Okay, I admit it. At the ripe old age of 55, overcome by curiosity, I decided to try salvia. Didn't care much for it; fortunately, the high only lasted about 15 minutes. Of course, we all know the REASON for creating more crimes and more criminals -- the REASON our lawmakers dream up excuses to lock even more of us up is -- simply because they can. But what excuse, I wondered, would they use for banning such an innocuous substance? Well, here we have it: According to US News and World Report, salvia is a "powerful hallucinogen", "as powerful as LSD." (I don't know where these folks get their acid, but I think they got burned.) Oh, and it's a gateway drug -- let's see, 40 years of depicting marijuana as a gateway drug didn't make it true, so they've finally come up with a new one? Florida state representative Mary Bradenburg blames YOU TUBE -- "I guess if you're foolish," says Ms. Bradenburg, "you might think the videos of people getting high and doing stupid things is cool." I don't know, I've always thought getting high and doing stupid things was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that's why people do it. I guess if you were an American lawmaker, you'd think it was cool to do (and say) stupid things WITHOUT getting high.