Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Forget ketamine, aka horse tranq. There are new ways being developed to placate the growing hordes of insomniacs in the world. A milk powder featuring melatonin has been developed by Canterbury's Synlait:

Tony McKenna, the general manager for market and product development, says cows produce a sleep-promoting hormone called melatonin at night and, just as with human mothers, that hormone is expressed in milk.

Dr McKenna says the company has identified a market for the product in Asia and Europe, with key consumers likely to be professional people, the elderly and international travellers.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a side ingredient of casomorphin in the recipe too. The drug snobbery continues, even when it's not a zero sum fight. Why can't Fonterra ever consider a joint experiment in cannabutter?