Pubdate: Wed, 30 Oct 2002
Source: Boston Weekly Dig (MA)
Copyright: 2002 Boston Weekly Dig
Contact:  http://www.weeklydig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1515
Author: Danielle Ben-Veniste
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/spirit.htm (Spiritual or Sacramental)

CONGRESS CONTINUING TO FIGHT A TWO-FRONT WAR

On October 10, Congress introduced a bill (HR 5607) seeking to place the 
ceremonial plant Salvia divinorum in Schedule I of the Controlled 
Substances Act. Oddly enough, considering the introduction of this bill, on 
October 21, the Pentagon decided to scale back money allotted to the War on 
Drugs in order to redirect funds toward the War on Terror. Apparently, the 
$1-billion-a-year budget for drug-related operations was cutting into the 
funding for special operations forces, which are now in high demand for 
anti-terrorism efforts.

Under the circumstances, then, it would seem like the wrong time to 
criminalize a drug like Salvia divinorum, which has a well-established 
history of shamanic use by the Mazatec Indians of Mexico, is extremely 
difficult to cultivate anywhere in the United States and, according to the 
Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, has both low abuse potential and 
high psychiatric and medicinal potential.

Indeed, most reports on the drug suggest that it does not meet the criteria 
for addition to Schedule I. The only explanations, then, for such an 
apparently irrational and ill-timed proposition are the increased 
alternative press coverage that Salvia divinorum has received over the past 
few years and the fact that the government's counter narcotics program, 
which has grown to include 179 separate sub-programs over the years, 
continues to be popular on Capitol Hill. Three cheers for never ending wars.
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MAP posted-by: Jackl