Australia’s secret ‘bush’ drug craze uncovered

A wildlife expert has revealed how psychoactive substances used to make drugs exist in the Australian outback.

Michael Bock says there are several natural substances which very few people know about that can be processed.

Oils used for making MDMA can be extracted from the Sassafras tree in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.

Drug makers extract safrole from the bark and purify it before using a two-stage process to turn the oil into the party drug.

‘People with a high school degree in chemistry would be able to do it,’ Bock told Vice.

Safrole is a phenylpropene. It is a colorless or slightly yellow oily liquid with a liquorish-type smell. 

Another drug found in wild Australia is DMT – or Dimethyltryptamine – which can be extracted from the Phalaris plant.

Austrian scientists discovered the plant was toxic when they saw sheep eat it and stagger away. 

 DMT was known as the ‘businessman’s trip’ during the 1960s in the USA because a user could access the full depth of a psychedelic experience. 

The third substance that Bock discusses on his tour of the bush is the psychedelic alkaloid mescaline.

A wildlife expert has revealed how psychoactive substances used to make drugs exist in the Australian outback

He says it can be extracted from the sawdust of the mountain ash tree which is native to Tasmania and the state of Victoria in southeastern Australia and is the tallest flowering plant and one of the tallest trees in the world, second to the coast redwood.

He said what you see and what you hear is different for every person who takes mescaline.

Brock concludes by saying there are many other psychedelic plants waiting to be discovered. 

The third substance that Bock discusses on his tour of the bush is the psychedelic alkaloid mescaline. Pictured are some plants that mescaline can be extracted from