NO wonder the Liberal Democrats are all over the place: one of the contenders for the party leadership once declared that opium could be "safely experimented with" and that LSD "holds no surprises". This weekend Chris Huhne is discovering, just as David Cameron before him, that his undergraduate days at Oxford can come back to haunt him. Last night Huhne, 53, was doing his best to disown an article he appears to have written in an Oxford student magazine about the benefits of illegal hard drugs. [continues 738 words]
A plant native to Oklahoma has hallucinogenic qualities like LSD but is not listed as an illegal substance. The plant is called moon bush or gypsum weed but many students call it "moon plant," said Brenna Gilchrist, a florist for the Oasis Garden and Gift Shop. "The plant grows to about 3 feet and is characterized by its night blooming flowers and porcupine like round pods," she said. It is not listed as an illegal substance in the state, but users could still go to jail because the drug is a hallucinogenic, said Lt. Mark Shearer, an OSU police officer. [continues 914 words]
AMSTERDAM -- The Netherlands will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the government announced Friday, tightening the country's famed liberal drug policies after the suicide of an intoxicated teenager. Mushrooms "will be outlawed the same way as other drugs," Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said. "The way we will enforce the ban is through targeting sellers." Psilocybin, the main active chemical in the mushrooms, has been illegal under international law since 1971. But fresh, unprocessed mushrooms continued to be sold legally in the Netherlands along with herbal medicines in "smartshops," on the theory that it was impossible to determine how much psilocybin any given mushroom contains. [continues 340 words]
To most I would be considered naive, at least when it comes to living on the edge, so to speak. I have very little experience with drugs and high-risk activities and I don't claim to be well-versed when it comes to these topics. So it was really no surprise that I was outside of the loop on the latest craze. Salvia divinorum, referred to simply as Salvia, is a legal hallucinogenic drug that appeared for the first time in western literature in 1939. It has recently gained more popularity and at the same time raised quite a few eyebrows. [continues 671 words]
A powerful unregulated hallucinogen is being sold in shops and convenience stores across Hamilton. And there's nothing illegal about it. The herbal hallucinogen salvia divinorum falls into the same class as magic mushrooms and LSD. Some who have used it report intense hallucinations: A tree growing out of the floor or thinking they're a crayon. But neither the plant nor its active ingredient, salvinorin A, falls under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, so it can be legally imported and sold in Canada. [continues 638 words]
Series Of Films Playing At Pacific Cinematheque Takes A Trippy Step Back In Time When most people think about the 1960s, the cool places that come to mind are neighbourhoods such as California's Berkeley and San Francisco's Haight Ashbury and Kitsilano's West Fourth. But there was a place a long, long way from the mainstream of everything that played a key role in paving the psychedelic path followed by the youth culture of the ' 60s. The place was Saskatchewan Hospital in Weyburn. [continues 642 words]
The small, barefoot man in black T-shirt and blue jeans barely rates a second glance from the other Starbucks patrons in downtown San Rafael, although he is one of the men who virtually made the '60s. Because Augustus Owsley Stanley III has spent his life avoiding photographs, few people would know what he looks like. The name Owsley became a noun that appears in the Oxford dictionary as English street slang for good acid. It is the most famous brand name in LSD history. Probably the first private individual to manufacture the psychedelic, "Owsley" is a folk hero of the counterculture, celebrated in songs by the Grateful Dead and Steely Dan. [continues 1604 words]
Letter-writer Leroy Casterline is right about LSD not being addictive (NOW, July 5-11). For a mature person with an inquisitive mind who wishes to get an adventurous new perspective, LSD can provide life-changing insights. Native people had no qualms about finding higher planes of enlightenment with different substances. Only our modern religions are fearful of competing experiences. Vancouver [end]
Letter writer brad holland claims that "it is irresponsible to put a positive spin on drugs like LSD. Spiritual strength comes from a fruitful life, not self-indulgent, brain-damaging habits" (NOW, June 21-27). I disagree. Spiritual strength comes from many sources, and entheogens like peyote and LSD have for thousands of years been a catalyst for spiritual exploration and growth. Used responsibly, LSD is not dangerous. It's not addictive, not physically harmful and is nearly impossible to overdose on (one would have to take tens of thousands of doses). [continues 65 words]
Salvia Divinorum Produces Short, Dreamlike Experience Salvia divinorum is a bright, leafy green plant from Mexico that when chewed or smoked causes intense hallucinations comparable to LSD or "magic mushrooms." And it's legal in California. The drug is available all over the Bay Area, mostly in smoke shops and herbal stores. It's also sold over the Internet. For $15 to $50 a hit, users get a high that sends them into a dream-like state for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two. [continues 1321 words]
