a field of opium poppies right now. Between the rows, I'll plant belladonna. How does that sound?

And if you chose to ingest them its your right as a human being! Given from God and Nature and the Universe!
You cannot force them on others.

But you have the natural right to grow and ingest any plant you chose!

flower buds and the leaves from the belladonna, bottle them up neatly and sell them as "natural dietary supplements" on a website. I'll turn both into little pills people can take. They're natural, so there won't be any problems. Both have wonderful medicinal properties, so I should be able to sell lots of the stuff. Maybe I can get other people to grow the plants for me...I'm thinking China. I know all about the medicinal properties of plants, but I wouldn't mess with any but the ones that really get the job done, you know.

This could be big.

Troublesome Pain? Take Natural Opioids from MineralMan, Inc.
Heart Problems? Mineralman's Foxglove Extract Works Miracles.
Got Rumblings in your Gut? Try Mineralman's Belladonna pills to get your shit together.

There are bunches of other natural plants I could produce and sell.

I could get rich from my website and write all kinds of articles people could post all over the Internet. That would increase my sales dramatically, I'm sure.

in post #1 you said you were going to plant opium and belladonna and asked politely how it sounded.

Then in post 3 you are all of a sudden going to sell it.

I've seen this before, it's mission creep. And you're creeping.
And I GET it.

Why should I hoard all of that natural medicine for myself? Both of those plants, and a lot more, have been used as medicine for a long, long time. So, why shouldn't I sell that stuff? It's just plants, and I might as well join all the other purveyors of "Natural Products." The difference will be that I'll sell the really powerful natural products. I'm sure I can rely on my customers to use them wisely and according to the instructions printed on the label, right?

I didn't say you had a natural right to refine plants or to sell plants. I said you have the natural right to grow plants and ingest plants.

Your natural rights end where mine begin. If your product is safe has no negative side effects that the consumer isn't aware of. Your open with your refinery and inspected by the FDA. Then you could sell your product on the open market. Selling a dangerous product and not informing me of the dangers is a violation of my natural rights!

But if you grow a plant. make it into tea. bake it into brownies.smoke it. If you has an adult ingest the plant it is your choice. You do need to be informed about what you are ingesting and its side effects no matter what.

If I buy your pills and I know the dangers or side effects then it is my choice.

If I give my plants to adult friends or family and they are aware and informed about the plant it is their choice as well.

Plants are natural. They were created and given to us my mother nature. We can chose to use them as we see fit.

Refining plants down and selling them on the market is a humanmade creation and hence needs human oversight.

buying. I'll have some warnings and dosage info printed right on the bottle. I'll have to use really small type, though, but people have magnifying glasses.

If growing medicinal plants is legal, then I can sell them if I want. I should put my knowledge to work and help heal the planet. I could make lots of money, too, but that's not really my goal.

Sex, for instance. I don't see why a law couldn't be crafted that would allow, say, the growing of poppy, but not allow the production and sale of heroin or even opium (or other opiate containing tinctures). I don't think there would be a moral issue with such a law, in fact, it might be the most moral solution to this abomination which is the drug war.

Maybe they would start whole gardens and provide healthy food to their whole family. Maybe have a poppy or too for poppy tea for the back aches. Or a cannibis plant or two to help with depression or chemotherapy or just to relax on the weekend. Maybe start growing your own mushrooms, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes while you are at it.

The act of growing and spending time in the garden is also a very healthy exercise.

I think it's about time the government moved toward more, rather than fewer freedoms. When thinking of things from a harm reduction standpoint, it makes total sense to legalize the growing of all plants. Anyone can purchase rat poison. Nearly anyone can purchase a gun. It makes no sense to outlaw any plant. Outlaw the production of hard drugs from the plants if they must, but no government should be able to tell any adult what plant they can't grow.

And I agree that tending to plants can be a great way to spend time.

I don't think people realize the slippery slope we are on allowing our Goverment to outlaw the growing or possession of a plant. And so many take this right for granted I think the right to grow plants is more important than the right to own a gun and just as important as your right to speak. It is one of those rights that our framers never would of forseen being violated otherwise it would be in there.

If the King of England told the colonist they couldn't grow tea or cotton or hemp they would of put it in there.

