The arguments against California Bill AB259.

An open letter to legislators across America considering a ban on Salvia Divinorum.

This text is not copyrighted and may freely be shared or printed in whole or part.

It has come to my attention that there have been a lot of ‘scare tactic’ stories on TV, and radio, and in the newspaper, about the evils and dangers of our kids smoking a hallucinogenic herb. I have seen articles stating that this is the most dangerous drug to come along since marijuana, and those claiming it is addictive. When did our legislators start believing everything they see on television? Television isn’t in it for the truth, television is in it for big ratings.

“Salvia Madness” looks like a tired rerun of “Reefer Madness” to me, and media sensationalism is a poor excuse for making felons out of tens of thousands of Californians. I have seen mostly lies and disinformation being publicly spread about this misunderstood plant, and it’s time for the truth to be told about it.

I began researching this interesting and lovely plant over three years ago, and in three years I have come to be considered one of California’s leading researchers into the botany of this unique plant. The truth is, when used by responsible adults in the privacy of their own homes, there is absolutely no harm in this plant.

In fact, this plant shows great potential for producing many NEW medicines, including: painkillers, new treatments for depression, diarrhea, mood disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and a possible treatment for cocaine addiction. This plant is the world’s most powerful, natural, and safest aphrodisiac. This plant is also very ornamental, making a wonderful privacy hedge, and is grown by thousands of Californians across the state as a landscaping plant. It is also used by certain spiritual explorers in the state of California as a religious sacrament.

There are many valid arguments against making Salvia Divinorum a Schedule I substance in California:

• It is used as LANDSCAPING by many Californians. If this bill becomes law it will make a lot of California gardeners tear up their landscaping, or become felons. Even the state of Tennessee, in their Public Chapter Number 700, provided that “It would not be a criminal offense to possess, plant, cultivate, grow, or harvest Salvia divinorum for aesthetic, landscaping, or decorative purposes. Also, this amendment does not apply to any dosage that is legally obtainable from a retail establishment without a prescription when it is recognized by the FDA as a homeopathic drug.” (1) Likewise, the state of Georgia does not prohibit gardeners’ from landscaping with this plant.

• This plant has great potential therapeutic value. (2),(3) Recent research has indicated compounds in this plant may be the key to understanding and finally breaking the cycle of cocaine addiction. (4) To attempt to ban the plant, in the name of the war on drugs, that could possibly be the means to ending the need for some of the war on drugs in the first place, would be the height of well meaning ignorance. If you ban further research with these plants, that might be key research in determining how to block the molecular pathways that cause cocaine addiction, you have only made the world a worse place to live in, and HINDERED yourselves in the war on drugs.

• This Plant is Non-Addictive. No one has ever died of an overdose. It is a natural healing sacrament with a long history of being used by spiritual seekers in religious settings. (5) There should not be a law banning adults from choosing to use this plant as a religious sacrament. Just because you do not know anyone who goes to O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (UDV) does not mean it is not a church. "The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was adopted by Congress to ensure that the government does not interfere with religious practices absent a compelling justification," (6)

• There is a team of Doctors at the University of Iowa, under Dr. Thomas Prisinzano, with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), that are now studying salvinorin A and attempting to develop derivatives that could be useful for treating methamphetamine and cocaine dependence. (13)

• The American Civil Liberties Union, with their Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, has published a PDF Pamphlet explaining why Salvia Divinorum is not suitable for scheduling. (7) http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/pdf/salvia_dea.pdf

• The state of California does not have the millions of extra enforcement dollars to throw away by making citizens into criminals. [But that’s OK, the provisions of the proposed law state that enforcement money must come from local community budgets: meaning that you will have to take money and manpower away from enforcing violent crimes in YOUR Community. The state says you must enforce these new laws but will not give you the money to enforce them. YOU California citizens must figure out what local services will be cut in order to come up with the mandated funding to enforce this unreasonable law.] (8)

