Drugs: questions of terminology

Claiming that drugs kill is as foolish as saying

that water drowns or drugs illuminate

One of the main problems in the drugs issues is the inadequate and arbitrary use of terminology, which shows the widespread ignorance that exists in this field.

In contemporary culture the word “hallucinogen” is used referring to all

psychoactive plants. In fact, most of the compounds classified as illegal are not hallucinogens.

Another term frequently used is “narcotic”. Paradoxically this expression

applies to many substances whose effect is precisely the opposite, such as cocaine, which as we know is a central nervous system stimulant. Derived words as “narco” referred to smugglers or marketing of cocaine, are equally inadequate.

Another commonly used term, of rather vague meaning, is “stupefacients” (substances that cause stupor).

The word “stupor” has two main meanings: a) astonishment b) numbness, insensitivity. From that point of view we can say that there are many drugs that produce “stupor” in either way, most of which can be legally used.

The very term “drug” is also quite general and inadequate to describe illegal compounds. Botanical drug pharmacology called “drug” simply the part of the plant used. In a generic sense drug is a substance having biological effects on the body whose characteristics and intensity vary with the dose. In the first case it could also be called “medicine” and in the second case “poison”. In fact, substances are not medicines or poison, only the dose are.

As for the quality of “addictive” attributed to certain banned substances, it

is totally inappropriate. Many of the illegal “drugs” are not addictive, whereas there are a number of legal products that produce strong addictions.

In short, the vocabulary of prohibition is consistently vague and contradictory.

The only reasons that determine the designation of a substance as an illicit drugare historical and cultural in nature and relate to irrational dogmatic qualifications promoted without any scientific basis.

In fact, to refer to this issue objectively, it is required to consider the relativity of the uses and effects of various psychoactive substances. Only in this way the required conceptual precision will be achieved in a reasonable manner.

Drugs, hallucinogens, narcotics, stupefacients: a very inaccurate and arbitrary terminology: 

One of the main problems regarding drugs is the inadequate and arbitrary use of the terminology, which is a demonstration of the widespread ignorance that exists in this subject.

In contemporary culture the use of the word "hallucinogens" referring to all psychoactive plants is widespread. However, most of the compounds normally classified as (illegal) drugs ARE NOT hallucinogens.

Another word commonly used refering to psyhoactive substances is "narcotics" . This term is not accurate either. Many products thar are consideered “illegal drugs” have an effect which is precisely the opposite. It is the case of cocaine, which, as we know, is a stimulant of the central nervous system and IT IS NOT narcotic at all. Derived words like narcotraficker, narco-gangs or narco-criminals. concerning the illegal marketing of cocaine, are equally inadequate.

Another commonly used term, with a rather vague meaning, is “stupefacient" (substances that cause stupor). The word "stupor" means “numbness, insensitivity”. From that point of view we can say that there are many drugs that produce "stupor" in that sense, but most of them can be legally consumed.

The term "drug" is also very general and inadequate to describe illegal compounds. Botanical pharmacology calls “drug” simply the part of the plant that is consumed with pharmacological purposes. In a generic sense drug is used for substances having biological effects on the body the characteristics and intensity of which vary depending on the substnce itself, the dose and the person receiving it According to the dose, a “drug”may be "medicine" or "poison". In fact, any substance is nott medicine or poisons, only the dose is.

As for the quality of "addictive" attributed to certain banned substances, it is totally inappropriate. Many of the illegal "drugs" are not addictive, whereas there are a large number of legal products producing strong addictions.

In short, the vocabulary of prohibition is consistently vague and contradictory. The only reasons that determine the designation of a substance as an illicit drug are historical and cultural in nature and concern to irrational dogmatic qualifications promoted by sectors beyond scientific logic.

In fact, to refer to the issue objectively, it will be required to name accurately the psychoactive substances presently considered as “drugs” as well as the relativity of their uses and effects. Only in this way the conceptual precision required will be achieved to address the issue in a reasonable and scientific manner.

D.Anton, Peoples, Drugs and Serpents, Piriguazú Ediciones

Questions of terminology

Claiming that drugs kill is as foolish as saying

that water drowns or drugs illuminate

One of the main problems in the drugs issues is the inadequate and arbitrary use of terminology, which shows the widespread ignorance that exists in this field.

In contemporary culture the word “hallucinogen” is used referring to all

psychoactive plants. In fact, most of the compounds classified as illegal are not hallucinogens.

Another term frequently used is “narcotic”. Paradoxically this expression

applies to many substances whose effect is precisely the opposite, such as cocaine, which as we know is a central nervous system stimulant. Derived words as “narco” referred to smugglers or marketing of cocaine, are equally inadequate.