"The Right to Grow Plants shall not be infringed!" seems like a simple Amendment to make.

Why is it that the ability to grow a plant is legal for one entity, but illegal for another? It's kind of like saying "it's illegal to grow and eat carrots unless you have a license."

What the hell sense does that make on property you own? I don't even like pot and it makes no damn sense to me. What's next, the basil police? OMG I'm growing rosemary, I must be imprisoned for 20 years?

as directed, too. There are so many plants that can be used medicinally. I'm only going to grow and sell the really powerful ones, though. I'll put some dosage instructions on the bottle. People always read those.

I did not know that.

/Johnny Carson

You can find it growing wild almost anywhere there's water. You just don't want to confuse it with the useless, but similar looking plants like anise. You need the powerful plants like hemlock, if you want real medicinal effects.

Hardly a surprise of course.

...that another name for marijuana is "weed".

Its weedy nature is the result of former hemp farms, frankly. It grows pretty much everywhere there is farmland in the midwest. Every ditch has its cannabis plants, it seems.

Sorry. That it is a weed was an answer, but not as direct as you wanted. You can plant hemlock, if you like. You can consume it, too. No law against that, either. Use caution, though. With hemlock, a very little goes a long way.

While a plant that's never been known to kill anyone is quite illegal, indeed just today I read of two former CIA employees who had their home raided because law enforcement thought they might be growing a weed.

And no, that hemlock is a weed was not an answer to the question I asked because cannabis is a weed also and still highly illegal according to federal law.

plant. The OP didn't even mention cannabis. Well, that's a different story altogether, eh?

My facetious posts were made to demonstrate that exact point. If you want to talk about cannabis, then that should be the subject. I agree that people should be able to plant and consume cannabis. But, the OP neglected to mention the subject in his OP.

He was talking about medicinal stuff. I know about hundreds of medicinal plants. Cannabis is just one of them.

All Plants!

A Plant is a plant is a plant and all should be legal!

I should be able to put it in the ground. grow it. and ingest it.

Even the laws of the United States protect this natural right.

Amendment 9 of the Constitution protects all natural rights of the individual, and prevents congress from passing laws that violates natural rights. Any law that outlaws a plant is unconstitutional!

It is a human concept to sell something using made up money. You can give away the plants you grow. But constitution does give the Government the right to regulate commerce.

away, and charge only for shipping and handling. I think about $19.95 would work. Lots of handling involved with "natural" medicines, it seams. The pills are a gift, but I can't ship them for free.

People have the right to ingest what they chose. I don't think you would ship very many.

Outlawing a weed isn't a problem they already have!

Funny how we outlaw the plants and "weeds" that have medicinal and painkiller qualities. But the poisnous ones are readily available.

Hence the point of my thread. We sell poisonous painkillers to people everyday when their are non-poisonous safe plants made illegal that help with pain and many other disorders.

But stick it in your mouth and set it afire? That's not natural.

Food should be eaten raw, as nature intended.

But I'm not claiming the mantle of 'natural' for anything.

Its their plant. They know the dangers they are an adult. Smoking something making someting into tea baking something are all accepted ways of ingesting many different types of plants.

Most people who like pot prefer to smoke it. It's a faster delivery system.

Than burning pot.

But putting smoke in your lungs will always be, IMO, a very bad thing to do, no matter the high.

I like running and biking and I will never trade in my health for a quick buzz.

but don't force your choices on others...

But we have seen how pot is pushed into younger and younger groups of people. And it is never a good idea to run risks with their health, especially as their brains are still developing.

I think tobacco should be illegal, too. And decriminalized. But that's where we stand today. I don't want to see another risk to other people's health added to the mix.

Those two states that have legalized have legalized only for people 21 and over.

I admit my memory of that is not a valid assessment of ALL schools. But I still maintain we don't need to add yet another health risk to the list: tobacco, alcohol and then pot.

We have enough problems with the first two.

And the same people who brought us Joe Camel would eventually push their own corporate brands of pot.

How many teens were killed in the drug war last year?

I don't even know but I know it was more than were killed by tobacco or cannabis.

So instead legalizing it to bring it into mainstream where it can be regulated, we maintain a black market full of street thugs and killers fighting over turf and killing eachother while the baby gets hit by a stray bullet. Add Tobacco or alcohol to that oh wait we already tried alcohol and it was a blood bath of violence.

