David Taim, a civil servant in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, always starts the day in the same way.
He takes a bite of a green, unripe nut, along with the inflorescence of a pepper plant and some white powder mainly made up of slaked lime. Then he chews the mixture.
“It opens your eyes. It makes you awake. It brings your senses to life,” he says.
“Without betel nuts during my office hours, I’m done for the day.”
Betel nut is not very well known in the western world. But this addictive nut, which grows on the areca palm, is regarded as the world’s fourth most widely-used psychoactive substance after caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.
Continue here: The Telegraph
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