Salvia - Its Legal. And Deadly?

erosion

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Salvia: It's Legal, But Some Say Dangerous
CBS News 4
February 12, 2007


A powerful drug is popping up on college campuses across the country, a natural herb that users and researchers say is as potent as LSD. The DEA has a list of what it calls drugs of concern, and this is on that list.

It is marketed on-line as an alternative marijuana. It's legal, but as one mother tells us, it's deadly.

It's known as Magic Mint, Sally D, or Deviners Sage. Salvia Divinorum is a plant native to Mexico, and while it’s foreign to most adults, it’s well known on college campuses.

It’s also on the radar of the Miami-Dade public school police.

“It’s something new that is out there that the young adults are utilizing, but something we need to be aware of,” said School Police Sgt. William Tagle

Kids all over the country are lining up to experience this short but intense high. Just do a quick internet search. And you'll find hundreds of videos of kids smoking salvia.

Brett, a 17-year-old honor student from Delaware had everything going for him, his mother said, until he found Salvia.

“Once he started Salvia, that's where it started going all downhill,” said his mother, Kathy Chidester “He killed himself with carbon monoxide.”

Brett’s mother blames his death on the drug which she found out he was taking last summer.

“He just said mom, there's nothing wrong with it. It's legal,” Chidester said.

We were able to score some salvia at a couple of different stories in South Florida, where it’s easy to find. We weren't greeted with open arms at one Coconut Grove smoke shop, and CBS4 sent someone in undercover, posing as a buyer, they were never asked for ID.

“Nobody ever bought anything in my store without ID.”, the owner claimed

But our tape proved otherwise. When our tester purchased salvia at the same store the day before, the clerk asked for cash, the tester was never asked for ID.

Though the drug legal, even the owner pointed out you can't sell anything to anyone in the store who is under the age of 18.

However, that doesn’t apply to cyberspace. Salvia is widely available online, where establishing age can be difficult at best.

Users describe an out of body experience that can be unsettling, even scary. Some likened it's effects to another illegal drug.

Little is known about the effects of Salvia on the brain, but experts say it can show powerful effects.

It alters the way you can interact with external reality, as well as yourself,” said researcher Dr. Eden Evins.

One student used less scientific terms.

“I can see how people could lose their minds and do really dumb stuff,” he said.

That's what Brett's mother believes happened to her son.

She said essays Brett wrote about his experiences with salvia proved the drug altered his judgment.

“That's the angry part. The sad part is he was my only child, and I couldn't have loved him anymore,” she said.

Link
 
The more I read news sources for articles the more obvious it of the media for the current state of drugs in this country. Their fear mongering helped get both the Harrison and Marijuana Tax Stamp Act law passed, and they haven't changed a bit. These guys do more harm to the legalization movement than the GOP, DEA and NIDA combined. As long as they take advantage of people's ignorance to sell stories the harder its good to be to make any progress
 
Still with that "Sally D", eh?

Who the FUCK calls it Sally D?

And who the FUCK can't recognize a latent mental issue?

Just slap a warning label on the packaging! That should be fine. "Be fucking careful. The shit will FUCK you UP!"

That should get the DEA offa their back.
 
I jus dont understand any potential for abuse. Its not something that can be enjoyed at a party, is not something you'd want to do all day or will it ever evolve into something like weed, mdma or coke. Jus does not seem appealing for the masses.
 
Thank god for the passive-aggressive media. Without overdoses and strong correlations of danger associated with a psychoactive not manufactured by a pharmaceudical company, we need these brave souls in order to demonize in more creative ways.
 
“I can see how people could lose their minds and do really dumb stuff,” he said.

That's what Brett's mother believes happened to her son.
What a preposterous piece of 'journalism'.

I have some sympathy with the mother, but you'd have to suspect that something else was going on in the kid's head to have killed himself.
Trogdor said:
It's too bad the reporters aren't the ones overdosing on pharmaceuticals.
They're too busy snorting coke.
 
nofx said:
I jus dont understand any potential for abuse. Its not something that can be enjoyed at a party, is not something you'd want to do all day or will it ever evolve into something like weed, mdma or coke. Jus does not seem appealing for the masses.
remember when the fear mongering for Marijuana started in the mid-30's it wasnt really a big problem either. not that it is now, but i think this is all just government backed media hype to push criminalization to the masses. out of the 10 or 11 article i read about salvia somewhere betweem 7-9 have been based on Brett Chidester's story, the rest on speculation. this was simply an isolated incident, and for all we know has no more truth than the myth where 4 college kids allegedly burn their eyes out while tripping on acid. (link)
 
Some more sloppy reporting. A plant that changes your perception must be inherently dangerous!

All this article is doing is busting on how it's legal. It brings out that one kid killed himself, but the majority of the fuss is that it is available. There isn't even any evidense in this article that the suicide was linked to salvia, just that he had contact with it and then took his life.
 
Personally, i dont think salvia should be available to anyone under 18- in fact, i've always questioned why it is legal, and something like DMT is not. I definitely suspect salvia to be dangerous.
 
^Salvia is a hit and miss sometimes and a low dose of Salvia is not in my opinion, as potent in as DMT.

This is no suprise at all, those "special reports" segements you see in tv and on newpapers is most often riddled with sensationalism
 
What an awfully written article. The grammatical mistakes alone should have disqualified it from print, let alone the lack of any concrete facts to support the sensationalism.
New said:
Just slap a warning label on the packaging! That should be fine. "Be fucking careful. The shit will FUCK you UP!"
Like they do on bottles of liquor, right? :\

Unless the government legalises salvia, we won't be seeing any warning labels any time soon. And that won't happen, because to legalise salvia, they'd have to legalise ALL drugs. And to do that, they'd have to go back on every single word they'd uttered in the last x decades. Not in our lifetimes, in other words.
 
I believe it also has something to do with synthesis of it or like substances. However, Salvinorin is much too complicated to be synthesised.
 
drklnk said:
I believe it also has something to do with synthesis of it or like substances. However, Salvinorin is much too complicated to be synthesised.


It has to be chemically similar to another illegal substance... And it isn't.

It's something completely different and the Maui sized loophole for scheduling new substances doesn't allow for Salvinorin at this time.

MDMA (ecstasy) is only illegal because it is chemically similar to MDA.

And even then, it wasn't an easy sell.
If MDA was not schedule I, MDMA would have had the same standing as Salvia - "We don't like it, but we can't make it illegal."

It doesn't cause any known harm, it isn't addictive, and... well... there goes schedule I and II.
At best, it's looking at schedule III.
Except - it's sold legally now - as was MDMA - which prohibits it from being scheduled.

Er... doesn't it?

It will end up becoming illegal, or people will start to fight the drug laws more broadly.

You have to remember - the government governs by your consent - don't give it to them.
And don't let them govern things you don't want them involved in.
 
Exact same angle as the DXM articles, they will briefly mention it is DANGEROUS without going into any specifics. But what they really play up is the drug that causes hallucinations and its LEGAL!!!

I can imagine some comfortable upper middle class soccer mom's outrage, its legal OMG I'll inform my mothers group so we can do something.
 
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