Michael Pollan has raised certain peculiar questions in this book that no one has been able to answer in the past. While talking about plants, the author tells us the positive uses of these green things that are present on the face of the earth. We get food from plants and there are things that are created with the help of plants too like medicines and certain beauty products too.
Even when we are looking at a plant or a tree, we get a kind of soothing effect that is very good for our minds and body. After these descriptions at the beginning, Pollan starts the real discussion which many people have never thought about. According to the author we have named the use of certain plants illegal in the world while we are using the others like them on the daily basis.
For example, we intake caffeine whenever we want to sharpen our minds and we don’t think that it is something illegal. Even the kids in the house can have it through coffee and tea. It gives relaxation to the mind and decreases anxiety levels as well. On the other hand, if we try to use opium in the same way, it is treated as a crime and we are punished severely for it.
Humans have been interested in the use of psychoactive plants since the beginning but the question is why certain plants are considered legal while other with the same type of characteristics are banned by the government. This is not the first time that the author has talked in such a way, all his books like The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma are on the same kind of topics. The author has tried to discuss our relationship with nature on all occasions.
