The Effects of Nepeta cataria
Nepeta cataria shares many properties with marijuana
Nepeta cataria is referred to by a number of slang words in the drug culture: catnip, catmint, cat marijuana, poor man’s pot, Bambalacha, the Big N, Jamaican mint, and the Green dragon. The reason that so many of these slangs refer to cats is because of the behavior effects it has on them. As About.com: Chemisty states, “When cats smell catnip they exhibit a range of behaviors that may include sniffing, licking and chewing the plant, head shaking, chin and cheek rubbing, head rolling, and body rubbing. This psychosexual reaction lasts for 5-15 minutes and cannot be evoked again for an hour or more after exposure.” Although the behavioral effects of Nepetalactone on cats is well known, most people outside the drug community do not know about the behavioral effects it has on humans.
According to the self-reports of many former drug abusers, smoked Nepeta cataria leaves produce a marijuana-like high. Websites and headshops offer Nepeta Cateria as an alternative to marijuana because of these effects. Although this substance is currently legal to possess and sell, it is just as dangerous as marijuana, LSD, or J.R. ‘Bob’ Dobbs.
Other psychological effects include sedation, euphoria,uncontrollable laughter, apathy, dizziness, changes in sexual behavior, homicidal ideation, headache, nausea, lethargy, and perceptual distortions. Although these psychological effects are also present in a number of legal pharmaceutical substances, such as common antidepressants, this can be easily ignored. There is a major difference between pharmaceutical substances and a substance like Nepeta cataria. Firstly, Nepeta Cataria is not owned or created by anyone, but instead rationed out by malicious drug dealers who only care about money. Pharmaceutical substances are created and owned by pharmaceutical companies who care only about the well-being of others and certainly are not blinded by money. Pharmaceutical companies use clinical trials to test the efficiency of their drugs. Hundreds of clinical trials are conducted by these companies every year and the trials that fail to show any evidence of the effectiveness are discarded by researchers. Thus, the FDA is provided with many clinical trials that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the chemicals being produced by these companies are effective and safe. As Marcia Angel puts it, “favorable results [are] published and unfavorable results buried” and because of this, “the public and the medical profession [believe] these drugs [are] potent” These companies are so altruistic that they even donate money to the FDA! A better system to regulate drugs could not possibly be envisioned. Secondly, the adverse effects from pharmaceutical substances are a necessary evil which must be endured in order to become healthy again (even if enduring these evils eventually leads to your death.) The adverse effects from substances such as Nepeta cataria, on the other hand, are an unnecessary evil and serve no purpose whatsoever.
At this point, it will be no surprise if some college-campus communist crony comes along and claims that this is just “convoluted conservative reasoning that makes no sense.” This is expected, not because of any flaw in the cogent reasoning to ban Nepeta cataria, but because of liberal’s general inability to comprehend such truths as this. Their rebuttal merely shows the ineptitude of their understanding.
The most frightening thing about Nepeta cataria is that, like marijuana, it is a gateway drug. As Fred E. Foldvary reported in 2006, “…children who give their cats catnip and then see the cat being “happy” might get dangerous ideas about getting high. They think, if the cat can feel good, why not them too? Indeed, the first step to marijuana addiction may well be catnip!” Nepeta cataria poses a substantial threat to the health of our innocent children.
Don't let Nepeta cataria ruin our children's future
Is Nepeta cataria addictive?
In short, no. But it only takes a quick glimpse at other Schedule I substances to notice that most of them are not addictive either. Nepeta cataria is not addictive – just like marijuana, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The potential for abuse has been clearly show above and, furthermore, it has no accepted medical use or any standards for safe use.
Nepeta cataria should be prohibited
As has been shown, Nepeta Cateria shares more in common with marijuana than the soft-on-crime liberals are willing to admit. Like marijuana, Nepeta cataria has no medical value. Like marijuana, Nepeta Cateria is a gateway drug. Like marijuana, Nepeta cataria causes sedation, euphoria, visual distortions, and lethargy. No wonder it is being sold as a “legal marijuana alternative.” To protect our children as well as the future of our society, it is immensely important that we ban Nepeta cataria.
According to the Controlled Substance Act, a substance may be scheduled as a “Schedule I” substance if, “(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse, (B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, (C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.” Nepeta Cataria quite clearly falls into this category.
