September 20th – October 12th sees the arrival of Kew Gardens’ Intoxication Season at the Royal Botanic Garden, it comes at a time where I personally am reviewing my knowledge and approach to all plant based drugs. Clearly I was easily led to the enigma of a regulated experimentation and enticed by the controversy that was surrounding this event. Ticket in hand I approached the Elizabeth gate with much anticipation and scrutiny. This weekend’s drug of choice (11th October) was the Magic Mushroom otherwise known as Fungi. Kew holds several hundred specimines of hallucinogenic fungi such as the red and white fly Agaric toadstool which make the popular seats for fairies in childrens books, however the fungi containing certain psychoactive chemicals that would be considered as scheduled drugs are kept off site under lock and key. Already I am doubting the experience. It is thought that there could be up to 5 million species of Fungi in the world, but what is the importance of Fungi? Fungi are tremendously important to human society and the planet that we live on. They provide fundamental products including foods, medicines, and enzymes important to the industry. They are also the unsung heroes of nearly all terrestrial ecosystems hidden by view but inseparable from the processes that sustain life on the planet.
Not all mushrooms can send us tripping off our heads in a fun filled world, some can be very deadly, but how could I find out more about this? – I headed off to a talk held by Kew’s own Professor Monique Simmonds. “Magic Mushrooms: Their chemistry” An overview of the magic powers of mushrooms, it was an informative and concise fact file of all things fungi. For example did you know fungi and Fungi mean different things? The lower case ‘fungi’ is a general word that refers to organisms that all look and act the same, but are not all related. This group is artificial and includes moulds, yeasts, mushrooms, slime moulds, and water moulds. ‘Fungi’ with a capital ‘F’, refers to the evolutionary group that includes most of the best known ‘fungi’: moulds, yeasts, and mushrooms, but not slime moulds or water moulds. Talk over I headed towards Professor Simmonds where she told me that in traditional usage potentially dangerous plants were tightly controlled by a shaman, and surrounded by taboos that helped to limit risky interactions. The commodification of what was once a privileged experience causes harm, also giving me some advice telling me that it is even possible to get a perfectly legal high by combining the right ingredients with baked beans. Really? Maybe she shouldn’t have told me that. Simmonds is a specialist in plant chemistry and is a leading researcher she has often helped police investigate mysterious deaths in which plant intoxicants have played a part. I had discovered how plants’ identities have been manipulated through time. Sometimes as friend, sometimes a foe, when in actuality no plant is inherently a drug, medicine, or poison.
Next up the Secluded Glasshouse that held the main attraction, Bompas and Parrs’ Plant Connoisseurs Club an over 18s event. A place where you could actually try a selected ‘plant.’ I willingly decided to become a participant and explore some culturally significant plants that are consumed around the world. Was I about to have my mind expanded by learning about other cultures perspectives on natural born plant intoxicants? I was doubtful. It was an examination of our collective attitude to drugs and contrasting our own socially acceptable substances like tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine (all of which I am very familiar with) – with other less familiar stimulants and sedatives. Apparently I was the adventurous type who was seeking spiritual enlightenment, although I was only about to sample one of four plant products that are widely consumed on a global basis. Betal Nut, Kola Nut, Raw Guarana, and Blue Lotus Tea – all variously attributed certain psychoactive mind altering properties. Toxicologist Dr Nick Edwards says ”Though entertaining this is a serious endeavour that provokes participants to think again about societal attitudes to drugs. I’m hoping that this candid and practical workshop opens the doors of perception on the impact of future use of stimulating, mind-altering and possibly consciousness-enhancing substances and the consequences for individuals and society.” So here we go it was my turn I was handed a disclaimer to sign before being handed a brew of freshly prepared Blue Lotus Tea served on a clinical white tray. The pretty blue flowers of this is a relative of the lily. ‘Nymphaea Caerulea’ are smoked or brewed to produce a mildly sedative and psychoactive effect. It had a flowery potpourri like smell that was quite pleasant so I wasn’t expecting the bitter, vegetabe like taste. I excitedly awaited the outcome like a little schoolgirl.
Still waiting for the Blue Lotus hallucinations to kick in I wondered towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which was where the plants actually lived. A living display with 10 climate zones of mind-altering plants, exotic trees, Orchids, and carnivorous plants. It was a surreal atmosphere the ‘dangerous’ plants as it were are all in cages almost like a zoo, apparently that was decided by the UK Home Office. They’re right in front of you but you can’t actually get as close as you would like. You can’t tickle the monkey. Apparently visitors to Kew Gardens have risen by up to 20 percent since the exhibition has been launched. I walked through the display zone reading the plaques and taking in the facts learning that many species produced compounds that are used medicinally or recreationally. The Cannabis and Khat plants are safely stored behind lock and key. Cannabis is one of the most famous foliage bandits. It has been used by humans since at least 2700 BC and is the only plant that produces Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active agent that gets you ‘high’. At one talk ‘Intoxicating plants: the highs and lows’, neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London Professor David Nutt told me that despite the cannabis plant’s status as a social pariah, it manufactures over one hundred different chemicals that have potential therapeutic applications in humans. There was the poppy (Papaver Somniferum) displayed in its dried form, which produces both the powerful painkiller morphine but is also used to make heroin. Then there was the Peyote cactus (lophophora Williamsii) that contains the powerful hallucinogen mescaline. Some other plants on display were that of the fabric of everyday life, like coffee that contains the legal high caffeine. None of them looked noteworthy besides a few of the more exotic looking plants, they are your bog standard shrubs. Accompanying me on my journey through the conservatory was a bizarre haunting choir (Reverie) following me around supposedly they were meant to be adding to my experience, I guess I just found it erie. The choir was singing music by Freya Waley-Cohen and text by Caleb Klaces dealing with the journey of a hallucinator and their experience of drugs. Many of the soloists required Reverie’s singers to interact directly and dramatically with unsuspecting audience members who were not aware that a performance was going on in the space until it began. To be honest I found the fish more exciting.
An hour had now passed since I sipped the Blue Lotus Tea, all I got was a mildly calming feeling it was hard to characterize this to anything beyond anticipation. Nothing an alcoholic beverage couldn’t better so I moved on to the botanical bar, nutmeg-infused rum, quince syrup and ginger ale were all on the menu. I had to opt for the rum, Nutmeg turns out to contain the psychoactive drug Myristicin. Would this get me high? Probably not, it would take me more than two tablespoons to have any effect and that would just make me sick, like that stupid nutmeg challenge all the kids are doing these days. By this point the rum had took it hold over me as I was happily sitting with the sun setting over the luscious lawns of Kew, was this success at last? It was a trip, of sorts lingering a controversial line. As Kew’s director of public programmes, Gay Coley, acknowledged: “ We are unashamedly using controversy to spark debate.” I’d have to say that the comments book on the way out was most interesting; I’m guessing some people may have got the wrong end of the stick about this event. With some of my favourite comments reading “Not enough drugs, refund please.” And “Cheaper in Brixton.”
Hollie Donovan 