There are drugs at the bottom of your garden

Brugmansia and Datura are common ornamental plants and feature in many botanical gardens. They are well known to contain highly toxic and dangerous deliriants, and rarely used as drugs due to their quite unpleasant and long-lasting effects. Worse, their addition to the prohibited list has the potential to invite dangerous experimentation.

The proposal discusses making legitimate use available as a possible defence against prosecution, but botanists and hobby gardeners do not trust the government's record on this.

In the past some herbs were regulated via permits for "legitimate use" (eg. kava kava) with permit holders told they were free to continue using them. But not long after issuing thousands of permits, the Government amended the legislation so that permit holders faced prosecution if they continued their use.

In any case, there is no justification for gardeners requiring the permission of the Government to grow plants they have been growing forever.

Botanists and plant collectors are scathing in their criticism of the proposal, pointing to the appalling ignorance of those behind it. As further evidence of this they point to an additional list of Controlled Precursors which are also recommended for prohibition. This includes the precious metals palladium and platinum, nitromethane (used in remote control cars and planes), the nutritional supplement phenylalanine, plus common substances such as ammonia, hydrogen and iodine.

The Attorney Generals Department is accepting submissions on its proposals. Hopefully it will hear from enough enraged gardeners for someone to see sense.