cannabisnews.com: Israelis Happily Experimenting With Ersatz Pot 





Israelis Happily Experimenting With Ersatz Pot 
Posted by FoM on September 11, 1999 at 07:15:58 PT
By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer
Source: LA Times
A product called Buzz, made from legal herbs, is all the rage with a certain set. The man behind it even contrived to get police involved in the marketing. 
JERUSALEM--Uri Falcha was strolling down Venice Beach in California one day three years ago when he hit upon the idea.   He saw street vendors peddling organically grown weeds that looked like marijuana, smelled like marijuana and, supposedly, gave the high of marijuana, but without the cannabis.   His first attempt at bringing some of the stuff home to Israel landed him in jail at the Tel Aviv airport.   Today, after doing battle with the legal establishment, Falcha is peddling his own version of a smokable weed called Buzz.   Buzz has become all the rage among a certain Israeli set, those in search of a legal high and willing to experiment. When he launched the product over the summer, Falcha figured he'd introduce a month's supply in Tel Aviv kiosks and see what happened.   The month's supply--20,000 packets weighing 0.2 ounce each and costing about $10--sold out in three days.   That's not surprising in a country where a political party called Green Leaf, dedicated exclusively to the decriminalization of marijuana, very nearly won enough votes in May to take a seat in parliament.   "We came with a legal product to a huge market that has no legal product," Falcha, 41, said. "The rule we broke is it's the first time you can smoke something, get high and still be legal."   In fact, that was Falcha's main hurdle in marketing Buzz--to prove it was legit. He sent a sample to the police laboratory, which analyzed the substance and certified that it contained no illicit drugs.   Cool, thought Falcha. He even used the police certificate in his ads.   Uncool, said the police, who wanted no part of his marketing scheme. They had certified the sample, but they weren't endorsing the product. After some angry phone calls and letters, Falcha dropped use of the police seal, although every Buzz package does contain the news that the police have judged the product kosher, so to speak.   Falcha admits that smoking is still smoking, and not good for you. But Buzz is better than cigarettes, he said, because it contains no nicotine and because a user is not supposed to smoke Buzz all day.   "You smoke it only when you want to have a good time and feel relaxed or you're going to make sex," said Falcha, a former grocer with long black hair who favors bolo ties and leather boots.   What does Buzz contain? Catnip, wild lettuce opium, passion flower, among other ingredients, Falcha said. Eminent herb expert Varro E. Tyler describes wild lettuce opium as a "venerable fraud"; similarly, he says, catnip has no known psychedelic properties. The FDA has not included passion flower on the list of foods or dietary supplements generally regarded as safe.   Falcha gets Buzz from a Los Angeles firm named Temple of Ecstacy Corp., which has marketed a product known as Herbal Ecstacy. A dietary supplement, Herbal Ecstacy ran into trouble with the FDA because it contained ephedrine, an organic stimulant banned in two states. Herbal Ecstacy was discontinued, and Buzz contains no ephedrine, Temple of Ecstacy President Benjamin Bright said.   Bright said that Buzz, under various names, is being sold in Japan and Australia and is coming soon to the U.S. But the marketing techniques vary.   "[Falcha] is marketing it as legal marijuana," Bright said in a telephone interview from company headquarters in Hollywood. "Here [in the U.S.] we don't want to compare it to an illegal substance. We'd get the authorities all over us."   In Israel, Buzz comes in a little green package decorated with a large cannabis leaf. The buzz on Buzz is that it is milder than pot but does produce a similar high in some partakers.   Eyal Kitzis hosts a popular weekend television talk show. The other night, he decided to have his guests try Buzz (off camera, because smoking anything on the air is forbidden in Israel).   "We were drinking too, doing L'chaim and enjoying cocktails, so it's hard to say what happened," Kitzis recalled. "They were all laughing, and it was hard to speak with them. They were in a happy mood. Everyone said they could feel it in the head."   Kitzis himself was not so impressed. He said it left a bad taste in his mouth.   "Maybe the effect is much better after a few," he said.   Times staff writer Terence Monmaney in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Saturday, September 11, 1999 Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times
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Comment #1 posted by Ellwyn on December 09, 2001 at 02:08:01 PT:
re: opium lettuce, where in oz?
Merry meet!
Do you know who is selling it in Australia or where it can be obtained? Do you know if there are any laws to prohibit its import here?
many thanks,
Ellwyn
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