The Salvia Ban Wagon
How does terrible drug policy get made? The mad rush to criminalize a psychedelic herb provides a textbook case.
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Last fall Anderson told the Waco Tribune-Herald that “with a single use [salvia smokers] can cause some serious, serious damage to their brain.” Roth, the salvia researcher, says “there’s no evidence for that statement.” In fact, says Siebert, animal studies of salvia give “no indication of it having any significant toxic effects, even at doses that are hundreds of times more than what humans would ordinarily use.” Even salvia’s detractors concede that addiction does not seem to be an issue, since few people who try the drug want to use it on a regular basis. Despite a dramatic increase in use during the last few years, emergency rooms are not seeing a flood, or even a trickle, of salvia users, probably because a hospital trip usually takes longer than a salvia trip.
The lack of alarming statistics helps explain why the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has the power to ban psychoactive substances without new legislation, is still waiting and watching six years after declaring salvia a “drug of concern.” DEA spokesman Rusty Payne says, “I don’t think we have enough information yet.” And there’s no telling when they will. “It’s going to take a while,” Payne says. “If we decide to schedule [salvia], we’ll publish a notice [in the Federal Register]. If we don’t, we won’t.” Although Payne says the delay should not be read as a judgment on salvia’s dangers, the DEA can act much more quickly when it wants to, as when it banned MDMA on an emergency basis in 1985. “When they say they’ve been looking at it for years,” says Rick Doblin, “it means it’s not much of a problem.”
Nor is salvia a high priority at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Officially, the FDA says herbal products like salvia are “unapproved new drugs” and “misbranded drugs” if they are “marketed with claims implying that these products mimic the effects of controlled substances.” Products are deemed to be “illegal street drug alternatives” when they are “intended to be used for recreational purposes to effect psychological states (e.g., to get high, to promote euphoria, or to induce hallucinations).”
“I am aware of that law,” says Arena Ethnobotanicals CEO John Boyd, “and that’s why if you check our website there are no references to anything like that.” Many salvia vendors do tout the psychoactive effects of their products, promising “psychedelic,” “visionary,” “enlightening,” and “enjoyable” experiences. Yet except for two warning letters it sent in 2002, the FDA does not seem to have taken any enforcement actions against companies that sell salvia. While FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly says “we do not discuss potential, pending, or ongoing actions,” none of the distributors I interviewed was aware of any recent warnings or seizures.
As for Congress, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) introduced a bill to ban salvia in 2002, declaring, “We know very little about the drug, but what we do know is frightening. This drug’s power is beyond anything we have seen before.” But the bill died in committee, and Baca never reintroduced it. I contacted his office a couple of times to find out why but did not get an answer.
‘Our Existence in General Is Pointless’
By contrast, there’s been a flurry of anti-salvia activity at the state level in the last few years. With so little evidence that salvia is hazardous, prohibitionists lean heavily on anecdotes. Ohio state Rep. Thom Collier (R-Mount Vernon), who introduced a salvia ban that took effect in April, said he was motivated by the death of a Loudonville boy who was shot by a friend. But according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “it isn’t clear whether the friend was on the drug when he shot and killed the 12-year-old.” The Columbus Dispatch notes “there was no direct evidence…that the shooting was drug-related.”
Similarly, when Rep. Baca proposed a federal salvia ban in 2002, he cited the case of Daniel Moffa, a 15-year-old Rhode Island boy who smoked salvia one morning and stabbed his pot dealer on the way to school. Moffa later told WPRI, the Fox affiliate in Providence, that he was “paranoid” and “hallucinating,” thinking the dealer looked “evil” and “horrible.” The story sounded fishy to Daniel Siebert, since he didn’t think a salvia user on a trip that intense would be able to coordinate his movements well enough to meet someone and repeatedly stab him. Still, Moffa’s parents initially blamed salvia for the assault because “we had no other plausible explanation,” the boy’s father explained in a 2007 email message to Siebert. Since then, the father said, “we have found out that Dan suffers from bipolar affective disorder with psychosis.” While “the salvia may have contributed to an episode,” he added, it “was not the real cause.”
