Whilst I applaud the kinds of studies mentioned above, and abhor disrespectful usage of plant sacraments, phrases such as ;

“Both groups are performing preliminary tests to determine how best to administer salvinorin A to human volunteers and collect basic data”

and from here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8206045.stm,

“Common herbs and spices show promise as an environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional pesticides, scientists have told a major US conference.

They have spent a decade researching the insecticidal properties of rosemary, thyme, clove and mint.”,

conveniently ignore millenia of cultural testing mechanisms viz potentials of plant medicines and their best manners of application.

Mark Plotkin tells the tale here http://mariri.net/rainforest-blog/?p=14 of repeated rejctions of the possibility of plants having aphrodesic properties by medical scientists, despite himself being told by a plethora of indigenous medicos of their manifest reality.

In his own words;

“A couple of years later, somebody gets the blood pressure medicine dosage wrong: shwing! Viagra. What’s that worth? Hundreds of millions of dollars? How many people take this stuff? Guess what, the Indians were right! It IS physiologically possible, but until WE discover it, nah, it’s bullshit.”

Let us hope that the good works of Rick Doblin et. al further the possibility of an end to these ridiculous prohibitions on life, rather than extend the control of pharmacological mechanisms of control and disempowerment.