Should Salvia divinorum be illegal?

[Nemo]

If you have not heard of Salvia divinorum, it is a plant native to Oaxaca, Mexico that, when ingested, can induce a hallucinagenic effect. While it is still legal in most countries and in most states in the U.S., many politicians feel that it is a potentially dangerous drug that sould be strictly controlled. I am interested in what the Newgrounds peanut gallery thinks on this issue.

I, personally, do not think it should be illegal. Many politicians compare it to LSD. While I do think LSD is quite a dangerous psychoactive drug, there are very few similarities between the two:
1. Salvinorin A (the drug in Salvia) is all natural and comes from unprocessed leaves and is non-toxic. LSD has to be produced from ergot which is a very harmful fungus that grows on rye.
2. Tests have shown that Salvinorin consumption is neither mentally nor physically addictive, unlike LSD.
3. The effects of Salvinorin last only a few minutes and tests have shown that people feel physically and psychologically better after usage. LSD can last 12 hours and depression is a common effect.

With all of this in mind, I feel that Salvia is much less dangerous than LSD and even alcohol or tobacco. I am strongly against control of this plant and feel that conservative politicians are biased against it and are placing their own opinions over both common sense and scientific evidence.

Please share your opinion. I am interested in what the Newgrounds community thinks.

[major-shake]

Who cares dude it only lasts like 10 minutes and it tastes nasty.

[smallydude]

no, but..

salvia sucks, you only get rolling for like a half an hour tops. not worth the cash at all.

[Nemo]

Well yeah, but I'm here more to emphasize the defective cultural bias of America.

[smallydude]

well it's legal in Massachusetts... they got greenhouses of it all around, and i'm pretty sure even a huge ass farm.

oh btw smoke salvia and skydive- it feels like your fucking flying its outa control

[sniperfromabove]

I agree if the plant can help some people without that many side effects (which all drugs do and all of them for the worse) then i think that yes this drug should not be controlled

[major-shake]

At 7/24/07 01:46 AM, sniperfromabove wrote: I agree if the plant can help some people without that many side effects (which all drugs do and all of them for the worse) then i think that yes this drug should not be controlled

Ok tell me a bad side effect pot has then.

[ChaosFoot]

At 7/24/07 01:37 AM, smallydude wrote: no, but..

salvia sucks, you only get rolling for like a half an hour tops. not worth the cash at all.

Oz. of 5X strength extract for $13.99 on a credit card.

I'd say it's not expensive at all.

[poxpower]

Banning is wrong.

[The-Donkey]

At 7/24/07 01:52 AM, major-shake wrote:

At 7/24/07 01:46 AM, sniperfromabove wrote: I agree if the plant can help some people without that many side effects (which all drugs do and all of them for the worse) then i think that yes this drug should not be controlled

Ok tell me a bad side effect pot has then.

Damages brain cells, reduces sperm count, and others. The ones I listed are ones I remember from some anti-drug organization in school.

[Rabid-Echidna]

At 7/24/07 01:34 AM, Nemo wrote:

2. Tests have shown that Salvinorin consumption is neither mentally nor physically addictive, unlike LSD.

Hahaha, what? LSD isn't physically or physiologically addictive either. The only way to get addicted to most hallucinogens is psychological addiction, which can happen with anything.

3. The effects of Salvinorin last only a few minutes and tests have shown that people feel physically and psychologically better after usage. LSD can last 12 hours and depression is a common effect.

I've never felt any better after using it. Salvia isn't the same as other hallucinogens at all, in the sense that there's nothing terribly positive about it. It's just stunningly weird in every way imaginable, unlike things like mushrooms and LSD which have more positive characteristics.

With all of this in mind, I feel that Salvia is much less dangerous than LSD and even alcohol or tobacco. I am strongly against control of this plant and feel that conservative politicians are biased against it and are placing their own opinions over both common sense and scientific evidence.

Just like every drug ever. I have no doubt that they'll eventually make it illegal, despite that there's no real reason to do so. I can't imagine anyone doing it enough that it would become a problem. It's more the sort of thing you do once, ask yourself "What the fuck was that," then maybe go back to it again after a few months or so just because the experience happens to be interesting.

