Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances by Richard Rudgely, Little, Brown,
拢18.99, ISBN 0316643475
IF you enjoy a puff at a party, but can鈥檛 even roll a joint, the
Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substancescould be the reference book for you.
It might not improve your dexterity, but at least you鈥檒l be able to chat
knowledgeably about drugs and make pithy interjections when dopeheads tell you
it鈥檚 been around for ages, man. Actually, cannabis has been popular since the
middle Stone(d) Age, as part of religio-shamanic practice. Er, right.
You鈥檒l have to wise up before the irresistible pressure to decriminalise the
stuff鈥攏ot least from the evidence reported by 快猫短视频
(Special Report, 21 February, p 23)鈥攂ears fruit within the next . . . oh,
fifty years. And it is fruit you want, or rather seeds. Because that鈥檚 the mark
of a female plant, and these are richest in the psychoactive chemicals we
associate with cannabis. Know your species too: Cannabis indica is the
most intoxicating, C. sativa the most sought after, while C.
ruderalis plants, on the other hand, are the cheapskates of the dope world.
But this classification may be obsolete: the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew says
that many botanists recognise only a single species of cannabis, C.
sativa, and say that the rest are mere subspecies.
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Author Richard Rudgely has written a thorough and entertaining reference
text. But the book has a serious message too: the number of substances that are
or have been used because of their psychoactive properties is huge, and only a
few have been officially proscribed. The distinction is arbitrary and
artificial, and has merely succeeded in creating a vast black market where
criminals rule.
To see how ludicrous it is, look under 鈥淣鈥� and you鈥檒l find an entry 鈥淣utmeg鈥�.
Two teaspoons before bed and you could be flying over hills and valleys at
supersonic speeds. Let鈥檚 hope the British government does not read this or it
will probably ban it. And if any tabloid journalists are reading, I did hear
that a certain senior minister鈥檚 wife was seen purchasing a couple of nutmegs in
Safeway recently. We cannot confirm that she was making custard that night.