Yet another compound is being moved from being unregulated to the black market. Yet another plant is being targeted as a "menace," "problem," or somehow dangerous to the public, but most especially "our kids."

This time, policy makers in the states and the Drug Enforcement Agencies have relied upon the scientific institution of YouTube video clips on the internet of teenagers smoking Salvia Divinorum to fuel their respective pushes towards the prohibition of the plant. Adding to their scientific "studies" is the inevitable media attention and building of hysteria over this relatively benign substance - stories coming out over the past few weeks in Newsweek, the Times, etc. about its use and easy availability.

Yes, I'm calling salvia relatively benign. I've smoked it in the past. I've smoked the dreaded "extract" that is decried for its potency. In fact, people have ingested and smoked both the plant and its extracts for several thousand years. Much like marijuana, there isn't a single recorded death from salvia. There is the often cited case of a Delaware teenager committing suicide two years ago, in which the parents blamed his salvia use as contributing to it. This case is used as an analysis of why salvia must be banned to protect "our kids," - it is dangerous to their minds.

Ignored in this analysis is all the teenagers that have committed suicide without using any salvia. If we wish to use this analysis, fine: non-use of salvia has a much larger association with suicide than salvia. We'd all be better off taking salvia.

Naturally, this is hogwash. The point is to demonstrate that correlation is not causation, which any scientist or logician will support as a true statement, even though our crazy friends at ONDCP don't agree (just ask John Walters about marijuana and teen depression). Hell, it's even brought out the ole Russian Roulette snippet: someone from the D.E.A. was quoted as saying that ordering salvia online was like playing Russian Roulette.

I remember being told, as a kid, that taking LSD was like playing Russian Roulette with my brain. Twenty years later, the same stupid statements, false and tired analogies are still being used, and the media is still lapping it up like it's "fresh" news. The solutions proposed are likewise the same, even though in these twenty years, the solutions still have not provided any progress whatsoever.

I mean, it's almost like a rote formula now: kids + drugs = ban.

What a bunch of knee-jerks.