you guys in BC are nothing but a bunch of hippies!!
just kiddin'... i really agree with that approach myself. but you still have to be careful because so many people are trying to cash in on this trend that some info is questionably correct...
i am actually taking a ethnobiology class right now..... it is really interesting, but one thing you have to be aware of is that a lot of these herbal options are not synthetic or cultivated. they are gathered right from the wild. and unfortunately it is greedy companies paying for this and conservation has not been a priority. a classic example is echnacia (sp?). it is only gathered in the wild, and it has been so heavely harvested that some of the rarer strains of it are on the verge of extinction. it is actually now illeagal to harvest the rare forms, but they look the same as the more abuntant less endangered variety so there is no way to enforce the law.