LET THE BUYER BEWARE

I rarely use this column to explain my own writing, but I'm feeling a
little creeped out by this week's cover story, and I think some of the
themes are subtle for newsprint.

First, I consider myself a sophisticated member of our society. I had
a well misspent youth, and I went down a lot of dark alleys. So my
arrogance is, since I've seen it all, I know a lot, and if my friends
or my child starts going down a dangerous path, I'd like to think I'd
recognize it. This story convinced me that is not true. I didn't even
know the words. Salvia? Bath salts? Spice? I could have been sitting
with a group of teenagers, and if they were discussing Pep or Genie or
Halo or K2, I'd have no idea what they were talking about. I'm not a
big "we must save the children by limiting adults' fun" type, but I
should at least recognize the words. And so should those other parents
who grew up in the '70s and '80s.

The second thing that may be lost is that we live in a drug-fueled
society. I have no more reason to believe that sugar-free Rockstar or
Centrum Silver are safe than I have reason to believe that bath salts
will hurt me. There is no government agency to check the potency or
claims "supplement" manufacturers make. There's no way anyone can say
any of these products are adequately regulated. And since these drugs
are mostly used off-label, they don't even have to meet minimum safety
standards. It wouldn't matter if they were regulated. The government
frequently OKs drugs that have death as a possible side effect.

I hate the hypocrisy that says store owners must pretend they don't
know what these products are really used for and so can't give advice.
I spoke to two who had moral issues with salvia and yet sell it
because the demand is unrelenting. I hate the hypocrisy that says
tobacco and alcohol are OK, but marijuana-over which you can have
absolute ingredient control by growing it yourself-is not.