The new voodoo lily at MN Zoo

​Just in time for spring, the Minnesota Zoo has acquired a flower that blooms and smells like something died.

Amorphophallus konjac--also known as Voodoo lily or Devil's tongue--landed at the zoo on Tuesday and is expected to bloom within the next few days. You don't want to miss this, because when it does, the air will be filled with the rotting scent of death.

"I read one thing that says it smells like Hannibal Lecter's compost pile on a hot afternoon," says Kim Thomas, horticulture supervisor at the Minnesota Zoo.

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Raw Milk: some lawmakers want more of it

​State senators Sean Nienow, Gary Dahms, and Claire Robling are pushing legislation to make raw milk more widely available in Minnesota, even though the state health department says drinking it poses a serious health risk.

The bill would allow raw milk sales at farmer's markets and directly to homes. Currently, state law mandates that raw milk--which is unpasteurized--be sold only on the farm where it is produced. So raw milk lovers from the Twin Cities now have to drive hours to pick up their dairy beverage of choice.

"Raw milk is a legal product," Nienow says. "The product itself is legal--it's just the accessibility."

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Troubled Waters: You can't see it.

​"Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story" is a damning documentary about agricultural pollution in the Big Muddy, produced by the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History.

But someone doesn't want you to see it.

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​Sigh. It's excuses like these that give fodder to prohibitionists and anti-drug warriors. From the Worthington Daily Globe:

A Fulda teen facing check forgery charges after allegedly writing checks on the accounts of both his stepfather and grandmother told law enforcement he was addicted to salvia, a psychoactive plant that causes euphoria.

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​Salvia divinorum, a perfectly legal hallucinogen that inspires very brief and intense trips, is once again in state lawmakers' cross hairs. For the third session in a row, a bill is on the table that would criminalize possession and sale of the psychedelic mint, which, by the way, is readily available at finer head shops across the metro.

We researched (smoked) Salvia when it first attracted legislators' attention two years ago. You can read a detailed account of its effects here. Long story short: the trip incapacitates the user for five to ten minutes and effectively dissolves the ego/self. (We turned into an easy chair). When we subsequently called the bill's author, DFLer Rep. Joe Atkins, and asked him he'd like to smoke with us or, barring that, observe firsthand the effects (seemed sensible that you'd want to research something before banning it), he politely declined. Note to Rep. Atkins: That offer still stands.

​Police in Waite Park (just west of St. Cloud) have arrested a man for selling a government-outlawed plant.

A two-month investigation led authorities into a storage facility where they found 146 one-pound vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana worth about $550,000. Police proceeded to the 48-year-old suspect's where they uncovered $22,000 in cash along with a rifle and handgun.

The suspect was arrested at his job Tuesday and taken into custody. That's right-- the overseer of a six-figure pot operation was still clocking in at his day job.

A hunter was prowling for pheasants deep inside the 13,000 acre Tiffany State Wildlife Area in western Wisconsin when he stumbled upon an unexpected, highly valuable find: 2,000 marijuana plant stalks worth about $2 million according to authorities.

Instead of indulging in the offerings, the unidentified citizen alerted the police who arrived shortly thereafter to discover a set-up apparently designed by an Apocalypse Now fan-- rinky dink booby traps surrounded the site, including rat traps and neck-level ropes evidently intended to clothesline egregiously oblvious/blind trespassers.

It's the second pot operation discovered on Wisconsin public land this month, the other being a 8,000 plant uncovered in eastern Wisconsin.

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​Ever since smoking/writing about the legal--and very potent--hallucinogenic plant salvia divinorum a year and a half ago, we've been keeping casual tabs on the herb's status outside our fair state. (It's currently banned in 16 states). Today comes news, via the the Washington Post, that a resort city in Maryland has gone so far to pass "emergency legislation" to prohibit the strange little mint.

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​There is bad news and terrible news. This one falls in the latter as MPR reports that our pumpkin harvest will be down this year. The report cites cool summer weather as the main factor in low pumpkin production. We can only expect one outcome from all this: massive suicide.More >>

Eighteen suburbanites face up to life in prison for growing pot indoors. The charges, filed today, stem from raids carried out Tuesday.

The Hennepin Couny Sheriff's Office, in conjunction with a couple anti-drug task forces, executed warrants on six grow houses, yielding 3,300 forbidden plants valued at $6,000,000.

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