Salvia Divinorum: Ohio House, Senate Pass Ban Bill, Governor Expected to Sign
Both the Ohio House and Senate voted this week for a bill, HB 215, which will, among other things, make salvia divinorum and its active ingredient, Salvinorin A, a Schedule I controlled substance with penalties the same as those for heroin, cocaine, or psychedelics. Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to sign the bill into law shortly.
salvia leaves (photo courtesy Erowid.org)
If Strickland signs the bill as expected, Ohio will be the sixth state to ban salvia outright, treating it as a proscribed substance. A handful of others, most notably California, have moved to restrict its sales, especially to minors.
While the Masatec Indians of Mexico have used the plant for religious purposes for centuries, it is only within the past few years that its psychedelic properties have become widely known among inner explorers and youthful experimenters in the US and elsewhere. Typically, some of those youthful experimenters post their tripped-out experiences on YouTube, where some legislator or drug cop or self-appointed watchdog eventually runs across them and demands that the plant be banned. Legislatures reflexively go along, with the ban bills typically passing with no organized opposition and by large majorities, as in this week's 90-4 Ohio House vote.
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redditResearch Opportunities for Social Scientists
Comment posted by Giordano on Sat, 12/27/2008 - 2:55pmWhat’s happening with salvia in states such as Ohio is a great opportunity for someone with research credentials who wants to study mass hysteria.
Hysteria is certainly what describes the knee-jerk reaction some people have to anything that gets a person high, whether it’s harmful or beneficial. And though salvia is neither harmful nor beneficial, it’s possession or sale is being treated as a felony in some states, but not others.
What stands out is that the fear generating the hysteria is not based on public health concerns. Rather, it depends on a sub-primal fear of altered states of consciousness. High prohibition—not drug prohibition. Lawmakers can’t prohibit a state of mind, since all states of mind are seen as being involuntary; so they prohibit a material object instead, a rationale that is equally bizarre and primitive.
Giordano
box?
Comment posted by mlang52 on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 11:16amI wonder will it still be illegal to keep the box I bought my last legal salvia in? I bought in OH! I would not and could not use it every day! It was just not good at making me relaxed! It was a wild ride, though! But everybody needs to always have a sitter!