This morning (Wednesday, March 12, 2008) NPR aired a story that salvia divinorum may soon be made illegal. For those of you who don’t know what salvia is, it’s a form of sage that has some psychoactive effects. Salvia is currently an uncontrolled substance, because its chemical makeup and effects are too dissimilar to drugs that are already banned — the law says that a drug has to be similar to a drug already on a particular schedule or class of illicit substances, in order to be included in that list. However, a substance can be added to this list based on analysis of 8 factors: 

• Actual and potential for abuse
• Pharmacology
• Other current scientific knowledge
• History and current pattern of abuse
• Scope, duration, and significance of abuse
• Public health risk
• Psychic or physiological dependence liability
• If an immediate precursor of a controlled substance

….  Based on the results of the analysis, the DEA may recommend that Salvia divinorum be scheduled as a controlled substance.

Salvia has been used by shamans and other spiritual seekers for “out of body” experiences and similar meditative practices. It does not have a market as a social drug, because the mental states it creates in the user are not conducive to social interaction, but rather, introspection. Just as with alcohol or tobacco, the user must act responsibly, and know enough not drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of any mind altering substance. However, NPR is reporting suicides that have supposedly been linked to salvia, thus causing a renewed push for criminalization.

Salvia divinorum is currently illegal in several states in America and in many countries around the world, and more states are jumping on the banning bandwagon every day. The DEA considers it “a drug of concern.” “The majority of the pending legislation would add the plant ‘Salvia divinorum’ to the states’ lists of controlled substances.”

In G. Pagan’s March 12, 2007 bill analysis of California AB259, he quotes information that

The effects produced by Salvia divinorum are not comparable to any other effects produced by the other psychoactive substances (i.e., peyote, psilocybin, LSD, etc.). This also includes variables of the user, such as body weight, sensitivity, strength, and dose taken and method used. The effects can range from subtle to extremely strong, causing an individual to have out-of-body experiences and create a real potential for physical danger to oneself and others.

Pagan’s analysis also discusses the fact that prisons are already overflowing because so many people are being incarcerated on drug charges because of substances that are already banned.

Salvia’s reputation suffers from “the current lack of laboratory and clinical research into its potential therapeutic properties.” So of course, rather than do responsible research, fear mongers are instead gunning to criminalize it so they can seize yet more control over their “subjects” — otherwise known as American citizens. Never mind that there are freedom of religion issues, that salvia “was used for both medicinal and religious purposes by the Mazatec Indians in Oaxaca well before the arrival of European colonial powers” and that it is currently in use by modern day shamans pursuing that freedom of religion. Never mind that we are supposed to have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in this country; if the pharmaceutical companies can’t charge an arm and a leg to sell us chemical happiness, Whhhhyyyy, it’s a danger to society! Ban it! Burn it! Throw the witches in prison! Never mind that the prisons are already stuffed to the gills, that just means more money for the companies that build prisons and hire out guards and supply weapons!

“Salvia divinorum is a valuable medicinal herb that is rarely abused…. It is not habit-forming, not addictive, and does not present a significant risk to public health or safety. Because it is a powerful consciousness-altering herb, some regulation of sales is sensible and appropriate, but criminalizing possession certainly is not.”

So why can’t we use common sense, people? Why is that so frikkin hard????

Tags: Current Events, Government, Morals, Paganism, Science and Technology //