Another commonly used term, of rather vague meaning, is “stupefacients” (substances that cause stupor).

The word “stupor” has two main meanings: a) astonishment b) numbness, insensitivity. From that point of view we can say that there are many drugs that produce “stupor” in either way, most of which can be legally used.

The very term “drug” is also quite general and inadequate to describe illegal compounds. Botanical drug pharmacology called “drug” simply the part of the plant used. In a generic sense drug is a substance having biological effects on the body whose characteristics and intensity vary with the dose. In the first case it could also be called “medicine” and in the second case “poison”. In fact, substances are not medicines or poison, only the dose are.

As for the quality of “addictive” attributed to certain banned substances, it

is totally inappropriate. Many of the illegal “drugs” are not addictive, whereas there are a number of legal products that produce strong addictions.

In short, the vocabulary of prohibition is consistently vague and contradictory.

The only reasons that determine the designation of a substance as an illicit drugare historical and cultural in nature and relate to irrational dogmatic qualifications promoted without any scientific basis.

In fact, to refer to this issue objectively, it is required to consider the relativity of the uses and effects of various psychoactive substances. Only in this way the required conceptual precision will be achieved in a reasonable manner.

Introduction  (from the book “Peoples, drugs and serpents”, D.Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones). 

Many evils are not evils                                                                                                                        

They are only in the heads

Of those who think them

They are again doing as they usually do.

They come accusing, chasing, attacking.

They believe they own the truth.

Actually, they have no idea of what they are talking about, but they say it

with arrogance.

At other times they tortured and burned witches that cured the ills of the poor.

Today they are more sophisticated, but still they continue abusing, imprisoning, killing.

They have managed to outlaw the old medicines, ban the most sacred plants, cut our ties with nature and with Mother Earth.

They are the witch hunters.

They are generally well-dressed people who earn good salaries for their

mission of harassment.

They have well-equipped offices and drive expensive vehicles.

They come in various professions. Some are priests, some cops, and a good

number are engaged in politics in order to approve laws that authorize them to violate other people’s freedoms.

In fact, the witch hunters can be anything, behind their false masks of serious and honorable people they hide the lowest instincts.

In the depths of their souls they do not love anyone. Not even themselves.

Maybe because they know very well the content of their dark recesses.

Their targets are young people, women, all humans who disagree, leftists,

homosexuals, single mothers, and especially those who dare to explore the

depths of their own awareness.

They spend millions to pursue whoever refuses to obey their unhealthy

orders They spread propaganda by all means at their disposal, which are many.

They present erroneous data at their convenience.

They persecute farmers planting because they know, and stigmatize the

urban poor because they consume what they want.

The witch hunters are not many.

But they are placed in positions of power that allow them to organize and

execute their arbitrariness.

What is it that can lead some humans to consecrate their existence to seek

sins of others within a moral where the best things in life are sins?

Why someone can spend so much energy and effort in causing damage to a

lot of good, harmless and poor people?

Maybe it’s excessive desire for power. The need for some individuals to try

to control their fellow citizens to make up for their own insecurity.

Whatever the cause, this is a heritage that accompanies us for a long time.

At other epochs alienating deviations were contained through permanent and intimate relationships that communities had with the sacred plants.

Today the master plants, the ones that generate visions, are unknown or

stigmatized by the authorities and hierarchies.

Their attitudes are based on ignorance and hypocrisy.

In disrespect to the wisdom contained in the complexity of nature.

We must do everything possible to clarify things, to shed light, to discover

the truth.

We must defend the freedom to be ourselves. To consume the plants we

want. To travel into space and return each night of ecstasy and ceremony without asking anyone’s permission.

Fighting for the freedom to believe and to be in a framework of respect for

all rights.

We want this planet to be a society without hunters or victims. A world where humans can be brothers and sisters of each other and feel a part of nature, together with other organisms, plants or animals, who have joined us in our existential journey into the future.

Peyote

In the same way that ololiuhqui was consecrated since ancient times as a visionary plant, Mexican and Otomian peoples, peyote represented the most important sacred to the native peoples of arid and semi-arid regions. 8  
It is a small cactus that was used since time immemorial to generate expanded states of consciousness and to make decisions, both socially and individually.
Among the Huichol it is known as hícuri or xicori. 
The Cora people of Tepic mountains call it huatari call it, and  the Tepehuane of Durango, kamaba. The Otomian peoples of the Mexican plateau, beyo, and the Mescalero Apaches, or ho u hos.
Its occurrence area stretches along the valleys and high plateaus of arid and semiarid Mexico (Rio Grande Valley, Tamaulpecan mountains, river Mezquital, Durango and Nayarit Sierras, etc), South and Central US (Texas, New Mexico). In general, it is adapted to limestone and clay soils of the Cretaceous formations in the aforementioned region.
The plant has very particular characteristics, it is small (typically a few centimeters in diameter), rounded and has no branches or leaves. Its flower is whitish pink, in which a reddish solid rosáceo- fruit and elongated shape develops.
Peyote contains nine alkaloids of the isoquinilina series and due to effects type  strychnine (toxic), and others effects type-morphine (sedative).

