Last November, I told you about what appeared to
be a spreading use of the herb
Salvia divinorum among young people. It is a sort of "legal LSD" in most states, while 10 other countries
have banned it. The Food and Drug Administration has been
studying Salvia for five years, even though it listed the stuff as a "drug of
concern" years ago.
Now, my
friend Roberta Baskin at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., is reporting that Salvia is really taking
off with young smokers. Some are posting videos of their trips on YouTube, and now a
dozen states are considering a Salvia ban.
I
asked Roberta some questions about this project:
How did you know this drug is as big a
problem as it is reported to be?
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says:
Salvia divinorum and one of its constituents,
Salvinorin A, are gaining popularity as
recreational drugs. Young adults and
adolescents smoke the leaves and leaf extracts of
the plant to induce powerful
hallucinations. Currently this plant and its active
constituents are not
regulated in the United States and are easily available through the
Internet.
A good roundup of information can be found at
the Drug Enforcement Administration's site under "Drugs and Chemicals of Concern."
We talked to dozens of people: officials of the
FDA, DEA, NIDA, the President's drug czar office, several Congressional
offices, researchers at Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, and more.
It's clear to most of them that Salvia use is taking off due to the viral
nature of the Internet.
Where did you get the video of the kids using
Salvia?
My cameraman and I spent too much time looking
for "head shops." Then we realized what an old-fogey idea it was. Kids don't
bother with going to head shops. They go on the Internet! Google "Salvia," and
hundreds of sites pop up. We found some of them encouraging Salvia users to
send in videos.
Also, YouTube.com was an obvious place to look. I
looked at about 50 videos of people tripping, some of them while sitting in
cars. I don't think the Mazatec Indians would see that as a road to "spiritual
enlightenment." Many of the videos showcase Salvia as a party drug.
The 17-year-old Delaware boy who committed
suicide had posted a video smoking Salvia on his Facebook account, which his
mother somehow saw and then confronted him about. He convinced her there was
nothing wrong with it because "it was legal." We also found Facebook postings,
such as one in Arlington, Va., inviting friends for: "Trips -- Group Trips" -- "Doing Salvia and Watching Planet Earth."
What concerns do you have about showing the
pictures of the kids?
I personally agonized over this and whether
to do the story at all, if it would be seen as somehow "promoting" Salvia. We
had days of debates. I think the videos are journalistically crucial to showing
how widespread this is over the Internet and that school-aged children have
embraced it. Our lawyers felt there was no legal issue to using video off a
public space where people are doing nothing illegal. Frankly, a call to Poynter
Ethics guru, Dr. Bob Steele, helped us decide to fuzz faces that were too
identifiable. We also made an effort to use video where faces were obscured.
Ultimately we felt that Salvia is out there, and young people have discovered
it. Now there should be a heightened awareness by responsible adults so they
can have a healthy, civic debate about what should or should not be done.
Why have governments been so slow to recognize
the situation?
I could never get an intelligent answer as to
why federal drug-abuse officials are waiting and watching. I'm still stumped. I
can only conjecture. Do they hope it will go away? Are they unsure how to
regulate a drug that's already sold all over the Internet? There are a lot of
postings on the Web about keeping Salvia below the radar screen so that federal
regulators will ignore it. At this point, it seems hypocritical. Nearly a
million people have been arrested for marijuana while "War on Drug" officials
study Salvia. Clearly, Salvia is a much more potent drug. There's still a lot
that isn't known about long-term effects. Scientists didn't even know until about five years ago how the active ingredient in Salvia (Salvinorum A) acts differently
in the brain from other hallucinogens. Some scientists now hope to develop new
medical treatments and drug therapies (for cocaine addiction, depression,
Alzheimer's, other conditions).
Meanwhile, 10 countries have banned Salvia, and a
patchwork quilt of regulations are being developed in various states.
This is an evolving story worth following up on.
Other thoughts worth considering:
Some Web sites
defend the use of Salvia, including erowid.org and this one,
which says, "Salvia Divinorum also enables people to refocus their spirituality
and connectedness to nature by reframing the nature of consciousness and
reality." That same site offers plants
for $10.
Lady Bird's Legacy
Lady
Bird Johnson fought
for highways that would be spared the clutter of billboards and
junkyards. And yet, today, especially
here in Florida, the landscape is decorated with interstate billboards. Some include messages I would rather not have
to explain to my kids. What is the billboard count along your highways? Highway
departments keep an inventory. Who, if
anybody, regulates them, and what is the criteria for approving or disapproving
them?
Resources
The Outdoor Advertising
Association of America has a lot of background on the history of The
Highway Beautification Act of 1965.
Read about the long history of
outdoor advertising.
Mrs. Johnson
also was a promoter of wildflowers and co-founded
the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
See a video,
featuring Mrs. Johnson, by clicking
here.
The Center
says as much
as 30 percent of the world's native flora is at risk of extinction. The Center was intended to help preserve and restore that beauty and the
biological richness of North America.
The Center's Web site allows users
to look up native wildflower species by state. What is the state of native
species where you live? What a great summertime story to explore during a week
when the nation remembers a former First Lady.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Salvia Divinorum isn't going to become the "new" drug of...
