The Internet's higher purpose

Websites selling things like marijuana seeds and peyote plants have so far stayed out of legal trouble, but the laws are murky, so the best advice is "buyer beware"

By: Devorah Stone

  If the Internet is a good place to gauge upcoming trends, then the growth of modern day 'speak easies' could be a sign of things to come.
  A quick perusal of Internet search engines reveals many online vendors selling marijuana seeds, peyote cacti and magic mushroom spores and plants as well as assorted drug related paraphernalia.
 

Look what you can buy online

  Besides this flourishing online business, which operates with little interference from the law, there are also many flashy pro-drug sites on cultivating, gathering, harvesting and preparing organic recreational drugs, and some active drug newsgroups. Deja.com has many newsgroups where people can exchange information about obtaining, preparing and using different types of drugs.
  According to marijuana user Jaguar (his online newsgroup handle), "buying drugs online makes the average person with no drug connections able to get illegal stuff. You don't have to deal personally with anyone." In other words, buyers need not consort with so-called unsavory elements.
  Who's buying online drugs? Henk van Velthooven, the owner of Amazing Nature, divides his clients into four categories. 'Altered states seekers' are those who simply want to experience a high or a hallucination. 'Deeper seekers', by contrast, are questing for spiritual visions. (Many of the peyote and magic mushroom online news groups overlap with New Age spiritual groups.) There are also 'nature lovers', who like owning the plants for their collections. Finally, van Velthooven identifies a group he calls 'therapists' - "A last and small group of natural healers who use the psycho-active plants in diverse treatments and therapies."
  Most of his clients are men between the ages of 18 and 40, adds van Velthooven.
  There are also indications that people with medical conditions for which marijuana is sometimes prescribed, may be seeking their drugs on-line.
  Though marijuana is now legal for medicinal purposes in Canada and some U.S. states, it remains difficult to find a doctor who will prescribe it.
 

"I've never heard of a case where someone got busted because seeds were intercepted in the mail," says one vendor

  One marijuana seed customer - name withheld - in Arizona says "The medical personnel I see acknowledge marijuana's effectiveness in helping my condition, but will not write a prescription for me, even though it has become legal on the books in this state to do so."
  In those situations, doctors may instead prescribe less effective (but very addictive) legal drugs like morphine.
  Even in jurisdictions such as Canada, where cannabis can legally be used to treat and relieve the pain associated with diseases including AIDS, glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and cancer, getting a prescription filled may be a real challenge. Pharmacies do not sell marijuana, and buying it on the street remains illegal - even if the government says you can legally consume it. So purchasing marijuana seeds online may provide the only way out of this legal catch-22.
  Most North American online outlets have had few legal hassles. Marc Emery, owner of Emery Seeds, a Vancouver based online marijuana seed store states: "Of the millions of seeds ordered in the last 10 years from all the different vendors, I have never heard of a case where someone got busted because seeds were intercepted in the mail. Period."
  Still, these e-drug stores are operating on the fringes of the law. All the sites have disclaimers placing all liability on the buyer - which means that if your surface mail shipment is intercepted at customs, it's you, not the supplier, who is liable.
  Potential buyers also have to be aware that the legal status of internet drug sales is uncertain and confusing - there are plenty of gray areas. Besides the medical uses, the laws of certain jurisdictions do permit trade in some drugs: owning Peyote cacti is not illegal in the United States, for instance, and the government will also permit First Nations people involved in certain religious ceremonies to consume peyote.
  Laws also change, and when they do, the aspiring drug buyer can get stung. For instance, Amazing Nature sent out a peyote cactus plant to Switzerland, where at the time it was legal. But the plant was held at customs. Customs officials studied it and declared it illegal and then sent it back.
  And because this is an unregulated business, if the customer not satisfied with the product - because it's substandard, or somehow hazardous, or doesn't arrive in the mail - that person has no recourse; except, perhaps, to complain to an online chat group. There is no Better Business Bureau governing on-line drug sales.
  There are also indications that Canadian authorities' 'live and let live' attitude towards online sales of seeds and soft drugs may not be permanent.
  RCMP corporal Mike Dunbar of the Drug Enforcement branch points out that selling marijuana seeds and magic mushroom plants is still an offense under Canada's criminal code. He hints that a crack-down may be coming. "It (on-line sales) is new, it's ahead of us, and we are playing catch-up," he says.
  However, another view is that on-line distribution of soft drugs, could help advance the drive to legalize some drugs, or at least to liberalize current laws.
  "Increased use of these drugs due to easier availability," says Gurn Blanston of the Cannabis web directory, "might tend to ease people's fears of these drugs, particularly marijuana."

Devorah Stone is an avid Internet surfer and freelance online writer from Vancouver.

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