Want seeds from the US?

I have heard it is used to stop smoking;

http://www.local802afm.org/publication_entry.cfm?xEntry=59283768

"Stevia is best known as a calorie-free sweetener. But studies in Germany have confirmed that stevia helps cure smoking - and alcohol - addiction"

-Doug ©

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate

Or salvia, a hallucinogenic member of the sage genus and mint family

Stevia is a relatively safe sweetener that really only presents a problem to the aspartame ( a relatively toxic sweetener) industry, which is blocking FDA approval.

It has been illegal to use stevia as a sweetener in the US. But, that is changing. Big business "to the rescue". This is from wikipedia.

Rebiana is the trade name for a patent-pending, calorie-free, food and beverage sweetener derived from stevia and developed jointly by The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill. In May 2007, Coca-Cola announced plans to obtain approval for its use as a food additive within the United States by 2009. Coca-Cola has also announced plans to market rebiana-sweetened products in 12 countries that allow stevia's use as a food additive.

As soon as someone figures out how to patent a version of pot, it will be sold by big business as well.

This is the first I've heard that stevia possession is illegal anywhere. See: http://www.stevia.net/ I have ordered stevia plants, dried herb and refined powder from him. (His wife may be Nicaraguan, too, I forget.)This is from his front page: ------------------------------------------------- 'If you've ever tasted stevia, you know it's extremely sweet. In fact, this remarkable noncaloric herb, native to Paraguay, has been used as a sweetener and flavor enhancer for centuries. But this innocuous-looking plant has also been a focal point of intrigue in the United States in recent years because of actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The subject of searches and seizures, trade complaints and embargoes on importation, stevia has been handled at times by the FDA as if it were an illegal drug.

Since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), stevia can be sold legally in the United States, but only as a "dietary supplement." Even so, it can be found in many forms in most health-food stores, and is also incorporated into drinks, teas and other items (all labeled as "dietary supplements"). It cannot, however, be called a "sweetener" or even referred to as "sweet." To do so would render the product "adulterated," according to the FDA, and make it again subject to seizure.

The purpose of our Web site is to provide as much information about stevia as possible, from the scientific studies regarding its safety to the petitions submitted by the Lipton Tea Company and the American Herbal Products Association.' http://www.stevia.net/ --------------------------------------------------------

This expains why your program did not mention much about how sweet it is. The big artificial sweetener companies got together some time ago and declared war on stevia in the US. They got the government to raid health food stores and the FDA to declare it hadn't been proven "safe" as a food ADDITIVE. In Europe and Asia companies like Coca Cola use it to sweeten soft drinks routinely.

I've grown it myself and know of an online seller of plants. I have also tried to germinate seeds and failed. They have to be germinated shortly after they mature, so don't store well. I may not have planted mine soon enough. Johnny's of Maine had them, may still have them.

The plant is native to South America and has been used there for millenia so it should do well in CA. I had to grow it in pots and bring it in in winter, but it is other wise very easy to grow as long as it is well drained.

I suppose one could get a 30-second "high" from smoking just about anything. This sounds like an underhanded, backdoor way of getting stevia out of the hands of Americans.