Drugs seem to be as much part of the animal as human world. Birds use caterpillar secretions, larvae, plant juices, mothballs, ash and tobacco. Domesticated and captive animals find their own ways of making life bearable. Cats enjoy the valerian plant and catnip which makes them giddy. Mongooses do chocolate; coati (a relative of the raccoon), eau de cologne; mice, chewing tobacco; and chimps, alcohol. In the Caribbean, monkeys cadge drinks from tourists. They also relish garlic which induces dizziness. In my constituency,Pilibhit, the monkeys, addicted to fermented sugarcane, hang about the local distillery.

Animals occasionally indulge in recreational drugs. Nature provides plenty of mood altering or psychtropic substances. Many plants have developed psychotrophins as a poisonous defence like poppies which produce opium, cacti like peyote which produce alkaloids, tobacco which produces nicotine, coffee beans that produce caffeine, and the marijuana plant. While most animals avoid them, others adapt to overcome the toxins and use pschoactive plants to alter consciousness. Like Indians, animals use Acacia flowers and leaves as a sedative.

In fact animals used psychotropic substances long before us. A shard from a ceramic bowl excavated in Peru shows two llamas nibbling from a branch of coca leaves. Ancient legends recount how animals showed humans the use of sacred plants. In 900 AD, an Abyssinian herder noticed how his animals became energized after eating the bright red fruit of a tree later named coffee. A shepherd in Yemen discovered the amphetamine-like stimulant known as qat watching his goats go wild after chewing its leaves. In tropical Asia, birds falling strangely quiet after visiting rauwolfia trees led to an Indian psychiatrist isolating Reserpine, the tranquilizer that revolutionized treatment of mental disease. A general of China's Han Dynasty noticed how sick horses regained vigour from eating