[MichaelHurst]

who cares...dont do drugs, period

[smallydude]

At 7/24/07 01:53 AM, ChaosFoot wrote:

At 7/24/07 01:37 AM, smallydude wrote: no, but..

salvia sucks, you only get rolling for like a half an hour tops. not worth the cash at all.

Oz. of 5X strength extract for $13.99 on a credit card.

I'd say it's not expensive at all.

YAH AND YOUR HIGH AS A KITE FOR-GET THIS KIDS!!!!!!!!!!! 12 MINUTES!!!

:/

[Musk]

Nah, you should just let her in and woo her with your charm....
...
..
.

[major-shake]

Ok i will give you those. But did they also tell you that you would have to smoke about 100 dollars worth of weed a day to get the start of those results in five years or that you would have to smoke a quarter daily for about 20 years. Weed just isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

[major-shake]

At 7/24/07 02:02 AM, Musk wrote: Nah, you should just let her in and woo her with your charm....

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.

[wallpaperman]

salvias legal over here in good ol' england.

that shit fucks u up for about 5 minutes and costs a fortune... tbh i couldnt give 2 shits if it was legal or not anyway, weed aint legal we all still smoke that

*high five*

[mariomusicmaker1]

This is my 1st time hearing about it and now i want to try it!

[Mr-Pink]

I heard about this stuff on the news. They were trying to scare adults and parents by saying there's a legal drug reaking havoc on the youth. They said sally d made one kid commit suicide. Haha it was almost like watching some old movie about weed that they used to play in schools durring the 50s.

But yea, im sure it's well on its way to being ilegal.

[CoryLehan]

At 7/24/07 02:06 AM, major-shake wrote: Weed just isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Although you are right, I still wouldn't say it isn't bad. There should be an age limit though, as frequently high teenagers do much worse in school ( I know this personally).

It should be sort of like alcohol. If someone becomes an alcoholic, they get help. If someone becomes a pothead, they'll get help. Otherwise, it's not much of a problem.

[Rabid-Echidna]

At 7/24/07 02:14 AM, mariomusicmaker1 wrote:

This is my 1st time hearing about it and now i want to try it!

This happened with low-end extract Salvia. Have fun.

[Popeofdope]

As me being probably the only person here who has done a lot of acid, and salvia, I can tell you that your original statement isn't exactly correct.
Salvia is very unlike acid, with effects much much, stronger and intense then lsd.
I don't feel like explaining what else isn't true. But I still think it should all be legal

[66Cashish]

salvias awesome. No way they should ban it. Its the only legal shit we can get our hands on thats so closely related to weed. YAY.

[cellardoor6]

No.

It's basically harmless. There has been ZERO proof that it is harmful physically or mentally. People are just afraid of it because they are fucking morons. Some woman has been campaigning to ban it because 3 weeks after her son smoked Salvia, he committed suicide. How fucking stupid is that? Ban the legal use of Salvia nationwide because some kid who probably would have killed himself anyway happened to smoke Salvia. Never mind the fact that millions of people have smoked it with absolutely ZERO suicidal thoughts and absolutely ZERO long-term negative effect.

At 7/24/07 01:44 AM, smallydude wrote:

oh btw smoke salvia and skydive- it feels like your fucking flying its outa control

Salvia is a dissociative, your entire sense of reality gets warped, you wouldn't be able to pull the chord, and even then, you wouldn't even be aware you're falling from the sky at the height of the effect.

[Crashman]

At 7/24/07 01:36 AM, major-shake wrote: Who cares dude it only lasts like 10 minutes and it tastes nasty.

It fucking blows, the drug is shit. Waste of time and money

[cellardoor6]

At 7/24/07 02:00 AM, NG-Unit wrote: who cares...dont do drugs, period

Haha okay, stop taking tylenol, never take a perscription drug of any kind, and when you get in a car crash and your body is mamed, make sure to refuse administration of morphine or barbiturates to ease your pain.

