Parents Beware! Online Drug Dealers Making House Calls
Yes, I know you probably know all about alcohol, pot, cocaine and heroin. But in this rapidly-advancing world of technology we live in, teenagers are getting more creative finding new ways to get high and putting themselves – as well those around them – in danger while they’re at it.
We still have drug dealers walking the streets and preying on the impressionable minds of our youth with their rhetoric. But in 2008, those drug dealers are coming right into your home with the promise to teens that their next high is just a click away. And worst of all: it’s perfectly legal.
If you don’t believe me, I encourage you to make yourself a cup of tea, sit down at your home computer, and search a topic like “Driving on Salvia” on Youtube. What you see WILL surprise you.
Now, many of you may be wondering what salvia is. Well, known as salvia divinorum, this leafy “houseplant” is a highly potent relative of sage and mint plants. But unlike its spicy cousins, salvia leaves are sold as a legal alternative to marijuana because of the intense psychedelic effects people get from smoking it.
In fact, according to one federal survey, almost 2 million people have admitted to using it to get high in this country alone, and 3 percent of men aged 18-25 said they’d used it in the past year. The problem is that salvia has an unpredictable effect on many young brains – and those effects could be devastating.
Another drug that’s recently made headlines because if it’s popularity among teens and young adults on the Internet is a pill called “SNURF.” This highly popular pill has been touted by Web distributors as a form of “herbal ecstacy,” because it contains mostly DXM, or dextromethorphan, a chemical found in cough medicine. But because “SNURF” pills have 10 to 15 times more DXM than cough medicine, they can have dangerous euphoric and even hallucinogenic effects on users.
So, what’s the answer?
Get better informed! Search the Web more frequently. Talk to your children.
And, as it turns out, if you see your houseplants disappearing, you may have a problem!
Tags: cough medicine, dextromethorphan, DXM, ecstacy, hallucinogens, herbal supplements, herbs, Internet, marijuana, psychedelic, Salvia, salvia divinorum, Snurf
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You say “Get better informed!”. You should follow your own advice.
When you say irresponsible things like “Salvia is a houseplant, Kids are smoking it. They’re getting high and they could die.” You are putting our children at a greater risk than smoking salvia would. Your sensationalism creates hysteria and panic, which removes science and rationality from the question of how these substances should be managed. For the record, nobody has died from using salvia. Zero deaths. But the death toll for alcohol and tobacco are over 100,000 annually.
But even worse, your statements are far enough from the truth to be fairly called “lies”. Why lie about how dangerous a drug is? Do you not realize that teenagers, once they discover the lie, have all the justification they need to disregard ALL warnings from “responsible” adults about drugs?
The truth is that salvia causes no physical harm and is not addictive. In fact it’s aversive (the opposite of addictive) and can help reverse addictions to opiates, meth, cocaine, and alcohol. By all measures, salvia is safer than cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, cigarrettes, and even cough syrup. And salvia is unpleasant, not something enjoyable that is prone to repetitive use. The more one uses it, the less one wants to use it.
My teenager is a victim of exactly these kinds of failed tactics. Once he figured out that most of what he had been told about marijuana was lies and half-truths, like you’ve done here with salvia, he also lost his fear of drugs that truly are dangerous. And now he has a drug problem. Like almost every other teenager he has easy access to all the dangerous drugs he wants. The misinformation in this article leads to bans on substances that are much safer than street drugs. With science and reason removed from the discussion, the resulting anti-drug gets people thinking they are protecting our kids by taking away EVERY drug possibility — which is impossible — and in practice only drives kids to more dangerous alternatives.
It’s time to start telling the truth about drugs. The lies are only making the problem worse.
Yeah right, Scot.
Let’s see do I believe the guy who did a little research and pointed me in a direction to do my own research,
OR,
do I believe you who with all your knowledge none-the-less has a child hooked on drugs?
the reality is that you can get ‘high’ off of pretty much any substance if you take enough of it. take something most people have in their spice cabinets… nutmeg. oh no! teens can get high off of nutmeg. we need to severely restrict the ability to obtain nutmeg! for the children!
the comment by scot hit the nail on the head. your sensationalism does nothing to help or improve the situation, tv dr. manny. your implication that salvia is a common ‘house plant’ is completely wrong and misguided. salvia is a fairly rare herb in the wild, a type of sage to be more specific, that is pretty difficult to cultivate. i dont know if tv dr. manny was trying to be humorous, but saying that parents need to keep an eye on their common house plants is idiotic.
Scot,
You’re right on the money! I am a staunch conservative but am completely disappointed in my otherwise intelligent fellow rightys. It has been proven repeatedly that prohibition can not work. You only drive the prohibited thing underground and turn otherwise law abiding and tax paying citizens into criminals. It also creates binge use and abuse. And prohibition is based on lies. By the govs own studys we can prove that after a 25 year long “war on drugs” there has been no significant reduction in drug use, especially marijuana.
This is the only thing the liberals get right(even a broken clock is right twice a day). Marijuana is, in and of itself a fairly harmless substance. Especially in comparison to alcohol. There are also almost limitless benefits from this plant, from biofuels(no need to waste corn), to usable fiber for paper(no need to de-forest for paper) and clothing(no need to ruin the ground growing cotton), to numerous medical benefits.
I am not surprised to hear Dr Manny spreading the fear. For the life of me I can not understand. Why do they want to create yet another black market?
PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK!
Scot,
I couldn’t agree with you more! These so called “experts” in the “field” (whatever that means) do sensationalize these products and make children even more curious to try them. I was watching Manny talk about this yesterday on Fox News and he stated that marijuana was a dangerous and fatal drug!?!? Are you kidding me? There has NEVER been any reported deaths due to marijuana as opposed to alcohol, cigarettes and even PRESCRIPTION DRUGS which are legal!!! I do not understand how these “experts” state this misinformation and get away with it.