Council Wants Salvia Divinorum On Illegal List EDMONTON - Leduc's city council is pushing Ottawa to remove a powerful hallucinogenic drug called salvia divinorum from the shelves of head shops and add it to the list of illegal substances. "This is definitely a preventative measure and I want the federal government to be aware this is readily available," Ald. Dana Smith said Tuesday. "It's being used and it can be another step to another drug." The psychedelic drug, also called magic mint or diviner's sage and often compared to LSD, is available in some marijuana paraphernalia stores or on the Internet. It is sold in pill form or as a dried product for smoking and causes intense hallucinations lasting from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. [continues 529 words]
A city council in central Alberta is pushing the federal government to remove a powerful hallucinogenic drug from stores and add it to the list of illegal substances. "It is like the new acid," says Greg Krischke, the mayor of Leduc, a city 35 kilometres south of Edmonton. The psychedelic drug is called "magic mint" or "diviner's sage." It's available in some hemp stores and on the Internet. It is sold both as pills or as a dried product for smoking, and causes intense hallucinations lasting 30 seconds to 30 minutes. [continues 86 words]
A member of the sage family, Salvia divinorum is a cousin of the popular flowering salvia found in many American gardens. Salvia divinorum is native to dark, damp, shady areas in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it has been used for centuries by Mazatec Indians during mystical rituals, and to treat headaches and diarrhea. It was first described in 1939 in a report on Mazatec shamans, and wasn't identified as a psychoactive drug until the 1990s. But, unlike its benign cousins, Salvia divinorum contains a powerful hallucinogenic called salvinorin A, which is described as being as potent as LSD, and "essentially the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogenic drug," according to Dr. Bryan Roth, a biochemist and neuroscientist who directs the National Institute of Mental Health's Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. [continues 170 words]
A big yellow sign on State Street reads: "Salvia sold here. Get it while you can." Many who pass by are perplexed. To the middle-aged and older, salvia is a perennial flowering plant found in many local gardens. But a growing number of young people, even middle schoolers, know salvia as an unregulated drug that delivers a powerful high. Salvia divinorum, related to but different from the backyard salvia, is a perennial herb of the mint family native to the Sierra Mazateca region of Oaxaca, Mexico. It contains a powerful hallucinogen considered by some to be as potent as LSD, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. [continues 1020 words]
The psychedelic era did not begin in New York. Nor did it get its start in London or Paris. Instead, it began in Saskatchewan -- Weyburn, to be exact. Psychedelic was a term coined by Dr. Humphry F. Osmond from the use of lysergic acid diethylamide -- better known as LSD -- in medical research in the southern Saskatchewan community. Eventually the word would become synonymous with an entire culture in the 1960s. Following the Second World War, LSD was among the drugs that interested Osmond and his colleagues in their research into mental illness. [continues 467 words]
OTTAWA -- An easily available herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending strict controls. But Health Canada says it can't regulate the use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers. Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties. Salvia divinorum is difficult to grow outside of its native habitat in southern Mexico, but the plant's leaves and extracts of salvia's active ingredient in pill form are sold in Canada. [continues 488 words]
OTTAWA - A freely available herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending strict controls. But Health Canada says it can't regulate the use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers. Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties. Salvia divinorum is difficult to grow outside of its native habitat in southern Mexico, but the plant's leaves and extracts of salvia's active ingredient in pill form are sold in Canada. [continues 316 words]
Health Canada Looking Into Potential Danger A common garden herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials calling for strict controls. But Health Canada says it can't regulate the use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers. Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties. A December 2005 report by the marketed health products directorate, an arm of Health Canada, recommends that salvia be placed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 313 words]
OTTAWA - A common garden herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending it be strictly controlled. But Health Canada says it can't regulate use of salvia divinorum until there's more evidence of its dangers. A December 2005 report by the marketed health products directorate, an arm of Health Canada, recommended that it be placed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. For one salvia user, Ottawa's concerns are unnecessary. "Salvia is so intense, most people only try it once or twice," said Ryan Poelzer, who works at the Urban Shaman, a popular botanical store in downtown Vancouver. He says the store sells about 50 pills a week. [continues 106 words]
Salvia Divinorum Can't Be Declared Illegal Without More Data OTTAWA - A freely available herb that packs a powerful psychedelic punch has some federal health officials recommending strict controls. Department documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information law say salvia is being used by adolescents and young adults for its hallucinogenic properties. A December 2005 report by the marketed health products directorate, an arm of Health Canada, recommends that salvia divinorum be placed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 413 words]