The combined effects of these compounds in the peyote are complex and depend on both the invididual who ingest it, to the context in which it is consumed and to the size of the dose.
The plant was described by Shagun in 1560, as a Chichimecas «narcotic» cactus ritually used. Jacinto de la Serna mentioned peyote in 1626 and the first botanical description was made ​​in 1638 by Francisco Hernandez, a Spanish naturalist, calling it Peyotl Zacatensis . This researcher noted that native peoples  divided peyote into two types: males and females.
The Huichol classify them into two varieties, one is more active and bitter, with smaller hubs and abundant in the area, which they call Tzinouritehua-hicouri or Peyote of the Gods, and another, of weaker effect, which they call Rhaitoumuanitarihua-hicouri or Peyote of the Goddess).
According to Rouhier quoted by Weston La Barre, 1970, the latter would be the juvenil phase of the first one.
The Huichols have a tutelary goddess of peyote called Hatzimouika, while for the Tarahumara, peyote is the God of man, hikuli walula saliami .
According to the Tarahumara traditions, peyote is a plant that sings. The way to find it is precisely by hear her singing. Then while she is in the bags she keeps singing.
During ceremonies peyote  also sing her songs.
Peyote is quite hard to find when you are looking for it... a person who is not accustomed may not recognize her despite being in the middle of a cluster of peyote. Once you see one, another appears and so on, until all peyotes appear like stars. If you have trouble finding them do the following: when you find one just eat it. When the effect put a little dizzy, you hear a sound like wind in a certain direction. Go over there ... .of where the sound comes, and you will find many peyote plants. (testimony of a lipan) 9  
You can get power by visiting the peyote field in Texas, and saying you want to to help heal people and get medicine. There should spill tobacco. The next morning, when the morning star appears, the person must return to the field where he put the tobacco and when approaching he will hear a jingle bell ringing. If there is a snake, you must grab it (as it is wrapped up the Medicine), remove it, and take a peyote button from that place. Then you go to another cluster and take another button ... Perhaps, when you go to grasp the fourth button you will find the snake again and you must remove it.  
The first effect of the ingestion of peyote is challenging both mentally and physically. It helps to cope with strenuous physical exertion, such as running and ceremonial dances.
Some people become euphoric and others come into depressive  states. In almost all cases, peyote acts as a suppressor of sleep. The ceremonial peyote sessions are usually done at night, and in them the participants can stay 10-12 hours awake.
Physiologically it produces visions of colors and unusual olfactory and auditory perceptions. Many observers have noted an increase in visual acuity and, perhaps for the most sensitive people, some photophobia (discomfort caused by light).
It is consumed in conjunction with a diet of sweet foods, corn soaked in sugar water, fruit and sweet meats and sweets. On the contrary, it is considered incompatible with alcohol or salt.
Normally, the peyote is consumed in group. 
A native oto Weston La Barre pointed out that:
« peyote does not work outside the groups, I know because I’ve tried . «
I is also used commonly for visions, to divine the future and as an aid to decision making. (to be continued)
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones

The major psychoactive plants

The major psychoactive factors include many substances, generally of plant origin. Below is a list of the main synthetic plants that have been used historically and psychoactive compounds extracted from them ends.

1.  Poppy ( Papaver somniferum ) is a herbaceous flowering plant from which opium-bearing seeds are obtained. It contains several active substances with psychoactive properties: morphine (from which heroin is extracted), codeine and others.

2.  Hemp ( Cannabis sativa ), also improperly called marijuana, is a, native to southern Asia shrubby plant, which has psychoactive alkaloids with well defined properties. Hashish is obtained.from cannabis

3.  Peyote ( peyote ) is a cactus whose main active ingredient is mescaine. The peyote grows in arid subtropical areas of North America.

4.  Teonanacatl ( Mexican Psilocybe and Stropharia cubensis ) is formed by several species of psychoactive mushrooms that grow in the mountains of Mesoamerica (Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala). They contain psilocybin and psilocin

5.  Fly agaric ( Amanita muscaria ) is a psychoactive mushroom that grows in the Nordic and temperate mountain forests in Eurasia. It contains muscarine and muscimol.