• The state of California does not have the thousands of extra jail cells to put all these proposed new felons in. The state of California currently has so many prisoners in overcrowded jails that they have been ordered to ship them to other states to relieve overcrowding. (9)

• It is used by Consenting adults as an Aphrodisiac. At the LOWEST of sub-visionary doses: not only does it enhance skin’s sensitivity, it “makes you want to go exploring”. (10),(11)

I now will quote from Sage Wisdom: the most respected and complete web site involved in research & acting as a clearinghouse for FACTS on this novel plant – http://www.sagewisdom.org/legalstatus.html

“Salvia divinorum is a valuable medicinal herb that is rarely abused. The profoundly introspective nature of its effects make it unsuitable for recreational use. It is not habit-forming, not addictive, and does not present a significant risk to public health or safety. Because it is a powerful consciousness-altering herb, some regulation of sales is sensible and appropriate, but criminalizing possession certainly is not. It is appropriate to prohibit delivery to minors. It is also appropriate to prohibit reckless use, such as driving a vehicle while inebriated. It is reasonable to require that vendors provide detailed safety information and guidelines for responsible use. There are many already-existing non-drug-specific laws that can be enforced against reckless salvia users (e.g., laws that prohibit public endangerment, public intoxication, reckless driving, etc.). Legislation should only penalize irresponsible use, not all use. Legislation that imposes punishment for possession of Salvia divinorum is neither useful nor humane. A sensible approach would be to regulate Salvia divinorum in a similar manner as alcohol and tobacco. Another sensible option would be to regulate it as a prescription medication. Certainly, physicians and psychiatrists should be able to prescribe salvia to patients who might benefit from it. It should also remain available for use in psychotherapy.” (Daniel Siebert)

As an example of “A sensible approach” look to the State of Maine. “(An Amended) bill was approved in an 8 to 4 committee vote by lawmakers on the Criminal Justice Committee. The amended bill would regulate salvia in the same way tobacco products are regulated in Maine. Adults 18 and over could legally purchase and use the material. Selling or providing Salvia divinorum or salvinorin A to anyone under the age of 18 would be a criminal offense. Possession by a minor would be a civil violation, punishable by a fine, community service, or both.”.

Maine will Regulate it under the Existing state tobacco regulatory structure. Maine will not make felons of ordinary consenting adults using an aphrodisiac in the privacy of their own homes. Maine will not be spending hundreds of millions of dollars in enforcing laws against people that are harming no one. Maine will not require an extra 1,000 jail cells for all the instant felons they will not make. Maine will not declare common gardeners felons.

MAINE has addressed the REAL problem underlying the media furor: Somehow minors are getting hold of these ‘Adults ONLY’ materials. Make whomever is selling this to our children the felons, and do not needlessly interfere with the private lives or spiritual pursuits of ordinary people.

Several committee members at Maine’s "LD66" work session questioned the need to criminalize a drug that hasn’t caused much of a stir in Maine and apparently has little or no addictive potential. (12)

I recommend, as a scientist concerned for the public good, and ALSO as an active voter concerned about the erosion of personal liberties in America, that you NOT make felons out of LOTS of innocent Californians BECAUSE of some scare stories you saw on TV. TV offers ‘Spin’ with NO facts to back up a single statement: I will now cite some of the Legal & Scientific Research papers used by me in compiling this brief report.

(1) Gardeners should not be made felons! Text of Tennessee Public Chapter Number 700. http://tennessee.gov/sos/acts/104/pub/pc0700.pdf

(2) Antidepressant Effects of the Herb Salvia divinorum: a Case Report.

by Karl R. Hanes, PhD. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (2001). http://www.sagewisdom.org/jclinpsych.html Salvia Shows potential in fighting depression!

(3) Salvia has Painkilling Potential/ help for Mood Disorders

Salvia divinorum: Clinical and Research Potential.

by Hanes KR. MAPS Bulletin 13(1): 18–20 (2003). This paper is in PDF format. http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v13n1/13118han.pdf

(4) Salvia could help end dependency on Cocaine!

