Salvia Divinorum legal issues and insights
. Simple answer for the Salvia user: keep Salvia Divinorum legal, easy answer for the authorities: Ban it! but... who's right? Should anyone be in charge of taking care of the human being... as a whole or as a society? and if so, who is capable of doing that and to what extent should we live under these imposed rules supposedly made for our own protection?
Entheogen law is complicated in todays world: nature is mans oldest companion and provider and it is enough to say that without nature any form of life on this planet would be unimaginable. Food, beauty, clean air, health, shelter and knowledge are some of the main things that wildlife (plants in this case) provide to our industrialized society, being knowledge and health what concerns us. It is a fact that some plants can harm people when used in incorrect ways: a rotten fruit can cause sickness, eating poisonous mushrooms can kill, Datura, Brugmansia and Belladona can cause madness or even death when ingested in enough quantities and marijuana can make a normal person non-functional for everyday activities like driving for several hours, just to name a few. But what are the guidelines that authorities should follow when deciding what should be available to the population and what shouldn't? From the examples above it is also known that a rotten fruit can make a wonderful beverage, Datura, Brugmansia and Belladona have amazing medical uses, same as marijuana... The difference relies on the purpose and the quantity/frequency. As for Salvia Divinorum (as well as any other entheogen), its purpose is to provide insight, health, a feeling of well-being, greatness, or maybe its even just a desire to experience life in a different level, escape from everyday life and entertain yourself at your own expense... Is that so wrong it should be prohibited? Why don't authorities want Salvia Divinorum legal? The selling of a substance, plant or any object should be prohibited when (and only when) this substance or object causes DAMAGE to the person, other people or the environment in any way. Now, when I say damage I refer to any consequence that affects the individuals psychical and mental health in a negative way, including the risk of having that damage become permanent or even a cause of death. According to this, something like heroine, for example, should be considered very damaging, as it surely causes negative consequences, body and mind degradation and a terrible addiction... Death is a reasonable consequence of continuous heroin use. Furthermore, alcohol can be considered damaging too, as its abuse causes well-known health problems... Again, the difference between use or abuse relies on the dose. But alcohol is a gold-mine to the gold diggers of the world: its relatively easy and low-cost production and its branding and commercial potential are hard to ignore (The United States had an interesting experience relating to this during the prohibition era. Tobacco proved also worthy, so as long as money flows in and a good marketing campaign is shown on the media, health-threatening products can freely circulate.  Now let's talk about the "legal high" that concerns us: Salvia Divinorum legal status and facts. - Salvia Divinorum doesn't cause addiction: in fact, the more it is used, the less the person feels like using it frequently. - The Salvia trip can be an intense and frightening one (when used in large doses by inexperienced people), but not more frightening or hurting than a heavy drinking night with its corresponding hangover. - The intensity of the trip will be gone before 10 minutes have gone by, and worst case scenario the user will be left with an unpleasant memory (no risk of psychical or mental harm) - There is not known damage attributed to the Salvia Divinorum use to this day. It hasn't even been mentioned in any cancer reports (a typical side-effect of continuously smoking substances.) Salvia Divinorum smoke is considered to have considerably less harmful toxins than cigarettes, for example. - Salvia Divinorum doesn't cause depression, quite the contrary, most reports mention an after-feeling of happiness, glow and satisfaction, sometimes lasting for a couple of days. As for the Salvia Divinorum legal fuss going on these days, nonetheless the fact that its use has been widely known only on recent times and long-term consequences are hard to measure, Salvia has been sold online since the early 90's, many important entheogen e-shops started mailing considerable quantities of Salvia all over the United States, Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, Central and South America. Meanwhile, in some Mexican states Salvias use and knowledge has been common for many years. I don't think that anyone can deny that Salvia is an interesting plant, and Salvia users can be counted in millions nowadays, so the probability that a few hundreds of people (maybe thousands) have been using Salvia continuously since the early 90's is pretty high. Nowadays we can find information about whatever imaginable in a fraction of a second, so it's really easy to find thousands of documented cases of alcohol- or drug-motivated crimes, fights, deaths and illnesses... NONE of which relates to Salvia Divinorum use. Actually, there is one exception: a widely spread story in the U.S. mentions a teenager's suicide "influenced by the use of Salvia": the parents found out he had bought a Salvia extract online and attributed his depression to Salvia use. I think that in a horrible and delicate situation such as a child's suicide, the statements made by the unfortunate parents (for whom the word *DRUG* is just a connection of many negative things, and there's no such thing as different types of drugs) may not be objective enough; there are a thousand possible suicide causes that the parents may or may not know about of which Salvia is one of the less probable, again, Not one case of depression, dependence, addiction, crime, car accident, etc. has been reported due to Salvia Divinorum use.
In spite of this, Salvia Divinorum isn't for everyone, and cannot be used blindly or irresponsibly. As with any new experience, there should be some precautions if Salvia is to be used, and the Salvia providers are doing a great job by providing the necessary information to maintain Salvia Divinorum use a safe, spiritual, beautiful experience. So, Salvia Divinorum legal or illegal? As a conclusion, I think our impulsive nature make it necessary that authorities be aware of certain plants, substances, products or whatever for our own protection, but it is also a great responsibility to decide what few things shouldn't be allowed for everyone... And Salvia Divinorum is not one of those things As a global society concerned about our races safety, growth and evolution we should always beware of what can harm us, but come on! keeping Salvia Divinorum legal is just not something that the most powerful minds on the planet should be thinking about.
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