Tucson shooting suspect used Salvia
 |
I saw rumors linking Salvia to the Tuscon shootings circulating last week, and now the New York times has run with it. It seems more than odd that this happened so quickly after the whole explosion in Salvia awareness thanks to Miley Cyrus. This feels like the 1960s all over again. I smell a federal ban coming.
No one has suggested that his use of a hallucinogenic herb or any other drugs contributed to Jared L. Loughner’s apparent mental unraveling that culminated with his being charged in a devastating outburst of violence here.
Yet it is striking how closely the typical effects of smoking the herb, Salvia divinorum -- which federal drug officials warn can closely mimic psychosis -- matched Mr. Loughner’s own comments about how he saw the world, like his often-repeated assertion that he spent most of his waking hours in a dream world that he had learned to control.
Salvia is a potent but legal drug marketed with promises of producing a transcendental spiritual journey: out-of-body experiences, existence in multiple realities, the revelation of secret knowledge and, according to one online seller, "permanent mind-altering change in perception."
Mr. Loughner, 22, was at one point a frequent user of the plant, also known as diviner’s sage, which he began smoking while in high school during a time in which he was also experimenting with marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drugs, according to friends. Mental health professionals warn that drug use can both aggravate and mask the onset of mental illness.
"He always had it on him," said George Osler IV, whose son, Zach, was good friends with Mr. Loughner in high school. It is unclear when Mr. Loughner last used the drug.
[Thanks Barnaby!]
|
Recently @ DoseNation
|
|
If salvia indeed does have any relationship to the Tucson shooting, Loghner must have simply suffered some long-term negative effects. "Spent most of his waking hours in a dream" - salvia doesn't act that long. But they don't say it. Btw, last year, before a popular-scientific event called Brain Week (here in Poland), one of the speakers gave an interview about legal highs. She said quite much about salvia (at that point already illegal and not sold in smart shops) and gave another story linking salvia to violence: she said that some boy, while under the influence, took his father's rifle and shot his friend or maybe brother. No details at all and as no other sources relate the story, it's most likely a hoax... but often it seems to me some people are deliberately trying to find this kind of "evidence".
The comments posted here do not reflect the views of the owners of this site.