The most influential salvia horror story involves Brett Chidester, a Wilmington, Delaware, 17-year-old who in January 2006 pitched a tent in his parents’ garage, went inside it with a burning charcoal grill, and stayed there until he was dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Brett had been experimenting with salvia and claimed it had given him profound insights. “Salvia allows us to give up our senses and wander in the interdimensional time and space,” he wrote in an essay discovered after his death. “Also, and this is probably hard for most to accept, our existence in general is pointless. Final point: Us earthly humans are nothing.”
A month after Brett’s death, his mother, Kathy Chidester, told the Wilmington News-Journal: “We just won’t have any answers, and we have to learn to accept that. But my gut feeling is it was the salvia. It’s the only thing that can explain it.” A month later, the state legislature had approved Brett’s Law, which made salvia a Schedule I drug. The same week the ban took effect, Delaware’s deputy chief medical examiner, Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, changed Brett’s death certificate, adding “salvia divinorum use” as a contributing cause.
Since then Kathy Chidester has campaigned for similar laws across the country, and 15 more states have either banned salvia or (in the case of California and Maine) prohibited sales to minors. The laws all passed by overwhelming margins, in some cases unanimously. Anti-salvia bills have been introduced in at least 22 other states. “My hope and goal is to have salvia regulated across the U.S.,” Chidester wrote in testimony supporting the proposed salvia ban in Maryland last January. “It’s my son’s legacy and I will not end my fight until this happens.”
Appel, the Tiffin University psychologist, does not think salvia should be legal for general use, but he is reluctant to draw any firm conclusions about Brett Chidester’s death. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying it caused him to commit suicide,” he says. Such explanations, he adds, are “a way to try to make sense of something that’s pretty senseless. We’re always looking for rationalizations and reasons, particularly when there aren’t any.”
Roth, the University of North Carolina psychiatrist, is also opposed to using salvia recreationally, partly because of the psychological risks. But he says it’s difficult to say what role the drug might have played in Brett Chidester’s suicide. Although “it’s tragic that this young guy killed himself,” he says, “there’s no way of knowing if salvia had anything to do with it.…There have been a couple of reports of people having long-term psychotic episodes after smoking it that have appeared in the literature. It would seem, given the apparent widespread use of salvia, that if these are side effects, they don’t occur at very high prevalence. Otherwise, the ERs would be filled with people having bad salvia reactions.”
Siebert concedes that salvia “might have influenced [Brett Chidester’s] thinking in some way” but adds: “He must have already had some thoughts about suicide. I don’t think salvia’s just going to put thoughts into peoples’ heads. Mentally healthy people don’t decide to take such a drastic action based on [an idea] they had during a drug state. Psychedelics basically amplify a lot of your own internal stuff. If you’re already having some kind of dark thoughts, a psychedelic experience could amplify that, and it could lead to a problem for some people.”
Notably, there is no indication that Brett Chidester was under the influence of salvia when he killed himself. The idea seems to be that using the drug encouraged him to reach conclusions about the nature of life that were conducive to suicide. That theory, notes Richard Glen Boire, a senior fellow at the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, “could apply to some of the greatest pieces of art in the history of the world. It would make Nietzsche a controlled substance. There is a lot of cultural production out there that shows a way of looking at the world that isn’t all sunny and rosy.”
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There really is a subset of people in this country who find it suspicious when others enjoy themselves. Unfortunately, these are the people most prone to going into politics.
Goddamn pureaucrats.
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"A Democrat is someone who can't stand the idea of someone else earning more money; a Republican is someone who can't stand the idea of someone else having more fun than he does."
Something like that.
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:)
at least I've never voted Repugnantkin. -
I don't see it posted here, but in the print edition I liked Sullum's personal description of using salvia.
