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Salvia Divinorum Keep It Legal

For Hundreds of years the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico have used Salvia Divinorum, or as they call it, Ska Maria Pastora, for both it’s medicinal and mind expanding, psychoactive properties (Siebert 1). In 1962 two scientists by the names of Gordon Wasson and Albert Hofmann went to Oaxaca in search of the plant and introduced Salvia Divinorum to the western world. Since Salvia Divinorum reproduces mostly asexually there are not many genetic differences between most plants. Each set of plants with the same genetics is known as a strain. The strain they introduced came to be known as the Wasson and Hofmann strain and is one of the more popularly used in the western world (Ethnobotany 2). Despite Salvia Divinorum’s relative safety, low cost, and legality it has yet to become very popular and used widely enough as a recreational drug to cause any problems in the United States (Beifuss 5-6). Most people who do use Salvia Divinorum regularly use it either medicinally or religiously. The possible medical applications of Salvia Divinorum are countless and it could also prove very valuable in psychiatric medicine. Even so, Salvia Divinorum has been banned in eight states and many politicians are trying to pass a federal law that would add Salvinorin A, the active chemical in Salvia Divinorum, to the list of scheduled substances as a schedule one substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Schedule one is the same category that marijuana, LSD, and heroin are under and has the harshest punishments for possession out of all the categories (Associated Press 1-2). Many Americans believe that making Salvinorin A a schedule one substance in the United States will only serve to waste taxpayers money and delay or even put a stop to promising medical research, all while infringing upon the rights of American citizens (Beifuss 2, 6).
Salvia Divinorum has been being used in the United States since the early sixties and still has yet to create any...