The fact is, Salvia is anatural, harmless plant, and it's active chemical has not been shown to be dangerous. It has been proven have no harmful physical/mental or even societal problems that will come from it. People can smoke the stuff and be baseline sober within 10 minutes. So basically theres no reason NOT to do it (unless you simply don't want to), and no reason to tell others not to do it.

If you really want to be against "drugs" then you should be against Viagra. How natural is it that a 90 year old man gets boner by taking a human-engineered, manufactured chemical?

How is such a thing more natural and more acceptiable than someone using a harmless plant that grows in the fucking dirt?

[Jesse-Ray]

No Aussie has ever heard of it yet apparantly its completely legal to smoke, sell and grow here. It sounds safe enough, the only reason any drug should be illegal is the public effect, like if someone takes it in public are tehy gonna randomly go violent and be dangerous to themselves, if not then let it go any harmful side affects are in their hands.

[wallpaperman]

At 7/24/07 03:35 AM, Jesse-Ray wrote: No Aussie has ever heard of it yet apparantly its completely legal to smoke, sell and grow here. It sounds safe enough, the only reason any drug should be illegal is the public effect, like if someone takes it in public are tehy gonna randomly go violent and be dangerous to themselves, if not then let it go any harmful side affects are in their hands.

in other words, alcohol should be illegal and pretty much everything else should be legal?

[major-shake]

At 7/24/07 02:55 AM, 66Cashish wrote: salvias awesome. No way they should ban it. Its the only legal shit we can get our hands on thats so closely related to weed. YAY.

And this my friend is why we have people trying to ban drugs. 14 year old kids who think that "hey it is legal so I will do it", these are the kids that have no clue what the term moderation means. I mean I smoke some ganje every now and then. But that is just it, every now and then. If you smoke it all the time you will become a burnout. These people don't seem to realize the ramifications of smoking too much pot. I think that if you do it every now and then you are fine, but if you are psychologically addicted to it you should hang up your bong. And take a little break. There is usually no need to wake and bake.

You see I don't think that we should be teaching kids the dangers of pot, but telling them the truth, telling them how it can help in medical cases. How it can be safer than drinking, we should warn them about it instead of just telling them not to do it and lying to them. We need more awareness of it, than we need scare tactics against it. Now I am not saying legalize all drugs, because we all know all of the effects of crystal meth, acid, cocain, crack, and ecstacy are usually bad and have basically no medical purposes. But marijuana actually does, besides the facts that it realeaves preasure on the eyes which helps glaucoma patients, it relaxes muscles which means that when women are on their period they are not quite so bitchy from the cramps, it helps with headaches and sinus infections, and it can help people like chemo patients and anorexia sufferers to start eating again.

If they legalized weed there would probably been an increase in use for about two to three years, and then kids would probably stop doing it. You know why, because a lot of people that I know only do it because they think they are cool to do something to break the law. Well if the law is not there, it won't be cool anymore.

[/rant]

[cellardoor6]

At 7/24/07 03:19 AM, Crashman wrote:

At 7/24/07 01:36 AM, major-shake wrote: Who cares dude it only lasts like 10 minutes and it tastes nasty.

It fucking blows, the drug is shit. Waste of time and money

Of course... that comes from someone who has probably never used, let alone seen it in real life.

I bought 3 grams of 10x Salvia for $50 and it lasted me and my friends about 5 different times, about 15 or more separate doses. I thought it was fantastic. The most amazing, unique, foreign experience I've had, stronger than acid, stronger than shrooms. I can't even describe in words what it's like. The "spiritual" experience I had, if you will, was so amazing that to this day I still can't even process and articulate the enormous amount of information I got, the different perceptions, places I went, "instructions" I got while under a trance. This was achieved by smoking a cheap, legal, harmless drug.

And 20 minutes later I was making macaroni and cheese, feeling completely sober.

I'm not usually pro-drugs, I'm actually entirely sober from anything and have been for almost a year, but Salvia is basically a wonder drug and people tend to apply some negative cannotation just because society teaches that "drugs" are bad.