DON'T CRIMINALIZE SALVIA

(Re: "A new drug hiding in plain sight: cops" in the May 16 edition of the
Examiner)

What better way to get kids interested in a drug than hyping it in the
media.

"Hopefully, one day our government is going to criminalize it," said
Det.-Const Jay Dorion of Barrie city police. "It's obviously a
dangerous substance if people are OD'ing on it."

Has anyone overdosed yet? Has there even been a single report of an
overdose? Cops say salvia is 'dangerous', but they say marijuana is
'dangerous', even though all science and history say otherwise. Why
believe a single word that any cop says about drugs?

Salvia divinorum is non-toxic to the body and brain, but can have
devastating psychological effects, and, while you are tripping, you
need to have a babysitter handy for your body because you could fall
down and get hurt. Other than that, it isn't fun enough for people to
use more than a few times.

There is a misconception in our society that suggests that only
drug-abstinence is to be encouraged and admired. Telling kids to
'never' use certain drugs is like telling them to 'never' see a
certain genre of movie, 'never' go to an amusement park or exotic
country, or 'never' do anything at all that may be both risky and fun.

It teaches them to be afraid of new things, instead of curious, and as
history has shown, fortune favours the adventurous. Sensible,
moderate, well-informed drug use is no more harmful, dangerous, or
immoral than any one of dozens of other activities humans participate
in every day.

So if you think 'drugs' have nothing good to offer society, then throw
away every music CD you own.

Criminalizing salvia will have the same results as criminalizing
marijuana: it will become more potent, more contaminated, more widely
available to children, far more popular and widely used, and subsidize
organized criminals instead of the head shops that sell it now.

So I have no doubt that the government will criminalize it very
soon.

Russell Barth Federally licensed medical marijuana user Nepean,
Ontario