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Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign to congress about this. Watch video, heh...
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From what I hear, that stuff is its own punishment.
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Used wisely it's a blessing and a possible blissful joy...used for kicks it's possible to feel quite kicked, at least nightmares will end when the dreamer begins to grasp that his own play of consciousness is producing them. The goal is to awaken within (or from) the dream so the nightmare vanishes to a Lucid Dream.
http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html is always help to read before attempting its use. -
One effect of salvia I've noticed in my usage of it: Massive spontaneous erections.
Granted it's during the most intense period of hallucination, so it's not like it's terribly useful then. I've also confirmed this in discussion with male friends who've taken salvia trips. Something like 75% have mentioned that that occurred. Granted the sample size is very small (less than 10), and all of the subjects were in their 20's and 30's, but its definitely an observation I haven't noticed anywhere else. It could be an awesome start to a research project.
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Massive spontaneous erections.
So you say...
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"Massive" erections? How massive? I mean, not that I need any help, eh hem.
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Granted, I haven't chased people around with a ruler during the fact... That would probably be a very bad thing for a person in the middle of a trip.
So you could say the evidence is largely anecdotal. But if there's anyone with a small research budget and a lot of guinea pigs (or grad students), it could be an interesting hypothesis to test.
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Huh huh..he said "small research budget."
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"Massive spontaneous erections.
Granted it's during the most intense period of hallucination"
It just looks massive.
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I'd think the big pharma companies would be all over it if it can do that.
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Not just the pharma companies! But thanks for asking!
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I believe
http://www.sagewisdom.org/pharmakopoeia.html
had mentioned that smaller amounts can be used as an aphrodisiac. A girl-friend of mine confirmed this with me a few times, shortly after the first 10 minutes, kissing and lovemaking would begin :) -
Stuff tastes NASTY, and the effects have a very religious feel. Best tried if you've got Dex in your system.
Or so I was told in college. :-)
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Chewing the fresh leaves, especially with some fennel seed (which improve the flavor) is a good way to go.
read:
http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html -
Fennel seed IMPROVES the taste?
That is all I need to know.
When can we get pot and LSD legalized?
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I can't say when LSD and cannabis will be legal in USA, you may want check "Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs
In a backlash against the US 'war on drugs', Latin America turns to a more liberal policy ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/31/mexico-argentina-decriminalise-drugs "
Or wait until after 2012...
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So much article, so full-of-win.
Gotta love how "protecting" the children means pushing it underground. How many teens have credit cards with which to buy their salvia online? Don't head shops already card, since they're selling tobacco products?
But no, I'm sure once it's on the black market, it will be MUCH harder for young people to obtain.....
And hey, now that they've gone after sage, how long till they go after nutmeg?
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People who describe salvia trips as unpleasant have obviously never taken Nutmeg.
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I tried nutmeg once in jail. what a horrible experience. I couldn't get that taste out of HOURS
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I always wonder if politicians want to protect children why they don't ban aspirin. How about all the cleaners and poisons found in a common household? These people are ridiculous.
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Oh, please don't give the pols ideas!
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If you saw The Today Show this morning you'd have been treated to a hysterical piece about the totally new thing the kidz today are doing. It's called "huffing". Kids can even buy things like nail polish remover, paint thinner and oven cleaner at the store!!!
I share the planet with a bunch of fuckin' idiots.
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Lenny Bruce went on network TV in the 60's with a bit about kids sniffing glue. The censors let it pass, because they thought it was non sequitir humor instead of a slice of underground subculture life.
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The best part about this crazy new huffing trend. I now get carded for compressed air, and I don't get carded for alcohol.
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Bah... this was me, not J sub D.
I blame threaded comments, and a distinct lack of alcohol.
Nephilium
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Shut up, IceTrey! Don't give them ideas!
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And hey, now that they've gone after sage, how long till they go after nutmeg?
