Aspirin is a drug that was originally made from willowbark. It is a commonly used painkiller for mild pain. It also thins the blood slightly and can be used to help people who get blood clots, but conversely might cause excessive bleeding and it is not recommended to take aspirin before you have surgery.
A cigarette is a roll of paper, filled with finely chopped tobacco and other additives. People who use cigarettes are called smokers. Modern cigarettes usually have a filter at one end. The unfiltered end is set on fire and the other end is put in the mouth, and smokers inhale the smoke through the cigarette.
Echinacea, also called the purple coneflower, is a member of the daisy family. Echinacea has been known for a long time to possess medicinal properties that help ward off the effects of the common cold. Chewing the root of the plant seems to boost your immune system, helping you get better faster if you are sick.
The digitalis, or foxglove, is a very attractive garden plant that has flowers in various shades of pink. It is a biennial, native to western Europe and parts of Asia and Africa.
The entire plant is toxic, from roots to flowers. It is toxic fresh and dried, and if you have a vase of foxglove flowers, the water in the vase will be toxic too. A large enough dose will kill you, smaller doses cause hallucinations, nausea and severe headaches. It is toxic to people and animals, including cats and dogs.
Hemlock is also known as Devil's porridge, beaver Poison, musquash root, cowbane or poison parsley. Hemlock is a very poisonous plant that has been used for centuries for assassinations and executions. It is extremely toxic to humans and animals, and eating any amount can cause death. It is most toxic when it is fresh.
Mandrake is a poisonous plant. It has a thick root that is often shaped like a human, hence the name mandrake. There are many legends around the mandrake plant, including the myth that when you pull it up, the plant screams and kills everyone who hears the scream. Mandrake has a hallucinogenic affect and has been used in rituals and magic ceremonies for centuries.
Marijuana, is known as cannabis, weed, dope, pot and many other names. The plant's female flowers contain the highest concentration of an active ingredient that people use as a psychoactive drug to get "high". It is usually taken either by smoking it in a pipe or rolled into a handmade cigarette called a roach, or used as an ingredient in baked goods and eaten.
Marijuana can also be used for medicinal purposes, to treat chronic pain. Despite having been in use by various cultures for thousands of years, today it is illegal in many countries. It is the most widespread illicit drug.
The opium poppy has been grown for hundreds of years as a decorative garden plant, like other poppies. The seeds of the opium poppy are used in baking, sold just as 'poppy seeds'. The sap (or latex) of the poppy's immature seed head contains the active ingredient that is used to make opiates that are widely used in medicine, the most well known being the painkillers morphine and codeine. Growing poppies for opium to be harvested for recreational use is widely illegal.
Poisons are something that, when it gets into the system of a living organism, has a bad effect. If a creature comes into contact with enough poison, they will die.
Poisons are distinguished from venom and toxins in the way they are produced. A toxin is a poison produced by a natural process, and venom is a poison that is injected by a bite or sting.
