Ayahuasca In Bloom..In my Yard

Just like the title says.. My rare South American liana Banisteriopsis caapi, flowering in February in Hawaii. (Oahu)  This is the "Yellow" variety, and has been quite vigorous. 

Amanita Muscaria

Pot, less calories than beer.

The "munchies" aside, pot smokers are actually less likely than non-tokers to be obese, according to a study by a French researcher.

The examination of data from two separate studies of more than 50,000 U.S. adults found that 14% to 17% of people who smoked pot at least three days per week were obese, compared with 22% to 25% among non-cannibis users.

The research team headed by Yann Le Strat, a psychiatrist at the Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, France, appears in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"Initially, we thought we made a mistake," says Le Strat, according to Reuters. He says he and co-author Bernard Le Foll checked the results several times to make sure they were correct.

"This is only a preliminary result," he says. "It doesn't mean that marijuana does actually help you lose weight, but perhaps there is a component that does."

The researchers did not examine whether diet and exercise habits were different between the two groups but did find that cigarette usage had no influence on the obesity findings, Reuters reports.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/study-pot-smokers-less-obese-than-non-users/1

300 Acre Pot Farm Burned in Mexico

The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.


The pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, which is often used by regular farmers to protect crops from too much sun or heat, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.

It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as high as 2.5 meters tall. The average height of the plants was about 1.5 meters. Duarte said they were not yet ready for harvest.

"We estimate that in this area, approximately 60 people were working. When they saw the military personnel, they fled," Duarte told reporters. A few were later reportedly detained at a nearby roadblock, but Duarte said no arrests were made at the scene.

He said traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about about $160 million.

Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants, which Duarte said was fed by two wells. The plantation also included some wooden outbuildings, presumably for use by people caring for the plants.

Troops will destroy the fields by burning them, Duarte said.

The site is the near the coastal town of San Quintin. Journalists were en route there Thursday under army escort.

While it's unknown how much of Mexican drug cartels' income comes from marijuana, recent discoveries suggest it remains a large-scale trade.

Blue Lotus, a guest review.

Blue Lotus (Source unknown)

6:30 am I began by dumping the bag of dried flowers out on a plain piece of paper.
I rolled up three , one gram cigarettes out of the dried flowers.

6:34 am I am taking note of how I feel before I smoke the first blue lotus cigarette. I feel fine , not hungry ( empty stomach ) In a pretty good mood , feeling very full of rest and ready to start this day.

6:36 Smoking first blue lotus cigarette. Taste funky, but I've tasted worse. I'm beginning to feel a slight feeling of relaxation coming across my whole body , very mild but defiantly noticeable.

6:41 First cigarette is finished. I feel great! Mild euphoria, plesant sense of well being, a different type of body high never before experienced. This is a very mild natural drug as far as I'm concerned. Effects are very noticeable while extremely mild, not intense like Kratom, or salvia.

6:45 I've decided to save the other two for another time because I feel just fine off this one.

Salvia Divinorum; A funny post from Unhappy Hipsters

http://unhappyhipsters.com/post/2534937080/after-watching-the-miley-cyrus-bong-scandal-on

My wife sent me this one and I laughed.

Betel nuts. The most widely used stimulant in the world.

Shown here as they might be typically seen in China, are the Areca catechu nut and Betel leaves with a lime paste.  The nut is dipped in the lime and wrpped in the leaf before being chewed and held in the mouth.  Fresh is always better than dried, and they can be frozen to preserve them.