Actually, I'm surprised nutmeg oil isn't already on one of the schedules, like sassafras oil.
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What do ya wanna bet its on the same DEA watchlist as Salvia?
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What’s next belladonna and Skull cap?
Wow Vicodin and most opiate base RXs given in the states do the same thing, but offer no health benefits. Again no one is rushing to shut down GlaxoSmith and Klein.
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No health benefits from opiates?
What are you smoking dude? -
What's next? Jimson weed. It's a weed very common throughout North America. There was a weed in my garden with pretty flowers, that I have seen others grow for its flowers, so I kept it there instead of weeding it. Only later when I saw a GOOD picture on the internet of what jimson weed looks like (I had already read about the weed before) did I realize that it was jimson weed, and I realized how common jimson weed is in general, since I know I've seen it many times before.
If you eat enough of it you can hallucinate like crazy. One common observation is that users start smoking imaginary cigarettes in their hands.
It's everywhere and very distinctive looking, like I said, so no laws will really stop kids from trying it - then again, kids are stupid, so I doubt they'd have the wherewithal to try to identify it themselves using pictures and then take it.
Then again, it's also highly toxic. The dose for getting you high is only a bit less from a dose that can make you violently ill or kill you. So if that isn't a deterrent from kids trying it, well then I'm not too sad 'cause all you'd end up with is Darwin Award winners.
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oh yeah I forgot to add that the trips are generally unpleasant with jimson weed - like with the smoking salvia - only like, 10 hours of nightmares
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I found it pretty boring, actually. More dizziness than anything else. And yes, it tastes terrible.
More importantly, though, WTF is up with people like Baca? You know he can't possibly have any evidence for statements like "This drug’s power is beyond anything we have seen before", so where is he coming from? Somebody needs to pin him down on stuff like that. Unfortunately I suppose the truth is that very few politicians lose support for looking "tough on drugs" OR making provably false statements. Still, I want to see some interviewer ask him: if we find a new psychedelic drug, and it has no side effects at all, should it be banned? Why or why not?
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If it was boring, you probably didn't get enough in you. In my experience (smoked extract) it is anything but boring.
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I second and infinitize that :)
(although apparently there are some people called "Salvia Hard-heads" where not much happens, I think "set & setting" along with dosage is possibly the factor)
Just reading http://www.erowid.org/library/.....ence.shtml
and http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html
can be the cognitive keys to that inner door. -
So chewing = boring, smoking = unpleasant, and the only reason people rush out to try it is the do-gooders say how amazing it is.
Sounds to me like the do-gooders are the ones popularizing it, if they stopped it would never take off, people don't seem to like it.
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wow - that's an angle I've never actually thought of
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I've smoked it over thirty times and never had an experience that wasn't either enjoyable or at least somehow uplifting or spiritual. If you're a religious type, you may read a religious element into the experience.
Your mileage, of course, may vary. Start with a dose »below« what you think is a threshhold dose and do that several times over the course of a couple weeks, then start increasing it. If you very carefully increase the dose over time, you minimize the chances of a "bad trip".
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i haven't tried it yet, but it looks like i should get it now before committing a felony.
all together now: yo, fuck nanny-staters. -
What do ya wanna bet [nutmeg oil] on the same DEA watchlist as Salvia?
I wouldn't put it past the DEA to add Calcium Carbonate to the watch list if two people posted web videos pretending to get high while snorting it.
That makes me think of a good "punk'd" project: going to every Congresscritter, showing them some bogus videos of teens "getting high" on an obviously innocuous substance (e.g., snorting ascorbic acid), and then seeing if any of them start legislation to ban or limit its use.
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Get them exposed for the complete nincompoops they are, I like I like!
But cmon, if dihydrogen monoxide didn't work.....
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you mean like snorting lemonaide mix? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-2RGwpfsw
anyone else go to legoland from smoking salvia?