The fact is: cannabis, when used responsibly can be a great medicinal herb used for a WIDE variety of ailments, from cancer to glaucoma, and more!
How do these Pharmaceutical companies get away with distributing very harmful (synthetic) drugs to people all over the world, while a natural growing plant such as salvia and cannabis that has proven various positive medicinal effects be banned?? It doesn’t make sense!
In my opinion, the Pharmaceutical Co’s have the politicians in their pockets…that is why we need a CHANGE! Enough said! I am getting very upset about this!
Moms, Be sure to put that nutmeg in a safe place too. It is a much more dangerous drug than salvia, never mind the thousands of other psychoactive plants that surround us.
I’m very happy and impressed to see that those with sense are replying to this post. I have spent many countless hours researching marijuana and other “drugs” in order to educate myself on which are good and which are harmful. Surprisingly, numerous studies of these “illegal substances” conclude that many of them are less harmful than that asprin you take for your headache, and some aren’t harmful in the least!
Harm isn’t even the issue here. It’s personal privacy, and my right to it. What I do to my body in my home is my business. If I can’t handle it, than too bad for me. We have seriously disturbed the system of Darwinism in this country, as we are trying to protect those who are, indeed, not naturally fit enough to protect themselves. (The same goes with implementing the seatbelt laws around the country. Have authorities REALLY run out of things to write tickets about that they’re seriously going after “seatbelt violations”? It’s my right to decide if I want to be flung out of the windshield when I crash or not!)
We’ve always been taught that “drugs” are bad. If you do “drugs”, you’re automatically a bad person. Well, as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to ask this question of myself:
Are “drugs” illegal because they’re bad, or are they bad because they’re illegal?
We have many great laws established in this country; laws that make sense, and are rightfully in place (don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t urinate in public…common sense stuff). But, within the last 25 years, the government has saw fit to place a prohibition on it’s citizens…and for what? For a decrease in use? Nope…hasn’t changed a bit. For safety issues? Well, if the government would allow “drugs” to be legalized (at least decriminalized), they would be able to regulate what was put in to where, so those “You don’t know what that’s cut with” arguments won’t hold water. And if people decide to not buy from the government, and it affects their health, well, I’m sorry, that’s their problem.
What it comes down to is taking endless amounts of our money, and putting it in to a completely useless political platform. For instance, it takes $40,000 to incarcerate a person for a year in a min. security prison. Our prisons are overcrowded as it is (most are at double their capactiy) so, for those, I’m sure the number is higher. Are you seriously wanting to ruin a person’s entire life (their ability to get a loan, a job, etc…), and spend a ridiculous amount of money to keep this person locked up, taking away space for a real criminal, all because YOU didn’t do your research, and believe every spoon fed lie that you’ve been told since you could talk?
Another reason the government doesn’t want anything legalized (especially marijuana) is because they wouldn’t be able to regulate it. If anyone in Washington is doing their homework, and searching for a new energy plan (HEMP, PEOPLE!!) someone growing a few plants in their backyard won’t take any money away from them.
One more point I want to make about prohibition and our government:
Due to constitutionally repealing the amendmant enacting the alcohol prohibition, it is unconstitutional to put any federal restrictions on alcohol. Which is why the alcohol age limits are set by each individual State. Sounds fair, right?
Wrong. The Federal government didn’t like how extra money was going in to the State’s pockets rather than theirs (more restrictions on a product=more taxes the Feds can put on it), they blackmailed each and every State, starting in the 1970’s, saying that if they don’t change their drinking age to 21, all of their Federal highway funding would be cut off (meaning decline in tourisim=less money for the State). Unfortunately, the States had to comply, with Louisiana being the last to concede to this abuse of power in 1992. (Don’t believe me? Do the research. You’ll see it).
The point is, when it comes to alcohol laws, we’re listening to the individual State law, and not the Federal law.
NOW, medicinal marijuana. So far, at least 12 States have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and many more are putting the initiative on their ballots, with numerous amounts of support. BUT WAIT. Just because it’s a State law doesn’t mean that you’re safe from the Feds, as you’ll hear of them shutting down tens of State recognized, medicinal clinics a month, and, ultimately, sending those people to jail.
So, how come when it comes to one substance, I’m made to listen to the State law, but with the other, I’m made to listen to the Federal law.
The more research you do, the more discusted you become to be with the percentage of greed in power, versus the percentage of humanity.
Your humble observer,
Silence Do Good
**Edit**
In the last paragraph, it should read “medicinal” not “recreational” (though, we’re not too far away from that either).
Your humble observer,
Silence Do Good
Thanks Dr. Manny for the info. I appreciate it.
And Robert-
On “Abstinence Only Sexual Education”, who am I to believe?
Doctors from around the country, who keep telling us that we need to be teaching our children about responsible sex, or the VP candidate who claims abstinence only “sex education” works completely, dispite having a clearly pregnant 17-year-old daughter?
Your humble observer,
Silence Do Good
Sally D is not recreational, never heard of Smurf….. online herbal and entheogen and Nootropic store fronts are run mostly by people that are caring helpful herbalogists. legitimate businesses that Only sell to Adults with Credit cards and pay pal accounts, to demonize all herbs and dealers because of isolated acts of stupidity is smallminded. Adults are free to partake in all these LEGAL activities, for 10 years of my life i put my life on the line to insure i can!!!! US ARMY SAYS SO BUCKO!!!!!! Seriously children are missing, stop this witch hunt stuff and do sum good!
Ed liberals get a lot more right.