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!

Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House.

The latest analysis from the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Project tracked the average amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared with 8.75 percent the previous year.

The 9.6 percent level represents more than a doubling of marijuana potency since 1983, when it averaged just under 4 percent.

Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.

A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed — 25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Click here to read the full report

Minneapolis resident Lynn Rubenstein Nicholson said she is tired of feeling like a criminal every time she smokes marijuana.

In fact, she is part of a Minnesota state-wide campaign that is urging lawmakers to let marijuana become legal to individuals who need it for medicinal purposes; it is being reported by the Pioneer Press.

Do you think marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes?