Jul 7, 2008 6:13 pm US/Eastern
Md. AG Says He'll Work On Bill Addressing Salvia
OCEAN CITY, Md. (WJZ) ―
Kids are smoking their way to hallucinations.
The plant is called salvia. It's a new and potentially dangerous fad.
As
Political Reporter Pat Warren explains, Maryland lawmakers will be asked to outlaw it.
Stamp it out before it takes root. That's Attorney General Doug Gansler's take on the plant salvia after he saw it being sold in Ocean City.
"I went into one of those shirt shops where they sale T-shirts, and I got up to the counter. I asked what this is. It was these packets of salvia right there on the counter. The woman behind the counter who had many piercings and tattoos and so forth said to me, 'oh this is salvia, if anybody who had any power ever found out that they were selling this stuff, they'd make it illegal,'" said Gansler.
The hallucinogen is currently banned in other states but still legal in Maryland. Gansler now wants to make it illegal.
Kids are already posting their reactions to what Gansler wants to do on YouTube.
"You can go to YouTube or the Internet to see what the effects of salvia are upon children, so I don't think there's going to be anybody to come in and say actually, this isn't that bad, this is good stuff, all kids should be eating it along with their Captain Crunch. You're not going to find that. You're going to find people saying this is akin to LSD," said Gansler.
Some say salvia is as potent as LSD.
Eyewitness News showed you in November how difficult it was for a CBS producer working undercover to buy it, and it's not often you get the kind of warning that producer received with something legally for sale.
"Stay home. Use, but stay home," said a sales clerk.
A Delaware woman believes her son was high on salvia when he killed himself. Now, salvia is no longer legal in Delaware, and it's also banned in Virginia. Lawmakers will be asked to follow that lead in Maryland.
Gansler points out the state is trying to prevent teenagers from drinking beer, as harmful as drinking can be, but simultaneously allowing access to a hallucinogenic substance that may have worse effects than alcohol.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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