NEW STORY: This photo is from a bust in Southern California. The bags contain a herb obtained illegally and sold around the world. I wrote about this trade and its harmful impacts for @VICE (thread)

PS it isn't pot

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7jkma/the-white-sage-black-market-v27n3

This is white sage, used for centuries by Native tribes from Southern California and parts of Northern Mexico — since long before these territories were colonized and renamed. The dried leaves are burned in cleansing rituals that have become widely known as "smudging."

Performing these rituals, along with other Native spiritual practices, was outlawed in America until the 1970s. Yet the tradition persisted and, from the Hippie era onwards, was gradually appropriated into the cultural mainstream.

Today white sage is everywhere — a staple of the wellness age, burning in obvious places (yoga studios) and less obvious ones (protests for racial justice). Amazon lists more than 1,000 white sage products. You can buy sage bundles from Walmart.

You can also buy white sage on every continent except Antarctica. The plant is especially popular in Japan, where demand for its purported cleansing properties surged following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A wild herb in the mint family, white sage occurs naturally in Southern California, across the border in parts of Northern Mexico — and nowhere else on earth. Most white sage being sold commercially is “wildcrafted,” or harvested from nature.

Often by poachers, it turns out.

At one reserve, police have used helicopters and sniffer dogs to track down sage poachers, making dozens of arrests — and confiscating multiple *tons* of plant material — in the last 3 years.

(Using the helicopter is rare. Poaching, which occurs almost daily in summer, isn't.)

Many Native activists have spoken out against this commodification of white sage, which is causing declines in the wild and making it harder to harvest the plant for ritual use. Yet the market largely obscures these impacts.

My story on the white sage black market, ft. dodgy wellness brands, a former LSD producer, even some marijuana. Thanks to @TheSSKate for running it.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7jkma/the-white-sage-black-market-v27n3

#WhiteSage #Smudging

also to @todseelie for the pictures!