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and beyond...
from http://www.erowid.org/library/.....tml#5.17.3
Third Method: Meditation on IllusionIf still going down and not liberated,
Meditate as follows:
The sexual activities, the manipulation machinery, the mocking laughter,
dashing sounds and terrifying apparitions,
Indeed all phenomena
Are in their nature, illusions.
However they may appear, in truth they are unreal and fake.
They are like dreams and apparitions,
Non-permanent, non-fixed.
What advantage is there in being attached to them,
Or being afraid of them?
All these are hallucinations of the mind.
The mind itself does not exist,
Therefore why should they?
Only through taking these illusions for real will you wander around in
this confused existence.
All these are like dreams,
Like echoes,
Like cities of clouds,
Like mirages,
Like mirrored forms,
Like phantasmagoria,
The moon seen in water.
Not real even for a moment.
By holding one-pointedly to that train of thought.
The belief that they are real is dissipated,
And liberation is attained. -
not legoland, but charlie brown land, and school bus land - lots of two dimensional orange coloured things and thick black lines. Strange, but I know EXACTLY what you mean by LEGO... salvia is the craziest stuff out there, and you should only try it after doing your research and having some idea what to expect. But even then...
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BakedPenguin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwylBRucU7w
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And who could forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UsNbsjpuLc
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I'd never seen the "Cake" sketch. I did remember the "jenkem" hoax, though.
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What are these drug warriors smoking?
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Re: Anomalous,
What are these drug warriors smoking?The "let's get the fun out of everything" weed.
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In other words, we DONT want what they're smoking.
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nice job on this piece
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solid journalism on a contentious subject. it's about time. Though I doubt it'll change any legislators or politicians' minds. Banning substances rarely make sense outside of the political arena...
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I'm a strong opponent to prohibition and this country's drug policy. I find the idea of criminalizing the use of substances by consenting adults to be laughable.
However, while Salvia certainly shouldn't be outlawed, it is good for people (kids) to become educated about just what it really is.
I saw the stuff being sold like it was "fake herb" in a smoke shop right on the Vegas Strip. People don't realize that this stuff is really hardcore, and not in a pleasurable recreational way.
People used to take psychedelics really seriously. And people who are ON psychedelics remember why they are taken seriously, though it's too late if they came unprepared.
It's sad that lots of people just want to get high from some nice, safe, pleasant cannabis. But they're forced to do all sorts of nasty things such as Salvia, inhalants, glue, cough syrup overdosing, and alcohol binging.
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You see, prohibition has caused this exact outcome.
1) Claim weed is a hallucinogen
2) Prohibition prevents legitimate safety measures.
3) Suddenly kids are fucking with totally powerfull hallucinogens with no idea what they're messing with.So yeah: Labels on the products, so people know EXACTLY what they're getting. If you don't do your own research before buying at that point then, well, fuck you.
Consult the internet, consult a doctor, talk to friends, i don't care. Otherwise you're just a darwin-award-waiting-to-happen.
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great article. a couple years ago I wrote a letter to the editor in favor of keeping salvia legal after the paper ran a salvia scare story. keep up the great work! I'm glad reason is covering this. maybe you could do a story on how the DEA is viewing the synthetic JWH and CP cannabinoids and the plants Kava and Kratom as "Drugs and Chemicals of Concern". we need more great journalism to speak out against making more things like this illegal.
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Good lord, kava?! If you tried salvia and were not impressed, don't waste your time with kava.
That flavor will stay with you forever. And as for effects.....ummm, yeah, not worth the flavor.
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I don't know some of the kavalactone extracts are pretty powerful. if you like downers like benzos and barbiturates anyways, they all work on the GABA A receptor.
though I'm not saying its super strong or anything but a good antianxiety herb. its insane that they would go so far as to even be "concerned" about it. -
oh and another thing that I wish reason would mention is that banning salvia will discourage research into potentially potent non-addictive or at least not as addictive narcotic pain killers. a bunch of mu opioid agonists have been synthesized from Salvinorin A and B (the chemicals from salvia divinorum) one of the most potent is one known as herkinorin. in studies it appears a tolerance to herkinorin might not develop, though it may cause tolerance through a previously unknown mechanism. these chemicals must be studied and banning salvia is going to chill research into these amazing compounds.