6. Ayahuasca is an infusion prepared from a vine that grows in the Amazonian region. This vine called  Banisteriopsis caapi contains harmina13   (C 13 H 12 N 2 O), an alkaloid with strong sicoativas properties.

7. Ergot  ( Claviceps purpurea ) is a fungus that parasites rye, wheat and other grasses. It is strongly psychoactive and has significant toxicity that can be removed in its preparation. It is of Eurasian or North African origin. It contains several psychoactive alkaloids including lysergic acid, closely related to LSD-25 (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) the known synthetic psychedelic compound.

8.  Ololiuhqui ( Turbina corymbosa ), also called “seeds of the Virgin” is a vine found in Mexico whose seeds have visionary properties.Like the ergot alkaloids lysergic acid containing, with strongly psychoactive character.

9.  Aguacolla, also called San Pedro or giant ( Trichocereus pachanoi ) is a large-sized cactus (5-8 meters high) that grows in central and northwestern South Andes (Ecuador, Peru) America. Just as the peyote contains mescaline.

10. Coca is a very bushy plant of the Andean foothills in South America whose leaves contain numerous alkaloids, including cocaine.

11. Tobacco is a shrub native American origin grown in most of the native societies. It has several alkaloids, including nicotine.

12 Beleño ( Hyoscyamus niger ) is a herb of the family Solanaceae characteristic of Europe and the Mediterranean region. It contains tropane alkaloids, including hyoscyamine and scopolamine. The latter has visionary properties.

13. Belladonna ( Atropa belladonna ) is a typical European continent herbaceous plant of the family Solanaceae, which contains several tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine and scopolamine.

14. Mandragora ( Mandragora officinarum ) is a herbaceous plant of European origin that has a thick and irregular root of anthropomorphic appearance. It contains several tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine, scopolamine, atropine and mandragorina.

15. Iboga ( Tabernanthe iboga ) is a shrub of Central Africa whose roots are used for its visionary properties. It is a species of milkweed family, consisting of shrubs and trees characterized by their simple leaves, colorful flowers and a milky juice. It contains ibogaine and 11 more indole-alkaloids.

16.Syrian rue ( Peganum harmala ) is a small shrub native to the desert areas of the Mediterranean East. It contains beta-carboline alkaloids such as harmine, harmaline and harmine tetrahydro-with visionary properties.

17. Datura ( Datura inoxia ) is a perennial herb that can reach more than 1 m high that grows in Mexico. The root is used, seeds and leaves lesser extent. It contains scopolamine and hyoscyamine.

 There are many other plants rich in alkaloids. Some of them are commonly used in industrial preparations and mass consumption (coffee, tea, chocolate, kola, mate, etc.) (see Chapter 6). Others are known only locally. Surely there are many whose properties are unknown. A complete list would include several thousand species.

From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones

Introduction of the book "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents"

Many evils are not evils

They are only in the heads

Of those who think them 

They are again doing as they usually do.

They come accusing, chasing, attacking.
They believe they own the truth.
 Actually, they have no idea of what they are talking about, but they say it with arrogance.
At other times they tortured and burned witches that cured the ills of the poor.
Today they are more sophisticated, but still they continue abusing, imprisoning, killing.
They have managed to outlaw the old medicines, ban the most sacred plants, cut our ties with nature and with Mother Earth.
They are the witch hunters.

They are generally well-dressed people who earn good salaries for their mission of harassment. 
They have well-equipped offices and drive expensive vehicles.
They come in various professions. Some are priests, some cops, and a good number are engaged in politics in order to approve laws that authorize them to violate other people’s freedoms.
In fact, the witch hunters can be anything, behind their false masks of serious and honorable people they hide the lowest instincts.
In the depths of their souls they do not love anyone. Not even themselves.
Maybe because they know very well the content of their dark recesses.

Their targets are young people, women, all humans who disagree, leftists, homosexuals, single mothers, and especially those who dare to explore the depths of their own awareness. 
They spend millions to pursue whoever refuses to obey their unhealthy orders They spread propaganda by all means at their disposal, which are many. 

