful that way, and poisonous.
Omg i dont know that :)
Thanks for the information..
Thank you @ackhoo!
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STOPGood luck with growing!
Thank you!
Very interesting plants, and knowing what can and can't be consumed is very cool.
Here in New York they just legalized weed for recreational purposes, and the state has also made it legal to grow 6 plants per adult in each household.
There's only one reason for the state's change in policy, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
When it becomes legal to grow in your country, good luck growing it.
Like growing anything, practice makes perfect. 😁
Here, growing weed outside is easy, provided there's no adverse weather
how are you my dear friend? I also love gardening
You came back: good to see you!
You are very knowledgeable about plants @nikv.
I find it truly amazing how we have so many psychoactive plants on this planet. I'm learning a lot from you, and very impressed with how much knowledge you obtain. Must be you've been doing this most of your life :)
I picked some mushrooms today, I think they might be psychoactive. I would feel honored to have an experienced person like you have a look. I posted about them earlier.
The Sceletium tortuosum seems very interesting. Who would have thought there were natural SSRI like compounds existing right within mother nature , minus the pharma chemicals and dependency :D
Great post as always, thank you for sharing!
Sceletium is an interesting plant although as with everything, don't overdo it. Any ssri in large doses or for too long will either cause serotonin syndrome or you'd have to withdraw from it very slowly
An SSRI (fluoxetine) in my early 20's gave me suicidal ideations and homicidal ideations. The only thing that saved me was me, in recognizing what was happening.
I would certainly be cautious with such a plant. Albeit can we really compare it to pharma? idk..
What you experienced is a recognised risk with antidepressants in general and I'm glad you realised what was going on - in fact there was a mass shooting in the US that was attributed to Prozac
Fluoxetine after a bereavement made me sleep 16-18 hours a day and feel totally numb so I stopped taking it. A random passerby in the street gave me 2 kittens and taking care of them saved my life.
The problem is less the drug than those prescribing it. Many decent, well trained pharmacists will tell you that meds are an extremely blunt object and absolutely everybody responds differently to every substance out there
Thank you for sharing this article, I don't find it very surprising. Corruption at every level of this system we live in.
That's really great about the cats. I adopted a stray in my back yard at the start of the pandemic and named him Covid :D he's been a real godsend for me.. real innocent cute little soul that keeps me on top of my game.
Totally, some seem to think that if a pill has an intended purpose, it's going to work the same for everyone, disregarding the similar but unique physiology we all have.
I'm always amazed too how we see the psychiatrist before the psychologist. Shouldn't the first response be addressing the issue/root problem to see if it's solvable before medication? Always found that to be a little backwards and maybe serving for profit over health..
It seems the sole purpose of a psychiatrist is to treat by way of medication and medication only, whereas psychologists perform psychotherapy, which may be beneficial in helping people with their mental health issues, perhaps more than a masking agent. (in severe cases maybe this is appropriate, but then again a psychologist should be able to recognize the need for emergency based meds. imo)
There's just a lot that doesn't make sense to me regarding the medical practice.
Finding answers are never easy and there is a lot of turf war between psychologists and psychiatrists. There's also the fact that most would just prefer to take a pill to make it all go away...
That's what we're talking about :)
It was one of my dreams dating back to 2006 to grow shamanic medicinal plants...
and I started slowly... with what I can keep indoors and what can survive outdoors...
I now only have my SanPedro~Peruvian cacti, but in the past I've grown others like HawaiianBabyWoodRose, Sinicuichi and maybe others...
Beautiful plants you have over there ;)
It's amazing what nature can provide. But it has to be said, you have to know your plants when using as medicine. You sound very knowledgeable, good for you.
HAPPY GROWING!