SALVIA PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Subject: Re: Controversial legal hallucinogen 'safe:'

I agree with Porter Creek Secondary drug awareness co-ordinator Doug
Green that anything that causes people to hallucinate should be
controlled, including solvents. Health Canada should certainly enforce
quality control, labeling and age restrictions.

However, adding the hallucinogenic herb Salvia divonorum to the
so-called Controlled Drugs and Substances Act would make matters much
worse.

As counterintuitive as it seems, criminal prohibition is at the
bottom, not the top, of the regulatory scale. We have more control
over cat food than we do over cannabis and cocaine.

Although Green is correct in noting underaged drinking remains a
problem, most Canadian teenagers report that cannabis is easier to
obtain than alcohol and tobacco, and more report having tried cannabis
than tobacco.

Prohibition merely inflates the "street value" of drugs and substances
and abdicates control over them to criminals who are not as concerned
about the age, health and awareness of their clients as legally
regulated markets, such as the Adult Warehouse.

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria, BC