RaverMadness
Bluelighter
So, the FDA's pushing for a ban of Ephedra-containing suppliments, and this got me thinking:
Ephedra (or a plant that contains Ephedrine) grows wild in the desert where I live. I know this because when I was in grammar school, this swell hippy teacher I had told us the Indians used to make tea out of it, and cooked up a whole bunch for the class to teach us about Native Americans, or stimulants, or something. If anyone's really interested, I could take a picture of this stuff for a positive ID. By the way, this was back before the all-knowing government decided the a mild stimulant like Ephedra is evil, bad, and will make your heart explode.
Even if the powers that be say that you can't have Ephedrine containing products on the market, one could, in theory, just drive out to the middle of nowhere and grab up a bunch of foliage which would do the same thing. If they were somewhat skilled with home chemistry, they could extract the Ephedrine from the foliage. If they wanted to break some laws, they could do things to this Ephedrine, and make wicked, life-destroying hard drugs with it.
Of course, there's always pseudoephedrine containing medications out there that'll work just as well, if not better, for illegal purposes. Let's assume for a second they don't exist, or were banned in some sweeping, puritanical recall.
How much, if any, would the illegal methamphetamine trade suffer if Jose the Chemist had to extract his Ephedrine from a plant source? Would you see a wider recreational use of Ritalin to make up for this temporary (face it, some meth cooks are crafty) slowdown in meth production?
And on the subject of Ephedra tea (which is about as effective as coffee in keeping you up, but it's great if you have a cold), anyone know how much Ephedrine is destroyed by boiling, or heat in general? A bunch of militant Vegan types I once knew would boil the water, and then steep the foliage in the hot water until it turned that yellowish-brown color. Apparently this works pretty well, but I'd imagine you're not getting the bulk of the Ephedra.
Sorry if there's not much of a point to this long, rambling, hypothetical post, but I've got a lot on my mind. Oh, and I don't endorse anyone who reads this doing anything ILLEGAL, because that would go against America's War of Terror Drugs... Anyway, discuss, or something.
Ephedra (or a plant that contains Ephedrine) grows wild in the desert where I live. I know this because when I was in grammar school, this swell hippy teacher I had told us the Indians used to make tea out of it, and cooked up a whole bunch for the class to teach us about Native Americans, or stimulants, or something. If anyone's really interested, I could take a picture of this stuff for a positive ID. By the way, this was back before the all-knowing government decided the a mild stimulant like Ephedra is evil, bad, and will make your heart explode.
Even if the powers that be say that you can't have Ephedrine containing products on the market, one could, in theory, just drive out to the middle of nowhere and grab up a bunch of foliage which would do the same thing. If they were somewhat skilled with home chemistry, they could extract the Ephedrine from the foliage. If they wanted to break some laws, they could do things to this Ephedrine, and make wicked, life-destroying hard drugs with it.
Of course, there's always pseudoephedrine containing medications out there that'll work just as well, if not better, for illegal purposes. Let's assume for a second they don't exist, or were banned in some sweeping, puritanical recall.
How much, if any, would the illegal methamphetamine trade suffer if Jose the Chemist had to extract his Ephedrine from a plant source? Would you see a wider recreational use of Ritalin to make up for this temporary (face it, some meth cooks are crafty) slowdown in meth production?
And on the subject of Ephedra tea (which is about as effective as coffee in keeping you up, but it's great if you have a cold), anyone know how much Ephedrine is destroyed by boiling, or heat in general? A bunch of militant Vegan types I once knew would boil the water, and then steep the foliage in the hot water until it turned that yellowish-brown color. Apparently this works pretty well, but I'd imagine you're not getting the bulk of the Ephedra.
Sorry if there's not much of a point to this long, rambling, hypothetical post, but I've got a lot on my mind. Oh, and I don't endorse anyone who reads this doing anything ILLEGAL, because that would go against America's War of Terror Drugs... Anyway, discuss, or something.