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oh I see toward the end they DO mention salvia research but not herkinorin by name.
still a great article, though! -
Fabulous article. The exaggeration on the part of the prohibitionists is ridiculous, and completely unwarranted. I tried the stuff in college, and I guess I didn't realize how truly cool my conservative parents were at the time, because I told them all about my purchase and plans to smoke with a friend-- They didn't go on a crusade to ban it, I came through just fine, and still think it's a good thing I tried salvia.
And hell, since when does NOT banning something equal a societal endorsement of said thing? Heaven forbid we fail to stipulate value judgements on everything.
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Great article, thanks.
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I first tried Salvia in 1998. I smoked some that someone had grown and tended themselves. I found its effect to be very powerful, but very temporary. I have used it a few other times since then, but have decided that it isn't something I care very much for. I prefer the sacred mushroom for my psychedelic re-creations.
The article makes some very good points about the failure of the process of banning a substance: outlaw it first, ask questions later and without due research. That said, if the idiots who want to show everyone videos on youtube of themselves using it and trying to do things ...like operate a vehicle (as one person I know did ...Fortunately he wasn't even able to turn the key), they give the pols reason to be concerned. It isn't the drug that is really so much the problem. Rather it is the combination of its very powerful effect and the kids who have no business using it until they have grasped life a bit better. I agree with a policy premise that kids shouldn't have unrestricted "legal" access to powerful psychoactive drugs. As a society, that is just not responsible. We live in a culture that is, by and large, totally dismissive of the sacred aspects of psychedelics generally, so there is no real means of teaching people how to use them responsibly. There is no context, only dysfunction.
As a person who has used psychedelics I generally don't think casual access is any better than I do total prohibition. I believe Timothy Leary was right when he stressed that the most important aspect of psychedelic use is "set and setting," though I don't suppose I can expect our so-called "leaders" to understand what that means or to actually pass legislation that allows clinical research while minimizing reckless behavior.
It is totally inappropriate to compare Salvia with Mary Jane. ...Might as well compare the effects of Salvia with smoking Damiana or Valerian ...which would be just as meaningless. -
Since you mentioned Leary and "set and setting" I thought I'd provide some links to a couple of the texts which are helpful in achieving that :)
http://deoxy.org/psyexp.htm (erowid also has this text in its entirety)
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I agree with what Xenes said. look at the videos on www.funnytripz.com. No one is violent, no one is hurt, most people experience what they experience and laugh.Isnt that what life is about,experiences and laughter?I guess even things that make you smile will need have government approval... oh wait they already do
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The only religious experience that I have had was under the influence of salvia. By religious I mean that I experienced what seemed to be a consciousness other than myself and not that of another person. I know that this consciousness was a hallucination due to parts of my brain communicating in an unusual manner, but the experience gave me insight into what many people have experienced as being the existence of a god.
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"On the Pharmako/Poeia mandala, I put the little leaves on the path between phantastica and inebriantia, and name itexistentia . By existentia, I do not mean anything Cartesian, nor even David Bohm's separate-from-self implicate order, but mean that which precedes essence.
It's a personal thing. Existence.
If you can just stop thinking about it.
Salvia divinorum is what you get by crossing an entheogen with an atheist."
Pharmako/poeia
The Salvia divinorum chapter
by Dale Pendell -
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Excellent article on the insanity of the push to ban a possible cure for the insanity of our current nightmare.
Thank you!I always refer people interested, curious, or uncertain about the herb to:
http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html
for the proper and safe use of this sacred and powerful plant ally. -
Terence McKenna reported:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;index=3:)
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Supposed to attack these head-on and you will find a deep sense of gratification thatwill fuel your happiness.