They present erroneous data at their convenience. 
They persecute farmers planting because they know, and stigmatize the urban poor because they consume what they want.
The witch hunters are not many. 
But they are placed in positions of power that allow them to organize and execute their arbitrariness.
What is it that can lead some humans to consecrate their existence to seek sins of others within a moral where the best things in life are sins?
Why someone can spend so much energy and effort in causing damage to a lot of good, harmless and poor people?
Maybe it’s excessive desire for power. The need for some individuals to try to control their fellow citizens to make up for their own insecurity.
Whatever the cause, this is a heritage that accompanies us for a long time.
At other epochs alienating deviations were contained through permanent and intimate relationships that communities had with the sacred plants.
Today the master plants, the ones that generate visions, are unknown or stigmatized by the authorities and hierarchies.
Their attitudes are based on ignorance and hypocrisy.  
In disrespect to the wisdom contained in the complexity of nature.
We must do everything possible to clarify things, to shed light, to discover the truth.
We must defend the freedom to be ourselves. To consume the plants we want. To travel into space and return each night of ecstasy and ceremony without asking anyone’s permission.
Fighting for the freedom to believe and to be in a framework of respect for all rights.
We want this planet to be a society without hunters or victims.  A world where humans can be brothers and sisters of each other and feel a part of nature, together with other organisms, plants or animals, who have joined us in our existential journey into the future.
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones

Prohibitionism is a war of governments against their own citizens
Danilo Anton

The demons created by the industrial society seem to want to kill their own inventors.   
Trafficking and consumption of illicit substances have spread like wildfire throughout the industrialized world. 
No corner in the so called “rich countries” is free from this "evil".
Of little use are international police efforts, the imagination of consumers, traders and producers seem to always be one step ahead of the repressive efforts of the authorities.
As repression deepens, the price of the “drug” increases to consumers, augmenting economic incentives to produce and sell it.
The repression of consumption is very difficult, perhaps impossible. Potential consumers are many. 
All individuals in the society can, in a particular context, become addicted to drugs. 
This happens even within the repressive forces themselves, among political decision makers or policy makers, and, of course, within their families and social circles.
In a society that favors hedonistic values, the last sensuous escape are psychoactive drugs. 

The rich have the money to buy them.
Although drugs are expensive, there will be always people willing to pay exorbitant sums to procure  the banned substance. 
The poor do not have the money to obtain the goods easily. For that reason they are driven to secure them by other means. The repression of drug production and consumption fuels crime.
The traffickers, who are forced to confront the powers of the states, must create their own devices to counter the repressive action. Multifaceted and international criminal organizations, private armies appear. The drug money floods and “contaminate” all fields of the economy and society.
Political, professional, military and business people are involved in this traffic.
Favored by globalization, money laundering produced by drugs has become an important element in the global economy. 
There is no political will or actual interest in financial institutions to exercise any significant control.
In many cases, the alleged fight against drugs, has a double standard, there is no real provision for the trafficking and consumption, and the drug war is used as an excuse to achieve other political ends, such as to repress social movements, peasant rebellions, grassroots guerrilla warfare, etc.
Farmers in poor countries find in the agricultural production of prohibited plants a source of income that can not be achieved with other crops.
These farmers are very vulnerable to repression. In general, they are not organized to confront police and military forces, and are easy victims of the repressive operations, burning and confiscation of crops, poisoning defoliants, arrest, abuse and killing of the repressive forces at the service of governments and international economic interests.
Global authorities insist in combating the poorest farmers in some of the most isolated and underprivileged regions.
They use all the possible political, economic and military resources.
In this unequal struggle is the poor who pay the most expensive price. Traffickers have operating bases and hideouts, planes, helicopters and a lot of money. Peasant producers, however, can not escape, their only recourse is the land and the will to plant. Because of their vulnerability they are subject to arbitrariness and abuse.  In these countries corrupt governments, spurred by the imperial and transnational pressure, are combating theirs own citizens without offering other viable alternatives.
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones.

The major psychoactive plants

The major psychoactive factors include many substances, generally of plant origin. Below is a list of the main synthetic plants that have been used historically and psychoactive compounds extracted from them ends.

1.  Poppy ( Papaver somniferum ) is a herbaceous flowering plant from which opium-bearing seeds are obtained. It contains several active substances with psychoactive properties: morphine (from which heroin is extracted), codeine and others.

2.  Hemp ( Cannabis sativa ), also improperly called marijuana, is a, native to southern Asia shrubby plant, which has psychoactive alkaloids with well defined properties. Hashish is obtained.from cannabis

3.  Peyote ( peyote ) is a cactus whose main active ingredient is mescaine. The peyote grows in arid subtropical areas of North America.

4.  Teonanacatl ( Mexican Psilocybe and Stropharia cubensis ) is formed by several species of psychoactive mushrooms that grow in the mountains of Mesoamerica (Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala). They contain psilocybin and psilocin

5.  Fly agaric ( Amanita muscaria ) is a psychoactive mushroom that grows in the Nordic and temperate mountain forests in Eurasia. It contains muscarine and muscimol.

6. Ayahuasca is an infusion prepared from a vine that grows in the Amazonian region. This vine called  Banisteriopsis caapi contains harmina13   (C 13 H 12 N 2 O), an alkaloid with strong sicoativas properties.

