Can confirm. At the risk of public embarrassment, I ate an ounce a day of powdered leaf for nearly six years. It was the serotonin blockade (read: antidepressan

Can confirm. At the risk of public embarrassment, I ate an ounce a day of powdered leaf for nearly six years. It was the serotonin blockade (read: antidepressant effect) that was desirable, not the weak opioid effects. Getting off of it was easier than getting off of a prescription antidepressant. I stopped suddenly and with no taper schedule (by choice; I'd obtained health insurance and found a couple workable alternatives) and suffered no lasting effects. I didn't vomit once. There was no nausea. I had some transient leg pain and an upset stomach. It wasn't fun, but it also wasn't Trainspotting. That was hydrocodone, in a post-surgical setting, with strict adherence to the doctor's dosing and taper schedule. Far be it from me to recommend drug dependence, but this substance didn't hurt me despite my hard-headed attempt to become dependent on it. It kept me away from benzodiazepines and alcohol, the former of which gave me such severe amnesia that I ended up in the ER not knowing where I was or who I was. It's a tree that grows in the wild and will never be eradicated. The DEA's burning garbage pile of a weed eradication quest is still smoldering. Profoundly misguided policy. For the record, I haven't touched the stuff in years, and have no financial interest in it. But the reality is that this stuff is not worth locking people in cages over.