This is mostly a cute satire of the absurdity of our drug laws and how they are written. fortunately for citizens and lawmakers, intent weighs in and such absurdity never happens. I do suggest that we never allow a robot to manage law however.
Yet it brings us back to an important concept in legal discourse and actually even science and the operation of our lives and the universe. It is that intent matters far more than most of us perceive or ever understand.
I have even discovered it as part of the first movement in the creation of the universe itself and it is central to the existence of Soul and Spirit amazingly enough.
This is as good a tale as Newton contemplating an apple.
Citrus Growers Manufacture Huge Amounts of DMT
Morris Crowley
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/07/30/citrus-growers-manufacture-huge-amounts-dmt/
It may surprise you to learn that common citrus trees like oranges
and lemons are actually Schedule I substances, in the same legal
category as heroin. I know it sounds absurd, but it is absolutely true.
Recent analysis published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry (Servillo et al. 2013) found that several citrus plants,
including lemons and oranges, contain N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and
5-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (bufotenine). Both of these compounds
are powerful hallucinogens and are designated as Schedule I substances
under the federal Controlled Substances Act in the United States. Under
that same law, “any material” containing “any quantity” of a Schedule I
drug is itself legally equivalent to that drug.
The upshot of this is that domestic citrus producers are in fact
operating a massive drug manufacturing enterprise, legally speaking. And
the scale of this manufacture is not trivial. Let’s estimate 150 orange
trees per acre, and conservatively suppose that each tree contains one
kilogram of leaves. Then in the state of Florida alone, where
approximately 550,000 acres are under cultivation, the crop would
contain somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 kilograms of bufotenine —
roughly 5 million doses — and 5 kilograms of DMT — roughly 150,000
doses. But that’s not all! Since the entire mass of any material
containing these substances is legally equivalent to the pure substance,
the entire biomass of the groves would be treated as pure DMT
or pure bufotenine if the growers were charged with manufacturing a
controlled substance.
But these compounds do not only occur in the leaves… they occur in
the fruit as well. Though the data have not been formally published, the
same team of researchers reported that the juice from oranges and
lemons contain DMT in a concentration of approximately 0.03–0.05 mg/kg
(Servillo et al. 2012). This has huge implications: Every orange in your local grocery store is a Schedule I substance. Every
person who buys them is a potential criminal. Every company that
imports either the fruit or its juice is engaged in the international
trafficking of a Schedule I substance.
You might wonder why I am characterizing an entire branch of
agriculture as a massive drug manufacturing operation. That
characterization, however, is not mine. Under federal law, they are a massive drug manufacturing operation. I am merely drawing attention to the issue.
Regardless of how you feel about the war on drugs,
this issue should cause you serious concern. The Controlled Substances
Act is written in a way that makes all manner of mundane materials
illegal. It’s not just oranges. Depending on where you live, there is a
reasonable chance that the grass in your lawn contains Schedule I
substances. In fact, so many materials contain detectable quantities of
controlled substances that nearly everyone is breaking the law all the
time.
Ironically, the best defense is to remain assiduously ignorant. The
Controlled Substances Act defines crimes of intent; the criminality of
the act depends on whether one “knowingly or intentionally” possesses
the scheduled material. That means that as long as you are not aware
that oranges (or certain grasses, or many common pets) contain
controlled substances, then you cannot be guilty of the possession,
manufacture, or distribution of those controlled substances.
Once you take the effort to become informed about the ubiquity of
controlled substances in the world around you, it becomes nearly
impossible to avoid crossing the line into criminal behavior.
About the Author
Morris Crowley is an independent writer who studies the history and
chemistry of visionary plants and their interaction with humankind. You
can follow him on Facebook and on Twitter @morris_crowley.
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