The drug war kills more people and ruins more lives. Prohibition is not the answer!
Education is the answer and not the scare dare kids into trying drugs education but actual education about safe responsible uses of all the amazing plants given to us by nature.

Making things illegal does not protect our kids! Good parenting, education, and regulation protects our kids!

Kids who fall through the cracks are simply out of luck.

But I agree that imprisoning people for possession is long overdue to be rescinded. I'd prefer that it remain illegal but decriminalized.

Prohibition of dangerous drugs DOES prevent more of it from getting into our country. Confiscation of tons of heroin and cocaine before they make it to users will always be a good thing to me.

Interdiction, like any law enforcement, will never be finished so calling it a drug 'war' is ludicrous.

but legalizing a safe plant because a teen may get a hold of it is bad?

I'm all for prohibition of dangerous drugs. So where is the laws against oxycotin? or Tylenol even? Way more dangerous than Cannabis. Cocaine and heroin are highly processed refined substances they are not plants.

The coca leaf on the other hand has many health benefits.

Hemp Seeds are a great source of vitamins and nutrition.

poppy seeds if used carefully can be a great painkiller and safer than the poisons they sell in the drug store.

Something cannot be illegal and decriminalized that is a contradiction and just leaves it on the unseen black market without regulation to protect our kids.

Kids still get a hold of alcohol they still get a hold of guns they still huff spray paint and die. I don't see anybody wanting to outlaw spray paint.

cooking food, wearing clothes (especially those synthetic fibers--waaaay unatural AND sinful!!11!) making tools, using machines to fly.

We walk upright for chissakes! That alone makes me want to light up a Marlboro.

Virtually nothing we do is natural. So why do so many want to claim that 'natural' -in this limited instance- is intrinsically better in some way?

"But stick it in your mouth and set it afire? That's not natural."

And come to think of it fire is very natural and through out the history of man we have smoked and inhaled smoke from many many many plants. So natural enough eh.

Like the politician who claimed that the oil that fell out of the Valdez is not a pollutant because it is "natural".

And the Bible forbids mixing fibers, so none of those hemp/cotton blends, either. Think gunny sacks and burlap.

For one it shows a Christian and Jewish Hippocracy for outlawing any creation of God! To believe in a good god and then outlaw one of his creations? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Also it shows an old world decree coming from nature and passed through humans for centuries. The right to plants! That plants were meant for us to use and ingest as we see fit. Outlawing a plant is really a pretty new idea and quite crazy.

The Founders and Framers of this country would of thought of outlawing a plant expecially such useful plants as pure insanity!

It violates the rights of all humans to allow laws on the books that prevent us from planting.

This goes beyond drugs. It goes against the GMOs who sue farmers for collecting their own seed!

It goes against the safe local farms being shut down in the name of profits for the corporations.

What if one day our Government decided to outlaw growing your own food? Only corporations could grow our food. No more fresh vegetables from your garden. Imagine them busting down your door and throwing you in prison for growing Green Beans or an Apple tree. Would that be the line that needs to be crossed for us to demand our right to Grow back?

..because we allow people to possess firearms assuming they will not use them for nefarious reasons. Yet we are now told that planting a species that is very useful in medical and even practical uses will be used only for nefarious reasons. MAkes no sense amd there is no continuity in the thinking. In one case (guns), it is assumes they will be used legally, yet planting marijuana assumes it will be used illegally. But, but, but....we need guns for protection and food! Well, some of us need marijuana for medical or practical uses...so? It makes no sense. Either both are legal or both are illegal. This is a case where the law opts to read our minds and tell us we can't do one thing because we may abuse it, and yet the law will not assume anything about owning a firearm. If we are trusted to use firearms responsibly, why can't we be trusted to use marijuana responsibly?

Papaver somniferum. You can buy the seeds at Walmart or a million other places.

The flowers are pretty, too.

Unlike Mineral Man, I'm not a capitalist pig about it, but if you have a toothache and ask nicely, I might give you some.

Be careful, though. Opium can put you to sleep forever if you don't watch out.

my dill and my rosemary this afternoon. Spices are the spice of life - or at least they taste really good in chicken dishes