7. Ergot  ( Claviceps purpurea ) is a fungus that parasites rye, wheat and other grasses. It is strongly psychoactive and has significant toxicity that can be removed in its preparation. It is of Eurasian or North African origin. It contains several psychoactive alkaloids including lysergic acid, closely related to LSD-25 (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) the known synthetic psychedelic compound.

8.  Ololiuhqui ( Turbina corymbosa ), also called “seeds of the Virgin” is a vine found in Mexico whose seeds have visionary properties.Like the ergot alkaloids lysergic acid containing, with strongly psychoactive character.

9.  Aguacolla, also called San Pedro or giant ( Trichocereus pachanoi ) is a large-sized cactus (5-8 meters high) that grows in central and northwestern South Andes (Ecuador, Peru) America. Just as the peyote contains mescaline.

10. Coca is a very bushy plant of the Andean foothills in South America whose leaves contain numerous alkaloids, including cocaine.

11. Tobacco is a shrub native American origin grown in most of the native societies. It has several alkaloids, including nicotine.

12 Beleño ( Hyoscyamus niger ) is a herb of the family Solanaceae characteristic of Europe and the Mediterranean region. It contains tropane alkaloids, including hyoscyamine and scopolamine. The latter has visionary properties.

13. Belladonna ( Atropa belladonna ) is a typical European continent herbaceous plant of the family Solanaceae, which contains several tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine and scopolamine.

14. Mandragora ( Mandragora officinarum ) is a herbaceous plant of European origin that has a thick and irregular root of anthropomorphic appearance. It contains several tropane alkaloids including hyoscyamine, scopolamine, atropine and mandragorina.

15. Iboga ( Tabernanthe iboga ) is a shrub of Central Africa whose roots are used for its visionary properties. It is a species of milkweed family, consisting of shrubs and trees characterized by their simple leaves, colorful flowers and a milky juice. It contains ibogaine and 11 more indole-alkaloids.

16.Syrian rue ( Peganum harmala ) is a small shrub native to the desert areas of the Mediterranean East. It contains beta-carboline alkaloids such as harmine, harmaline and harmine tetrahydro-with visionary properties.

17. Datura ( Datura inoxia ) is a perennial herb that can reach more than 1m high that grows in Mexico. The root is used, seeds and leaves lesser extent. It contains scopolamine and hyoscyamine.

 There are many other plants rich in alkaloids. Some of them are commonly used in industrial preparations and mass consumption (coffee, tea, chocolate, kola, mate, etc.) (see Chapter 6). Others are known only locally. Surely there are many whose properties are unknown. A complete list would include several thousand species.

From: Peoples, Drugs and Serpents, Danilo Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones

The origins of cannabis

D.Anton

There are references to the use of cannabis several thousand years ago in its area of origin (India) and China. Around 2700 BC the Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung encouraged hemp cultivation to produce fibers (perhaps also for other purposes), and in the third century bce Hoa-Thom, doctor of Chinese origin, recommended cannabis preparations wine as an anesthetic, noting that “ after a few days or end of the month, the patient feels is restored without experiencing any pain during the operation “.   .

It is thought that cannabis came to Europe around 1500 bc. There are references to its use by Scythians, nomadic herders natives of southeast Europe (areas of the rivers Don and Dnieper), who introduced it in Greece around the eighth century bc.

Herodotus described the Scythian custom as follows.

“ They have a type of grass that grows in this country (Scythian) as hemp ... When the Scythians harvest the sprouts of this hemp, they take refuge in their felt tents and throw the sprouts on  a hot stone, which produce smoke and steam stronger than the most energetic Greek sweat bath.  The Scythians carried by the vapor steam, they soon cry of pleasure ... ‘.

In another fragment the Greek writer said:

“ The Scythians have discovered other trees producing a special fruit and people gathering around a fire through it into the fire, sit around in a circle; and inhale the fumes of the burned fruit, they feel intoxicated in the same by its odourpir or feel the smell of mismomodo as the Greeks do with wine; and the more fruit is thrown become more intoxicated, until you get up to dance and sing. “   

From that time hemp was adopted by many Middle Eastern peoples who consume its products, including hashish.

Commenting on the description of Herodotus, Werner Keller 11   states: “ Herodotus must never felt personally the effects of hashish. Otherwise he would have known that it does not  produces only pleasure but ecstasy. And these “baths” were not intended for cleaning or healing. They were religious rituals of the Scitinas.

Keller’s comments are not acceptable. First the difference between pleasure and ecstasy is difficult to establish. Likewise also the distinction between “cleaning” and “healing”, and religious rituals are well appreciated. Many religious ceremonies are designed specifically for cleaning or healing.

