LAWMAKERS MANAGE TO OUTLAW LICKING AN OBSCURE PLANT

Those creatively efficient politicians down in the Illinois
Legislature might be stumped on really important issues like funding
the CTA or betting our future on casinos. But they are clear about
saving us from ourselves -- even if we don't need it. Case in point:
the salvia ban.

Lawmakers banned the sale and possession of Salvia divinorum, a
virtually unknown sage plant that causes hallucinations. People who
buy it in tobacco and "head" shops or online experience a 5- to
10-minute high, followed by a 20-minute comedown. Come New Year's
Day, anyone who smokes, licks, chews or possesses salvia will go
directly to jail -- for no less than four years. The penalty is the
same as shooting heroin or snorting cocaine.

"I've seen the argument to legalize marijuana. It is a gateway drug,
like salvia could be a gateway drug," said state Rep. Dennis
Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), a former narcotics prosecutor who sponsored
the bill. Reboletti admitted he wanted to move forward on banning the
plant "rather than waiting for someone to be killed because of it."

Legislators must have been on something to zero in on this obscure
organic substance, sometimes called "magic mint" or "Sally D" by
salvia afficionados. The last time we checked, Illinois was not
besieged by a salvia epidemic. We don't see the urgency in
criminalizing a substance with no clear track record of causing
people to act in a dangerous manner or hurt other people.

We don't condone drug use. However, considering how overcrowded our
prisons are with dangerous criminals, trolling around for more
nonviolent drug offenders to punish is counterintuitive. Even the
U.S. Sentencing Commission took steps this month to start closing the
disparity between sentences for crack and cocaine. It also voted to
apply the new guidelines retroactively.

Regulating use of, rather than banning salvia, would have been a more
sober approach.