I’ve seen a lot of contrasting information about this all over the Web, but that doesn’t tell me anything, except that the druggies at school aren’t the only guys in on the concept: getting high off of banana joints. Is there really a chemical called “bananadine”? If so, can you really get high from smoking dried-out banana skins? –LeperNaaman
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But I’ll say one thing: I’d never heard the term bananadine before. If it were 1973, when I started writing this column, I’d have called various groovy parties seeking enlightenment. Since it’s 2002, I punched bananadine into Google.com. Seconds later I was looking at the following recipe:
The outcome of the FDA study I have not been able to discover. However, in November 1967 researchers at New York University reported that a chemical analysis of banana peel had found no intoxicating chemicals and that the high was mainly psychological. It was obvious at the time, at least to some of us, that the whole thing was a put-on. I’ll bet even the pranksters at the Barb didn’t expect suckers to be falling for it 35 years later.