The Roman naturalist Pliny (23-79 AD) quotes a fragment  of Democrates in relation to a plant called thalassaegle or potamaugis  that many think it was hemp.

“ Ingested in drink produces a delirium that includes beautiful visions of an extraordinary nature. “

At present, there are still groups in the region of Altai “who get drunk in the same way ... burning twigs of hemp in a closed tent “(Keller, 1975).

To this we must add the various modalities of  this type of ceremony,  from the Finnish sauna to the Mexican bathhouse. During these practices herbs or leaves that introduce smoke are usually added. They are often psychoactive, the concentrated vapor inside the tents. Probably the Scythians ceremonies were related to such practices.

In India there was a clear awareness of the role of cannabis as a psychoactive substance. For many centuries, both Hindu and Muslim, cannabis consumption was related to the esoteric aspects of spirituality, yoga practices and emphasis of their use as ways to access the experiences of the transcendent.

Due to the mentioned properties, according to McKenna, the cannabis plant was indicated to replace the oldest psychoactive plants (such as soma) when they were banned and forgotten. Indeed, this occurred in much of the Middle East. This author believes that the presence of cannabis in the Hindu and Islamic societies may have slowed the expansion of societies of domination in these countries.

In Europe the diffusion process was much more complex. The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo, in their travel stories (1290), includes the popular tale “The Old Man of the Mountain” of Ibn Saba, leader of the cult of the hashishin consumers of hashish. From hashishin emerge the term “assassin” Then, in sixteen century Europe, Johannus Weier mentioned the use of hashish by certain witches, maintaining its character of prohibited or unknown substance for three hundred years.

In the seventeenth century the English introduced hemp in Virginia, and from that moment its use spread to all the English colonies of North America.

 It is known that the Declaration of American Independence was written on hemp paper and its editors, called “fathers of independence” of the country, were all consumers of this plant. 

In 1791 George Washington himself sought to promote domestic production of cannabis and somewhat later, President Thomas Jefferson proposed hemp plant rather than tobacco.

In the early nineteenth century when Napoleon’s armies conquered Egypt, the  administration of French invaded territories sought to restrict the consumption of hashish without success. The result was the opposite, due to contact between French soldiers and merchants to Egyptian society, cannabis use spread to certain intellectual sectors of French society.

In the 1840s several famous writers such as Baudelaire, Dumas, Balzac and others formed the “ Club des Hashischins “where dawamesc(a type of Algerian hashish) was consumed.  However, the prestige of the writers of this club failed to fully open the doors to the consumption of hashish. In 1848 during the rebellion of the Paris Commune, the students carried banners demanding free access to cannabis and ether.

The scientistic and naturalistic approach that prevailed in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century allowed cannabis for a time, and the use of cannabis began to expand to African countries.

Several doctors advocated its use as a remedy for various ailments. Some were O’Shaughnessy, England, Aubert-Roche in France, and finally JJ Moreau, also in France (Tours), who published a book entitled “Du Hashish Mentale et de l’Alienation” (Hashish and Mental alienation), triggering a wave of experimentation in certain circles of the Parisian elite.

Gradually, Europeans and Americans began to become familiar with hemp, and already during the first half of the twentieth century trade had become global.

At that time hashish was consumed in many different ways. Smoked in water pipes was only one of the modalities. Its consumption was much more common in candy ingestion, usually imported from the Middle East.

The effect of cannabis when “eaten” instead of smoking it, it’s very intense.

The description of Bayard Taylor published in Atlantic Monthly in 1854 is illustrative:

“ The sense of limits, the confinement of our senses in the borders of our own flesh and blood, fell instantly. The walls of my body fell exploded outward and demolished; without thinking that it was my way, I lost all idea of form, 

(to be continued)

From: "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones

Greek rithuals related to plants and serpents

Danilo Anton

Greek culture has also developed serpentine cults and symbols that were based on the consumption of certain plants. Still today, in contemporary society, as a symbol of medicine is usually used the rod of Aesculapius, a rod surrounded by two coiled snakes.
The Greek God Aesculapius was a shaman or physician who lived in Thessaly, Greece, around 1200 BC.

