Why Medicinal Plants Should Never Be Illegal
At some point, we have to step back and ask a very basic question: how did we end up criminalizing medicinal plants? Plants predate governments, laws, and pharmaceutical companies by hundreds of millions of years. Long before modern medicine existed, human beings relied on the natural world for healing. Leaves, roots, bark, flowers, and resins were our first pharmacy. That fact has not changed just because we invented pills. Medicinal plants have been a vital part of human health and wellness for centuries. In my view, medicinal plants in their natural form should never be scheduled or illegal. Cannabis. Coca. Kratom. Poppy. These are not inventions. They are part of the natural world, and they have been used responsibly by cultures across the globe for thousands of years. When governments outlaw whole plants, they are not protecting public health. They keep repeating the same mistake. Plants Are Not the Problem The Importance of Medicinal Plants in Modern Health History makes this painfully clear. Whenever a plant has been banned, the ban has not eliminated use. It has only pushed people toward more dangerous alternatives. Alcohol prohibition did not stop drinking. It created organized crime and poisoned products. The war on drugs did not end addiction. It escalated overdoses, incarceration, and black-market innovation. Addiction is a human condition, not a botanical one. You cannot legislate it away. Plants, in their natural state, tend to be self-limiting. They contain complex profiles of compounds that work together, often creating natural ceilings on effect. Whole-plant use is typically slower, less concentrated, and more ritualized.