That isn't mentioned in the BoM:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11878241

That's obviously impossible seeing as how the world isn't even 8000 years old!

so many of their cities, sure. That and tobacco made them really evil.

So this goes on the unmentioned plant list with corn, maize, tomatoes, squash, manioc, chile peppers, arrowroot, chocolate, lima beans, potatoes, algarrobo, avocado, quinoa, achita, wild rice, guava, mango, cactus, prickly pear, chia, amaranth, many spices, vanilla, onion, jerusalem artichoke, pumpkin, breadroot, berries, cranberries, peanuts, maple sugar.

Not on the unmentioned animal list with parrots llamas, domesticated turkeys and ducks, armadillo, sea mammals, jaguars, monkeys, unique domestic dogs.

Or the unmentioned culture and technology list with tobacco use, jerky, unique calendars like the one that ends in 2012, varied racial characteristics, curare, stone and bone tipped weapons, corbelled arches, incredible stone work, canoes, money in the form of precious stones, shell, cocoa beans, human sacrifice, crop burning, extensive worship of mummies.

Boy, that JS sure knew how to describe what really happened back then with those people. Not.

Seriously... I've got the story in a file somewhere, and some of Sorenson's folks are claiming it's proof of the BOM, or at least ancient mariners long before Coleridge coined the phrase...

Okay, careful Cabbie; there are still some who are barely out and having trouble sorting out their beliefs...

On the "Cocaine Cleopatra," assuming the scientific findings are correct, there are at least two possible explanations that don't involve improbable ocean voyages.

The first involves the possibility of some nefarious undergrads with a sense of humor and a grudge against authority (nicotine and cannabis have also been reported).

The second is there are plants in African that also contain the coca alkalloids (just not in the concentrations found in the South American variety); the same is true of nictotine. They may have been used by ancient embalmers.

we know Moroni had to be on something. Why else would he trek 4,000 miles to upstate New York?

Everybody knows that the land was separated during the time of Peleg and everyone living then had access to coca before the split. Those that went west got to keep coca, while those left in the east had to rely upon their personal stashes. It isn't surprising that only wealthy Egyptians could afford such a dwindling resource.