Legislators Still Driving Drug Agenda Based on YouTube

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New York Times has a front page story today on salvia, the legal (in most states) hallucinogenic herb that is the source of all those crazy YouTube videos. (We tried it a few months ago and found it more "odd and discomforting" than fun, but hey, to each his own.) Lost in the media kerfuffle that erupted after legislators finally started watching all the YouTube videos, the Times reports, is the fact that Salvia may actually have some beneficial medicinal uses; one doctor says the stuff might one day be used to "treat brain disorders including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, maybe even H.I.V." The Times also notes that few deaths that have been attributed to salvia are "speculative."

Still, so long as people keep posting videos like the ones above (this one is actually a parody, though it was presented as real at a legislative meeting in Texas), you can safely bet the stuff will go the way of regular old marijuana sometime in the next year.