Salvinorin A: From Natural Product to Human Therapeutics.

by Vortherms TA and Roth BL. Molecular Interventions. Vol.6 No.5 (2006). This review article is in PDF format. http://www.sagewisdom.org/vorthermsandroth.pdf

“These observations have led, in part, to the hypothesis that modulation of KOR signaling

pathways will be useful for the treatment of depressive behaviors. There is also significant evidence to support the involvement of KOR signaling pathways in the dependence of cocaine.

[for review, see Hasebe, K., Kawai, K., Suzuki, T., Kawamura, K., Tanaka, T., Narita, M., and Nagase, H.

Possible pharmacotherapy of the opioid kappa receptor agonist for drug dependence.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1025, 404–413 (2004). http://www.nyas.org/annals/detail.asp?annalID=764 ].”

(5) This plant has known Spiritual Uses: http://www.sagewisdom.org/shepherdess.html This Plant has a LONG History as a Medicinal & Healing Plant!

(6) Supreme Court Holds up religious Plant use by O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (UDV): http://www.aclu.org/scotus/2005/21252prs20051101.html “The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was adopted by Congress to ensure that the government does not interfere with religious practices absent a compelling justification,”

(7) The American Civil Liberties Union, with their Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, has published a PDF Pamphlet explaining why Salvia Divinorum is not suitable for scheduling. http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/pdf/salvia_dea.pdf

(8) There is no money provided for enforcement of this law: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0251-0300/ab_259_bill_20070205_introduced.pdf Your local community must Pay out of it’s already limited law enforcement budget!

“The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason”

(9) There is no room in California prisons! http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/text/press-release/5587/ “Currently in California, there are 171,600 inmates in the prison system which was designed for 100,000 prisoners. A court-imposed prison cap on the state prison system would prevent any new inmates from being transferred from county jails.”

(10) Salvia as Aphrodisiac: http://www.sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html (“S” In the SALVIA Scale).

(11) Salvia as an Aphrodisiac “Makes you want to go Exploring”: http://www.sagewisdom.org/pharmakopoeia.html {In the “Effects (field report: a man, inventor and painter)” section}

(12) Bangor Maine News: Just laws for a free society

(13) Salvia may provide a cure for addictions! http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=559.0

You can READ more FACTS about the possible therapeutic uses of Salvia Divinorum, if you WANT to, here: http://sagewisdom.org/ .

Regards, Carl McCall – Salvia Researcher.

http://members.cox.net/sageseeds/

“On January 15th, 2008, the California State Committee on Public Safety will have

a hearing on Assembly Bill 259. If enacted, this bill would make Salvia

divinorum a Schedule I substance in California (a Felony). Now is the time to voice

your opposition, especially if you reside in California. I urge you to

write, phone, or email each of the seven committee members” (Daniel Siebert)

http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm enter AB259 - then click on Comments.

California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety

State Capitol Address: P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0000

Jose Solorio, Chair Phone: (916) 319-2069 Greg Aghazarian, Vice Chair Phone: (916) 319-2026

Committee phone (916) 319-3744 Committee Fax (916) 319-3745

Committee Members District Phone E-mail

Jose Solorio, Chair Dem-69 (916) 319-2069 Assemblymember.solorio@assembly.ca.gov

Greg Aghazarian, Vice Chair Rep-26 (916) 319-2026 Assemblymember.aghazarian@assembly.ca.gov

Joel Anderson Rep-77 (916) 319-2077 Assemblymember.Anderson@assembly.ca.gov

Hector De La Torre Dem-50 (916) 319-2050 Assemblymember.DeLaTorre@assembly.ca.gov

Mark Leno Dem-13 (916) 319-2013 Assemblymember.leno@assembly.ca.gov

Fiona Ma Dem-12 (916) 319-2012 Assemblymember.Ma@assembly.ca.gov

Anthony J. Portantino Dem-44 (916) 319-2044 Assemblymember.Portantino@assembly.ca.gov