Homer in the Iliad mentions him only as a skilled physician, then he was honored as a hero, and finally raised to the divine category.
In time, he became the Greek deity of medicine, worshiped in hundreds of temples. In mythology to be developed in later times, he was considered the son of Apollo (God of Light, Truth and Prophecy) and the nymph Coronis. The centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing, but Zeus, fearing that he could return to immortal men, struck him with lightning.
The rithuals began in Thessaly but then spread to all the Hellenic peoples.
It was introduced in Rome by Sibylline to relieve a plague in the year 293 a.e.
Aesculapius was depicted dressed in a long tunic with bare chest. He had a rod with a coiled serpent that would eventually become the symbol of medicine.
The caduceus symbol with its rod with wings and entwined serpents also appears on the magic wand of Hermes or Mercury.
The caduceus or caduceus (in Greek kerikeion) was a staff, rod or cane that showed that the person who took it was sacred and had to be respected.
The hundreds of Greek temples of Aesculapius in Greece were used by sick people who went to sleep to be visited in dreams by Aesculapius or his priests. They slept in a place called abaton which was a holy bedroom. It is believed that diets were used, most likely poppy (opium) and other healing and ceremonial plants, baths and exercises as a method of healing6. It is good to remember, on the other hand, that Hermes, the Mercury of the Romans, was a God closely connected with the deities of vegetation (Bread and nymphs), the deity of dreams to whom the faithful offered the last libation before go to sleep.
Demeter, the Mother Goddess, also known as Gaia, was the deity of plants and nature. In the images that are conserved of it usually appears taking poppies, snakes and barley. Before being dedicated to Apollo, the oracle of Delphi, the most important religious center of Greece, had been object of the cult to Gaia and its daughter the Sacred Serpent. Then the Serpent was to be masculinized and transformed into a serpent-dragon called Python. The priestesses of the sanctuary, which for this reason were called pythonesses, achieved transcendence through the ingestion of Sacred Plants, extracts of wine and ragweed, specially prepared to achieve the cosmic connection with the deep essences. In particular, in their trances they communicated with Mother Earth, and with the ancient celestial serpent, as in the pre-Hellenic times of matriarchal societies.
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones

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Contemporary alienation, time for change

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

“Diets are privileged spaces
to work on ourselves. “ 1

No culture on earth has been so deeply alienated from the natural surroundings as the industrial-consumerist contemporary world.
Despite the growing crisis, and the irreconcilable contradictions between the strategies and resources, advance continues toward catastrophe with complete indifference.
We must recognize the depth of our historical dilemma as a species.
If we allow the authorities of political, economic and pseudoscience deciding where to continue or not legitimately focusing human curiosity, we will continue to frustrate our potential possibilities.
Authoritarian restrictions and tutorials to the imagination are degrading and grotesque.
Governments interfere in the diet, intrude into what things people can eat and which ones are forbidden.
They restrict research on psychoactive substances, which could provide valuable psychological and medical approaches, preventing also their religious and spiritual use.
They are suppressing religious sensibility, the spiritual links that are based on the relationship between plants and humans that existed long before the advent of  “history”.
It is time to have an honest reappraisal of the true costs and benefits of using such plants against the costs and benefits of non-use.

The global culture is in danger of succumbing to an effort to exclude the problem of their own lack of awareness through a military and police arbitrary and cruel terrorism against users and producers of certain substances that have been classified as “drugs”.
This attitude is based on misinformation and historical ignorance.
Deeply rooted prejudices explain why industrial and consumer mind suddenly gets anxious and repressive against “drugs” .
Changes in consciousness that induce strong substances irrevocably reveal that mental life of human beings have physical bases. In that sense, psychoactive drugs face the principle of inviolability and special status of the soul which has been imposed by the “Christian” ideology and similar religious paradigms for over two millennia.
Sacred plants and their psychosocial effects are also facing the modern idea of ​​the ego, its inviolability and control structures.
The ego is terrified to see dissolved its borders with the world. This explains the suppression of the feminine, which is our carnal bond with nature and the distant past, the deep prejudice that prevents us from assessing correctly the strange, exotic, and irrational terror of transcendental experiences.
In short, encounters with psychoactive plants put into question all the paradigmatic vision of the society of domination.
For that reason, they cannot be allowed.
They must be eliminated, stigmatized.
They symbolize the worst subversion, the subversion produced by the truth and knowledge when they light up inside the consciousness.
They have to imprison all who dare to defy the base of the system.
Global culture, self-intoxicated by poisonous byproducts of technology is the unhappy heiress of a very old persecutory attitude.
The belief ot elites that altering consciousness through plants is somehow wrong, and perversely antisocial.
In short, the suppression of shamanic knowledge, with its insistence on ecstatic dissolution of the ego, is robbing us of the meaning of life and is making us enemies of the planet, of ourselves and of our descendants.
The rulers, the witch hunters are killing the matriarchal wisdom, and in it, the final truth that defines us: our essential condition of natural beings.
It is time for change.
  1 Ref. Rosa Giove, “Discovering the squaring of the circle, ikono from A‘; Takiwasi Magazine Year 3 No. 5, September 1997.
Danilo Anton, Peoples, Drugs and Serpents, Piriguazu Ediciones