fyzygy

I'm guessing these are seeds? And should I let them dry out fully on the bush? Or gather them now? (The flowers on my plant looked quite different to the ones in this post: https://dreamherbs.com/helpful-articles/harvesting-calea-seeds/ -- different variety of Calea?)

^ Maybe this explains why the conservatives -- notorious racist and monotheist ideologues -- are trying to override the proposed ACT reforms at the Commonwealth level. Khat is another classic instance of (ethnoracial) demonisation of a "public health" (if not spiritual) menace. According to Rätsch, even the Bavarian "purity law," regulating the ingredients of beer, had a strong religious motivation -- to suppress paganism, as mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot But let's not forget, the ever-present profit motive. Big Pharma (and its handmaiden, the TGA) always has a say in Oz drug policy, to be sure.

I can attest to the wild suckering behaviour. I've read that they can travel considerable distances too.

Yeah, about now would be good.

There is one pack of 20 seeds left over. Lucky last.

The property has been sold. Maybe I could pay the new owners a visit, down the track. But it's a long way from where I live now. I wish my parents had kept me in the loop, I could've arranged a salvage operation. Lots of other amazing plants there too, I'd always imagined that would be my very own cactus farm and nursery ... my folks are adept at spending their kids' inheritance.

If khat is self-sterile then I don't know how I got massive volumes of seed? My flowering "stand" of trees began as a single 6" cutting. It's located west of the Great Divide, quite arid until that year that it did flower and set seed, after receiving copious rainfall. Soil is reasonably poor, although grey-water has always been diverted to the general vicinity where that tree stands. Who knows, maybe my parents switched brands of laundry detergent, and that was the trigger ... I've kept clones of that plant in a pot for 7 - 10 years, and never seen a flower. But that's in Melbourne, where foliage turns deep red (with seasonal variation).

Like, 20+ years? This past year was the first time it flowered, to the best of my knowledge. Foliage was lush and green, as there'd been higher than usual rainfall -- maybe that sends a signal to set seed? I think its typical reproductive strategy is to produce offsets and runners. In areas where it's cultivated as a cash crop, growers tend to plant 12" cuttings of their favourite trees, rather than germinate from seed. Or so I have read.

Gone to good homes.

https://chacruna.net/synthetic_mescaline_protect_declining_peyote_populations/ ^ Chacruna takes the idea seriously, and even uses the ecological issue to leverage support for the legalisation of mescaline. Makes sense, no? Fast-growing Trichocereus spp. (esp. peruvianus?) make for a potential whole-plant medicine that could (and possibly should, for conservation purposes) be substituted for slow-growing peyote. It will come to that anyway, if wild peyote populations are decimated by over-harvesting. Even so, the NAC won't automatically be permitted consumption of this other sacred cactus; legalisation of mescaline, then, could go a long way towards protecting wild peyote. If Mexican is as good as Texan peyote for ceremonial purposes in the USA (as some suggest), then why not San Pedro? Of course, it is up to the NAC members themselves to decide what is the best way to proceed with their ceremonial activities. (Cultural safety and justice for First Nations peoples are principles that inform the Chacruna Institute's advocacy of psychedelic medicine, and so presumably they have had Native American input on the peyote conservation issue).

I'm not sure. I have read (in Weston La Barre's earlier book on peyote cults) that Christianity was only ever a thin veneer, as is probably the case in other instances of religious syncretism under colonial influence. I don't see why Native Americans would be even more gung-ho and literal-minded about "end times" than white Christian fundamentalists are -- unless, of course, there were an Indigenous prophecy to that effect. Also worth noting, as La Barre points out, Protestantism (in Texas) and Catholicism (in Mexico) are not quite one and the same thing. In the context of peyote conservation strategies, I keep thinking about María Sabina and her declaration that synthetic psilocybin was the spiritual equivalent of the magic mushroom. Couldn't the US government, in the interests of peyote conservation, simply provide a regulated supply of synthetic mescaline to the NAC? This wouldn't satisfy every NAC member, but maybe enough to make a difference. Hamilton Morris makes a similar case for the endangered Sonoran toad medicine -- even though that argument has plenty of well-meaning (crisis cultist?) detractors.

A few mid-cut sections of this special scopulicola available, for anyone interested in propagating. I've never seen a scop with such pronounced horizontal strata, which definitely caught my eye (and I've already got quite a few scop varieties, including some real stunners). It's absolutely spineless to the touch, with deeply recessed aureoles. The mother is no longer, unfortunately. These chunks are fat and heavy (CD in last pic. for reference). PM if interested.

BMJ study shows that Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia, 2022) was 96% funded by pharmaceutical industry.

It's appalling enough that drug manufacturers would submit not necessarily the safest, or most efficacious, but only the most lucrative products to the TGA for approval. It's doubly concerning that TGA operations are wholly contingent (i.e. financially dependent) on these (largely successful) industrial applications. It's triply concerning that this state of affairs (the full extent of the TGA's financial dependence) was disclosed only by means of a Freedom of Information request. This is industry self-regulation at its worst, with public health -- the ostensible goal of the TGA -- subservient to private economic interests. A sign of the times, to be sure. ARPANSA (self-regulatory lackey for the giant telecommunications sector) would be another case in point: a captive government agency masquerading as trustworthy guardian of public health and environmental safety. In an age of limitless profits, industrial self-regulation is a sick joke. But someone is laughing, all the way to the bank.

14" diameter - and it was a university or botanical garden in Arizona, where the big ones grow.

I have a few varieties that exhibit (relatively) spineless growth when mature -- but emergent pups will usually have spines. Most tricho seedlings (even scopulicola) have spines when young. The pups on one of my cultivars start off looking like a pineapple, there are so many ribs ... before settling down to the usual 5 or so. Short answer, you'll just have to wait and see.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874120331986 in rodents, at least.

Irrespective of purity? I suspect that in the poor end of town, people are snorting mostly paracetamol.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/03/act-drug-decriminalisation-laws-drug-tourism It's ironic, prescription drugs are a leading global cause of death and disability, alongside unsafe patient care ... and that was before the pandemic.

You spray it in the evening? As in SeaSol or "liquid kelp" products specifically? I've been wondering about heavy metals in seaweed, some of the food-grade kelp is harvested in specific (ahem) "pristine" locations, and/or tested for traces of things like mercury.

Keeper Trout speaks ... but I forgot my iTunes password.

Results of a longitudinal study of high-dose Vitamin D given to mental health patients (and staff!) with no adverse effects and improvements for a wide range of conditions, protection against cancers, etc. I've heard that serotonin is manufactured chiefly in the gut, and without vitamin D there won't be much of it available to your system, during everyday or psychedelic experience...