# Straight dope on fake dope **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093 "2000-05-21T05:21:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/1 "2000-05-21T05:21:27Z")
Not having done any drugs for a long, long,long time, I am ignorant of some recent trends. Recently I was in a book store paging through a copy of High Times and notice several ads for what appears to be, for lack of a better term, “fake marijuana”. The product looks like pot, and the ads claim it has the “same effect as the real thing”. It’s sold under the names of “Wizard Smoke”, “Inda Kind”, "Legal smoking herb’ and “Stashish”, to name a few. Also, they claim that it is 100% natural and legal. HUH? What the heck is this stuff? Are people really getting high from it? If so, why aren’t there calls to have it banned by the prohibitionist? Fake pot that gets you high but is legal? Is this for real? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/2 "2000-05-21T06:37:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Inda kind is 100% legal, safe, and natural. Not a pill - but a mix of over 10 psychotropic herbs cured to a secret process to give the maximum effects. Ingredients include:L.Virosa (Lettuce Opium), Motherwort Buds, Blue Scullcap, Wild Dagga, South American Damiana, Indian Hemp, Lupulin Hops Resins, Lobelia & Nepeta Mint. All the above ingredients are cured and activated using secret process. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/3 "2000-05-21T06:41:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Fake pot that gets you high but is legal? Is this for real? > \*\* If it does work and enough people try it, it will become illegal. Every purchase is a donation for the lobby to illegalize it. ---
**Author:** ![GabbaGabbaHey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f14d63/32.png) [@GabbaGabbaHey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GabbaGabbaHey)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/4 "2000-05-21T06:53:03Z")
As someone who smokes pot daily, I found the effect of the “fake pot” I tried (Marijuanilla!) to be negligible. I tried it in a joint, in a bong and in a tea drink, none of which did much more than to make me feel mildly (and I mean MILDLY) stoned, though I wouldnt be surprised if it was just a kinda placebo effect, where I was just willing it to work. And as for the taste… thanks, but no thanks. Perhaps for somebody who does not smoke often it may produce a better effect, but for my money, best stick to the “real thing”. ---
**Author:** ![Initial\_Entry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e9a140/32.png) [@Initial\_Entry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Initial_Entry)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/5 "2000-05-21T07:15:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Wild Dagga Um, this is an interesting ingredient. Are you sure this stuffs legal? (Dagga is the south african term for, well, mariajuana. It grows wild and is often used in traditional medicine.) ---
**Author:** ![Beakeroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@Beakeroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beakeroni)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/6 "2000-05-21T07:29:05Z")
Remember, MDMA was legal until the eighties. (Ecstasy to you and me…) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/7 "2000-05-21T07:54:19Z")
Wild Dagga gets its name from the mistaken belief that it is a wild form of dagga (cannabis). Wild Dagga is _Leonotis leonurus_. True cannabis is _Cannabis sativa_ ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/8 "2000-05-21T15:42:44Z")
Yeah, how would you define ‘high’? ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/9 "2000-05-21T17:33:31Z")
That stuff is a sucker ploy, stay with the real deal. ::smoking a REAL joint:: ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2000, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/10 "2000-05-21T18:07:14Z")
It took 'em llong enough to establish and admit what ornery baccy did, who knows what\*\* that \*\*lot might do ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2000, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/11 "2000-05-22T18:28:59Z")
