I realize I've written or blabbered about the following topic a thousand times in various forums, including in this space, but I find it fascinating to watch unfold nonetheless.
WIFR | A New Drug On The Market : A warning for parents tonight about a new drug teens are using to get high.It's similar to LSD and its sold over the counter. It is called Salvia Divinorum also known as magic mint.
Users say its a lot like taking acid. The herb has been used in spiritual ceremonies in Mexico for centuries.
It has hallucinogenic effects, sometimes rendering the user incapacitated.
Several states have passed laws against selling the plant however Illinois is not one of them.
If we plotted the number of stories like this one from somewhere in Rockford, IL, which proclaim Salvia to be of great interest, and a drug that will soon be banned, we would probably discover a quite similar arc as the arc of hysteria created by everybody's favorite repressed Republican, Harry Anslinger, and his cohorts Hearst and DuPont, (see Jack Herer's book, available free here) leading up to the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act (and continuing forever and ever, ramen). See also the history of LSD, Sudafed, MDMA, et alia.
What's the cliché about history as farce?
I like the way "similar to LSD" is always thrown around to increase the fear factor. In my experience s. div. is nothing like LSD.
Unfortunately a lot of online vendors are marketing it to teens as a legal buzz, a kind of alternative marijuana. These morons are going to wreck it for the rest of us.
exactly. The only similarity I've found between the two is that I'd only partake once or twice a season. Not something I want to have in my system every night.
And LSD isn't very dangerous either, in my mind, just powerful, and obviously not for everybody, and every situation.