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A MODEST PROPOSAL
A drug policy respectful of democratic values would aim to educate people to make informed
choices based on their own needs and ideals. Such a simple prescription is necessary and sadly
overdue.A master plan for seriously seeking to come to terms with America's drug problems might
explore a number of options, including the following.1. A 200 percent federal tax should be imposed on tobacco and alcohol. All government
subsidies for tobacco production should be ended. Warnings on packaging should be
strengthened. A 20 percent federal sales tax should be levied on sugar and sugar substitutes,
and all supports for sugar production should be ended. Sugar packages should also carry
warnings, and sugar should be a mandatory topic in school nutrition curricula.2. All forms of cannabis should be legalized and a 200 percent federal sales tax imposed on
cannabis products. Information as to the THC content of the product and current conclusions
regarding its impact on health should be printed on the packaging.3. International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending should be withdrawn from countries
that produce hard drugs. Only international inspection and certification that a country is in
compliance would restore loan eligibility.4. Strict gun control must apply to both manufacture and possession. It is the unrestricted
availability of firearms that has made violent crime and the drug abuse problem so intertwined.5. The legality of nature must be recognized, so that all plants are legal to grow and possess.
6. Psychedelic therapy should be made legal and insurance coverage extended to include it.
7. Currency and banking regulations need to be strengthened. Presently bank collusion with
criminal cartels allows large-scale money laundering to take place.8. There is an immediate need for massive support for scientific research into all aspects of
substance use and abuse and an equally massive commitment to public education.9. One year after implementation of the above, all drugs still illegal in the United States
should be decrimi-nalized. The middleman is eliminated, the government can sell drugs at cost plus 200 percent,
and those monies can be placed in a special fund to pay the social, medical, and educational
costs of the legalization program. Money from taxes on alcohol, tobacco, sugar, and can-nabis
can also be placed in this fund. Also following this one-year period, pardons should be given
to all offenders in drug cases that did not involve firearms or felonious assault.If these proposals seem radical, it is only because we have drifted so far from the ideals that
were originally most American. At the foundation of the American theory of social polity is
the notion that our inalienable rights include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." To
pretend that the right to the pursuit of happiness does not include the right to experiment with
psychoactive plants and substances is to make an argument that is at best narrow and at worst
ignorant and primitive. The only religions that are anything more than the traditionally
sanctioned moral codes are religions of trance, dance ecstasy, and intoxication by
hallucinogens. The living fact of the mystery of being is there, and it is an inalienable religious
right to be able to approach it on one's own terms. A civilized society would enshrine that
principle in law.Terence McKenna in Food of The Gods
http://www.wattpad.com/180211-.....ckenna?p=1 -
welcome to the website.
http://www.christianlouboutinvips.com -
GOOD
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My only point is that if you take the Bible straight, as I'm sure many of Reasons readers do, you will see a lot of the Old Testament stuff as absolutely insane. Even some cursory knowledge of Hebrew and doing some mathematics and logic will tell you that you really won't get the full deal by just doing regular skill english reading for those books. In other words, there's more to the books of the Bible than most will ever grasp. I'm not concerned that Mr. Crumb will go to hell or anything crazy like that! It's just that he, like many types of religionists, seems to take it literally, take it straight...the Bible's books were not written by straight laced divinity students in 3 piece suits who white wash religious beliefs as if God made them with clothes on.
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In his view, progress in regenerative medicine could achieve longevity escape velocity in which researchers develop anti-aging therapies faster than a person approaches death from aging.
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Another excellent post, thank you, this is why I continue visiting here!
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Very nice article.
There is just ZERO reason to make salvia illegal.
Actually I think we should legalize all drugs and tax them proportionally to their damages. Alcohol and tobacco (smoked) will be expensive, yet will improve with that respect.
And I think the health insurance company will eventually pay you to smoke cannabis and salvia divinorum. -
gdg
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