BILLS TARGET 40 ETHNOBOTANICALS

[Alfa]

BILLS TARGET FLOWERS, COLD MEDICINE


Look but don't eat.


Making it illegal to use morning glories and angel trumpets as hallucinogens has proved troublesome for legislators.


Rep. Michael Strain is trying to outlaw all but the aesthetic use of such plants. And Sen. James David Cain, in another attempt to stop drug abuse, wants to keep over-the-counter cold medicine from being used to make highly addictive methamphetamine.


Both men will continue their efforts this week: Strain in a House committee, Cain on the Senate floor.


Strain's bill lists close to 40 plants and fungi, many of them available for sale on the Internet, with purported hallucinogenic components.


"Ipomoea violacea seeds give a quiet, dreamy and trippy experience," one Web site said of the morning glory.


Vinca rosea (a.k.a. periwinkle) and Brugmansia arborea (the lush, flowering angel trumpet found in many New Orleans yards) also are among those listed in the bill by Strain, R-Covington.


The bill allows the sale of the plants for aesthetic, landscaping or decorative purposes. Because of at least one or two of the plants, the bill ran into trouble with sellers of herbal and nutritional health supplements, such as those sold by Utah-based Nature's Sunshine.


At least three Nature's Sunshine products -- a cough syrup, a remedy said to relieve side effects from vaccinations, and a "distress remedy" for pain and emotional upset resulting from minor physical trauma -- contain atropa belladonna, also known as nightshade, according to the company Web site.


Another product, a cough syrup, contains another plant listed in Strain's


bill: Hyoscyamus niger, or black henbane.


Too much of either can be toxic, but the products are U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved, said Cynthia Reed of Baton Rouge, regional manager for Nature's Sunshine.


"We love the bill," Reed said in an interview late last week; however, she said some type of amendment is needed to exempt safe commercial products.


Strain said he is amenable to the change and expects to have the language worked out in time to get the bill out of committee this week.


Cain, meanwhile, had hoped to pass a bill as strong as the one Oklahoma passed last year in the fight against methamphetamine labs that use simple ingredients, including components of some cold medicines, to create a highly addictive product.


The Oklahoma anti-meth law requires that specific types of decongestants that contain the chemical pseudoephedrine be kept behind pharmacy counters.


Buyers show identification and sign a logbook.


Busted labs in Oklahoma reached 1,254 in 2003, but Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs director Lonnie Wright credits the sales restrictions passed last year for a precipitous decline. Authorities say meth lab findings dropped by 80 percent after the law was passed in April 2004.


Other states are looking at similar laws.


Opposition to such restrictions was strong going into the Louisiana legislative session.


"I think if you require some of these smaller stores to put them behind the counter, they're probably not going to carry them -- in these small towns, where they might have a grocery store but no pharmacy," Fred Burkett, lobbyist with the Louisiana Retailers Association, said in an interview.


Cain, R-Dry Creek, settled for less in a bill retailers remain unhappy with but may not oppose. The bill would limit the sale of pseudoephedrine, along with related substances ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine, to no more than three packages or 9 grams per transaction. The bill also states that no more than three packages or 9 grams be stocked on a shelf accessible to the public at any one time. That would mean constant restocking of shelves, Burkett complained.


The bill would require that the shelves containing the drugs be under constant video surveillance -- costly for some retailers, Burkett said -- or that the substances be sold only to people who produce a valid photo identification and who sign a log or receipt detailing the transaction.


Stores violating the requirements could face fines of up to $1,000.


"That's a problem," Burkett said. "I don't think it's worth the retailers'


risk to sell this."


Cain said he is pushing ahead with the bill, which could be heard this afternoon. "They don't want to be inconvenienced," he said last week.


"That's their objection.


On the Internet:


Strain's bill, HB20, and Cain's bill, SB24, can be found on the legislative Web site: www.legis.state.la.us/


More information on hallucinogens can be found at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime site: www.unodc.org/

[oldman]

I've got two compost piles in my backyard, wonder how long it will be before they are outlawed for containing some matter, or analogue, or whatever that I could distill into something to alter my conscience. When will it ever stop. Why is the solution so easy to see and yet impossible to enact. "Why can't we all just gat along." my kid asks me this all the time, I guess he already knows the real meaning of life more than all these politicians.

[Unsolved]

This is rediculious and I am outraged at how these people can go "oh this substance can be abused let's outlaw it". Almost everything can be abused some how. What are they going to do, start making laws regarding the sales of any plant. I'm telling you guys little by little we keep loosing our civil rights. The more time that goes by the more we loose.

[Alfa]

Brains can be abused. As clearly shown by the bill described above. Let's ban brains!

[unico_walker]

How do you determine whether someone intends to ingest or not?

Unless you catch them putting it into their mouth, I mean what will
nurserys be expected to make judgment calls and deny sales to the guy
with a 420 tshirt on?



This bill is crazy and unenforceable.

[sg43]

IMHO I can completely understand outlawing the sale of angel trumpets, SWIM knew of someone who completely lost it and called the cops on himself while tripping, and not to mention possible permanent damage, but morning glory isn't anything special, they are just wasting their time.

[moldie]

I seriously think banning the consumption of plants containing atropine and various tropane alkaloids would do nothing to stop their consumption. Nightshade grows wild all over the place, and there are plenty of other sources for these horrible chemicals all over the place. I can only take pitty on anyone stupid enough to intentionally consume angel trumpet in order to induce absolute fucking insanity. I grew some datura in my backyard when I was a teenager and ate two seed pods - the blistering cottonmouth and completely immersive hallucinations weren't pleasant, neither was being blind the whole next day.

[allyourbase]

errrr....isnt there already a law covering nonspecific human use of possible drugs? isnt it called the misuse of medicines act or some such nonsense? I didnt know ANY site in the US actually sold these for human consumption(morning glory, re: fungus Im thinking fly agaric)

[oldman]

no legitimate site for these items that I've seen ever endorses the use of those type of items. infact they usually have a disclaimer stating that the items are not being sold for those purposes, the same way most rc dealers do.

[KrZ^]

They could establish personal intenet to consume, or endorsement of
consumption if you have information regarding consumption/effects on
your computer or in your home. The same way you can go to jail
for a damn long time for having 40 packs of cold medicine in a box with
a copy of Uncle Fester's SOMM. That's all the evidence they need
right there.

[oldman]

in that case what cleaning software does any one out there recommend to clean the closets completely. I have asked people about this and they say "Why would you want to do that?"

[euroresearch]

the disclameir is suffice. Items are for multiple uses, collection, herbarium preparation...

[gregus01]

i'm sorry but doesn't the senate and congress have more important things to deal with? Delay takes bribes once a week. Bush is about to nominate a Supreme Court candidate that will shift the odds in favor of the anti-abortionists on the court(in three years abortions will begin to become illegal in this country). And oh yea, we're at war.