Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Don't shrug at the shrub (or chew its bark)

Inside Higher Ed has a kind of amazing story today about some professors at Miami University who wanted to grow a replacement for a rare plant that was dying in their conservatory and so they propagated seedlings and then gave the extra seedlings away to students, as is their usual practice, except in this case it caused a problem because the plant, a rare African shrub named iboga, produces root bark that can be processed into a psychoactive substance.

The DEA got involved and things got complicated, and now some profs may be out of a job. I'm not qualified to comment on the merits of the case, but I was tickled to find that the three men most intimately involved with the plant are named Gladish, Cinnamon, and Grubb. Ahem:

A biology prof (name of Gladish)
could grow anything--not just radish
but rarest iboga
(not as calming as yoga)
with results that have left him most saddish.

His friend, Cinnamon, studies bark
that Gabonians chew, and then--hark!
Psychedelic illusions
overwhelm and confuse 'em.
(With results that could be rather stark.)

Mr. Grubb grubs around in the soil
keeping things running smoothly. His foil:
an African shrub,
which has left Mr. Grubb
out of work. How his temper must boil!

Now when Cinnamon, Gladish, and Grubb
propagated that African shrub
and gave away seedlings,
who knew they'd be needing
attorneys? (The iboga just shrugs.) 
 

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