Some kind of fake marijuana… [http://www.smoke-up.com/smoke.htm](http://www.smoke-up.com/smoke.htm) > [@](#): > > The ultimate alternative smoking mix. Contains only > natural potent botanical ingredients. 100% tobacco > free and organic blend of powerful psychotropic > herbs include mugwort, lettuce opium, wild dagga, > south American damiana, Indian hemp, lupulin > hops resins, lobelia mint.Cured and activated > using a secret process. > 1.5 oz. Package > 4 oz. Package > $15.00 1.5 oz Well, I really have to question the “powerful psychotropic herbs” bit. If they’re so powerful, why isn’t the DEA staking out my local health food store? All of these ingredients are featured one way or another in alternative medicine/herbal therapy. But they seem pretty expensive for what the alternative medicine folks refer to as “botanicals”, and what my grandmother would have referred to as “weeds”. Mugwort, a.k.a. _artemisia vulgaris,_ is a common roadside weed. [http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/mugwort.html](http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/mugwort.html) The so-called “lettuce opium”, _lactuca virosa,_ is also a common roadside weed. In the U.K. evidently they call it “greater lettuce”, over here it’s sometimes called “prickly lettuce”. More often, all the wild lettuces are just lumped in together as “wild lettuce”. But if you call it “lettuce opium”, you can sell more of it. [http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/wildlettuce.html](http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/wildlettuce.html) Damiana, _turnera diffusa,_ comes from Puerto Rico and Central America and is supposedly an aphrodisiac. [http://www.gnc.com/wellness/natpharm/Herb/Damiana.htm](http://www.gnc.com/wellness/natpharm/Herb/Damiana.htm) [http://www.onhealth.com/alternative/resource/herbs/item,15984.asp](http://www.onhealth.com/alternative/resource/herbs/item,15984.asp) Indian hemp–I’m assuming that it can’t mean _cannabis indica._ Or can it? I lose track of which cannabis is worth smoking and which isn’t. I know the kind you make rope out of doesn’t get you high. Anyway, since the rest of these ingredients are kind of a tease, I’m assuming that it refers to the prairie wildflower called “Indian hemp dogbane”. [http://www.lib.ksu.edu/wildflower/dogbane.html](http://www.lib.ksu.edu/wildflower/dogbane.html) I couldn’t find “lobelia mint” anywhere; there’s a lobelia, and there’s mint, but no “lobelia mint”. However, **Bibliophage** posted an ingredients list which mentions nepeta, which is just catnip. Is it possible that the list I found is using “lobelia mint” to mean catnip? **Bibliophage,** if you’re still in the building, sure would like to see where you got that–I’m intrigued against my will. “Lupulin hops resins” are just the active oily ingredient in hops, _humulus lupulus,_ the thing that gives beer its bitter taste. [http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/h/hops--32.html](http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/h/hops--32.html) So, there you go, **PK.** You want to try to get high by smoking catnip, be my guest. But I really have to wonder, are you so desperate that you’ll resort to smoking roadside weeds? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2000, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/12 "2000-05-22T23:17:41Z")
you’ll see I don’t do drugs, and haven’t for over 20 years. I also don’t intend on starting. I was just curious as to what the hell that stuff was. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/13 "2000-05-23T00:54:06Z")
I was joking. 😉 Watch out your leg don’t come off in my hand. Besides, once you mentioned it, I was curious about it, too. That’s why I went and looked it all up. Don’t _you_ find it amusing, to think of people not only smoking roadside weeds, but also paying through the nose (so to speak) for the privilege? Fifteen bucks for a baggie? And it’s not even the real thing? Will wonders never cease… ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2000, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-fake-dope/20093/14 "2000-05-23T10:18:02Z")
> [@](#): > > **I couldn’t find “lobelia mint” anywhere; there’s a lobelia, and there’s mint, but no “lobelia mint”. However, Bibliophage posted an ingredients list which mentions nepeta, which is just catnip. Is it possible that the list I found is using “lobelia mint” to mean catnip? Bibliophage, if you’re still in the building, sure would like to see where you got that–I’m intrigued against my will.** I don’t remember where I found it, but three sites contain exactly the same wording. Perhaps they meant “lobelia” and “Nepeta mint”, rather than “lobelia mint” and “Nepeta mint”. It’s not clear. [http://www.darkshop.com/smoke.html](http://www.darkshop.com/smoke.html) [http://www.dillusions.com/smoke.htm](http://www.dillusions.com/smoke.htm) [http://www.smoke-up.com/smoke.htm](http://www.smoke-up.com/smoke.htm)