There's a new "smokable" substance apart from tobacco and marijuana, and people have been drinking it for years. People now smoke tea leaves.

Liz Neves, a Brooklyn storeowner, sells smokable tea as a more natural alternative to marijuana.

Her shop offers as many different blends as there are tea varieties in the world. These blends have flavors like Vivid Visions, a flavor that includes lavender, damiana and mugwort, the last of those being a psychoactive herb that intensifies your dreams.

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Smoking tea is not a new phenomenon. It's actually a tradition in some places like China where families gather around a hookah to smoke tea leaves.

There have also been prisoners from Queensland, Australia who smoke tea leaves soaked in nicotine after the tobacco ban. They turned to the tea leaves, saying it's cheaper and they can hardly tell the difference.

While it's not as detrimental as tobacco, there are debates going on as to the positive and negative effects of smoking tea.

Some say the effects are helpful, citing that tea doesn't have the same chemicals in tobacco while having protective antioxidant properties. Tea also has theanine that helps protect the brain from neural damage.

Some experts say smoking tea can also give a person cancer. In addition, tea is also an addictive substance even when drunk. Smoking tea can also cause an addiction to tea.

While marijuana has recently been legalized in some states in the USA, smoking tea is an alternative to getting calm without getting high.

Tagssmoking, tea