Comfrey, a Controlled Substance?

A Noxious Weed

Some countries are placing comfrey on the list of noxious weeds. Heaven help us! I would rather see Easter lilies on that list. They are truly poisonous and cause me severe breathing problems. They are the reason why I have been unable to attended church on Easter Sunday for years, yet Easter lilies are sold in every grocery store in my city. Maybe we should put lily of the valley on the list as well. They have never been allowed in hospital rooms and should not even be brought into the house. They are pretty, but they are also poisonous. And what about rhubarb? Eating its leaves or roots can irritate the digestive system to the point of serious dehydration, not to speak of terrible stomach cramps. And split-leaf elder. Don't remind me! I once ate some of its buds. I won't do it again. Rhubarb couldn't be as bad or at least not worse. And that castor oil I had to take prior to x-rays! I only took half the bottle last time, and that was too much. Even mosquitoes know that castor bean plants are poisonous. One of my neighbors has those plants surrounding her house and the little pests don't come near her property. Oh, how about the psychiatric miracle drug of the nineties, St. John's wort? As a child, I was taught not to pick it along with the other weeds along country roads, because it would kill our rabbits. I really did not need to be told, because I always felt an aversion to that herb. And digitalis. It looks beautiful and has been used as a heart stimulant for longer than I have lived. If its use is not controlled, it will kill, yet that plant grows freely in many gardens, and now it is even available in many different colors beside the original pink which I remember from my many hikes in the Harz mountains in Germany.

Pharmaceutical Control

I can think of other examples of poisonous plants which are growing in gardens all over North America. Are they all going to be banned and eradicated? I doubt it. I am inclined to believe that their banning is not so much related to the protection of the public as to the attempt of the pharmaceutical industry to get total control of natural remedies. How else can we explain the patenting of plants by various North American pharmaceutical companies. These companies are paying for international patents which give them sole distribution rights. If those plants are declared noxious weeds, then the pharmaceutical companies will have total control over people's health needs.