Some of you may have taken Ecstasy or felt a euphoric high at a sporting event or concert, but how would you feel if you knew you could take a love potion? The love potion would stimulate you in the same way that love does, forcing you to attach yourself to whoever you see next.

According to the NYT, Larry Young, a researcher, thinks this is more than Science Fiction or wishful thinking of teenaged girls, but something that could actually be available in the not-too-distant future. You don't have to worry too much about it getting into the wrong hands, because there would be (again according to Dr. Young), an antidote as well. I guess you could call an anti-love potion. If Dr. Young has the ingredients for the potion or the antidote already, he's not saying, but it supposedly exists already for voles. (This means that you should be careful around any unscrupulous voles that you may come across in your general vicinity. Who knows the horrors that could follow after such a strange cross-breed love affair?)

Dr. Young, of course, thinks that it is highly unethical to give this to someone just to make them fall in love with you, but sees it as a way to perhaps make a marriage stronger. He also sees the antidote as a potential for women to more easily enjoy sexual encounters without becoming emotionally attached.

A quick search for "Love Potions" yielded more results than I know what to do with. While Dr. Young's "love potion" for voles seems to based on chemical properties (please follow the link above for a bit more of scientific explanation), many love potions on the Internet contain a mixture of herbs and honey. This recipe comes with more than a list of ingredients; it has a list of very specific instructions on when to give the potion. Unlike Dr. Young, the recipe writer assumes that the potion will not be for yourself, but for your partner. Not only do you have to brew the tea twice (once for yourself and once for your intended), it must be taken on subsequent Fridays and a specific chant must be invoked, presumably to call the spirits.

When viewed from the perspective of a witch giving out the recipe to a tea, it is really hard to take the whole love potion business seriously, but when thinking of a "love potion" in terms of the scientific reality that Dr. Young is envisioning, it becomes a little more difficult to adapt to the idea. The NYT writer brings up an excellent point. What if you take the potion and accidentally fall in love with wrong person, let's say the UPS man or your next-door neighbor?

I'm wondering if you would even guess if you had suddenly been afflicted by the potion if someone else gave it to you? Is it really just a more romantic version of the roofie?