I have recently read the notice given by the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH regarding the potential criminalization of Salvia divinorum.
As a user of this plant and other legal entheogens, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to put my foot down.
The ceremonies and beliefs surrounding mind altering psychedelics are ancient, and global. They are an integral part of our existence because it has the potential to show you the very architecture of your consciousness and offers a valuable alternate perspective on your life's decisions. For example, did you know that studies done on Salvia divinorum show that it has accepted medical uses in fighting depression and halting cocaine addictions? The studies also show that it is non addictive, and has a very high overdose limit that would not easily be reached by anyone other than someone intentionally imbibing pounds of plant matter in some deranged attempt at suicide.
The fools you hear about and see on the internet are bred from a lineage of misunderstanding and condescending assumptions about mind altering substances. The general populace is ignorant of the rich spiritual history and potential in these plants because your department insists on vilifying altered states of consciousness based on what you heard from a third party. This vilification resulted in an intolerance for the scientific studies that could unlock some vital information about the links between our subconscious and conscious decisions as well as how the pharmacodynamics of the substance really function. These plants are intriguing and have a beautiful religious history, and deserve much more respect than how you are treating them. It is my opinion that these laws should be made by someone with a large knowledge base on the substances and preferably, someone who has done them, preferably many times!
Because Salvia divinorum belongs to the psychedelic family of substances, allow me to address them.
Before humans even evolved, and when the apes descended from the treetops to forage for underground tubers and fungi, they have been exposed to mind altering substances. Psilocybe mushrooms, common throughout the world were eaten by our bipedal ancestors such as H. habilis and H. erectus. Terrence Mckenna once theorized that these experiences and the synesthesia that came from them was a building block for the development of advanced language. The meso-americans used psychedelic mushrooms as a religious sacrament as well as the LSA containing seeds ololiuqui and titlitzin. They also quidded Salvia divinorum. Bolivians eat Achuma (Trichocereus bridgesii), native americans ate peyote, the southern americans used yopo and ayahuasca, the africans used silene capensis and Tabernanthe iboga. What gives you the right to say that your european, judeo-christian religious beliefs are any more legitimate than any of these religions? Especially considering it is the most conservative when it comes to contacting spiritual planes and expanding your mind as evidenced by the salem witch trials. If people abuse these substances, it is because they are withheld from them, they are intrigued by them because for some unknown reason our society is insistent on popularizing being dangerous and getting "fucked up". If they understood how these substances function, and how to glean the most from their visions and how their mindset and the setting affects their experience they would not consider these substances as another means to intoxication. It is your responsibility to give people the whole amount of information regarding substances instead of your one sided propaganda. It is time for moderation instead of excess, respect instead of abuse, and education rather than criminalization.
The prosecution of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens every year is both hypocritical and an affront to individual, civil and human rights.
(Raymond Kendall, Secretary General of Interpol).
Instead of treating drug addiction as an illness, instead of giving these people help, we treat it as a crime, and the people as criminals.
The gargantuan cost of the drug war to taxpayers is disgusting. This cultural war is leaching from the potential for us to be using that money for solving world problems. We could be investing in thorium reactors, in alternative energy and self sufficiency. We can invest in local vertical farms to increase productivity and reduce importation. We could be funding research that could cure diseases. I'll be frank, the drug war is a sham, and a waste of money, resources and time. It didn't work for alcohol, and it won't work for anything else. You cannot ever hope to accomplish the entire eradication of the drug culture. It is hard wired in our brains that it is pleasurable and rewarding to partake in these substances. Salvia divinorum, psilocybe mushrooms, marijuana, they co-evolved on this planet with us and exterminating them because of a cultural bias is not only mind bogglingly morally wrong, it is also futile. We can use them as medicine, using Salvia to understand more about the opiate receptors and cocaine addiction, we can use psilocybe mushrooms for mycoremediation, and well Cannabis can make just about anything. Instead of taking money from us, use the legalization of these substances to get us out of debt and make our country more peaceful and less like a goddamn police state.
It is our religious right to be allowed to use these substances in a peaceful, non violent manner. It is your duty, being that the government is for the people and not vice versa, to allow the populace as much freedom as possible while maintaining a safe peaceful environment for living and learning. There is always charges for disturbing the peace, violence, and theft but if a person does not do anything wrong other than eat a plant then there is absolutely no reason to persecute them and waste their one chance at life.
Respectfully,
(my name, address)
PS: Really, cannabis farms produce 4x as much paper per acre as trees, and only take 6 months to grow, their seed is a very rich source of nutrients, the fabric is uv resistant, mildew resistant, and get softer with age. We can stop deforestation using hemp products and giving incentives for sustainable housing (removing the cookie cutter house by laws) and we can stop the huge amount of water consumption and pesticide/fertilizer needs for growing cotton and the by products of synthetic fabrics. Hemp uses 1/6th the amount of water as cotton, doesn't need pesticides and improves the soil for the next crop. It's time our country thought about production instead of consumption. gaining wealth rather than gaining debt
-------------------- He believed that educated people could make up their own minds. His motto, as head of one of the first and most important review panels, was great encouragement: "We're not here to play God." -DMT: The Spirit Molecule
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