NO NEED TO BAN SALVIA

St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover may well be -- along with all the other
parents she insists share her fears -- "very worried about the
long-term effects" of salvia divinorum, but until that or some other
evil of smoking this herb is established by scientific evidence, the
hallucinogen ought not be banned. There is little science that says it
is dangerous to human health and safety.

Salvia, regulated in Canada as a natural health product, has been
compared to marijuana, except that it produces more often a wild
psychedelic trip rather than a cosy high. Those who smoke, inhale or
chew it can experience an out-of-body sensation or the sense that they
become inanimate objects, such as a table leg. Others collapse into
laughing fits. Infamously, Miley Cyrus was sure that a guy at her
party looked exactly like her boyfriend. Ms. Cyrus' mini-trip wrote
salvia onto the parental watch lists -- who would want their newly
minted 18-year-old to indelibly imprint their own "this is your brain
on salvia" on YouTube?

Ms. Glover and fellow MPs in the Harper government seem to be taking
their drug-watch cues from YouTube and the alarmist anecdotes of
legislators in other countries who have acted rashly to ban salvia, a
member of the mint family used traditionally by Mexico's Mazatec
natives to produce spiritual visions. The hallucinations can be
intense, but are short-lived.

There is no evidence salvia is addictive or toxic. Ms. Glover is
probably right on the money when she says most parents would not want
their children smoking salvia. It should probably be regulated, like
alcohol. Making an herb's sale, cultivation or possession punishable
as a criminal offence, simply because it makes people see weird things
or act funny, is hammering up a solution to a non-problem.