| US: Psychedelic Herb, Public Urination Among the Targets of Lawmakers - The New York Sun
Found: Wed May 07 23:12:23 2008 PDT
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Psychedelic Herb, Public Urination Among the Targets of Lawmakers
State lawmakers are pushing for a crackdown on Salvia divinorum, a widely available hallucinogenic herb that plunges users into a bizarre dreamscape world.
Under a bill introduced in the Senate, New Yorkers possessing the leafy plant could face Class B misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to three months in prison. The sentence for dealing the drug would be a Class A misdemeanor, which comes with a maximum penalty of a year behind bars.
The legislation is one of hundreds of new bills circulating in Albany in the last weeks of session, a time when lawmakers, having wrapped up the budget, tend to turn their attention to other issues. Lawmakers are also trying to ban public urination, permit the sale of wine and beer in movie theaters, and name a highway after the top American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
The Senate sponsor of the anti-salvia legislation, George Maziarz, who represents a district in Western New York, said he had his staff draft a bill after he received calls from parents upset that their children were smoking the herb.
The senator said he was convinced that the drug should be banned after he and his aides watched YouTube videos of people smoking salvia and having psychedelic experiences.
One video he watched showed a man falling under a table. Another one - shot by amused friends gathering in a ramshackle backyard - shows a teenager taking a hit from a pipe and then stumbling around in a trance, before collapsing on the ground as if he were zapped by a stun gun.
"It's dangerous. That example on YouTube is a good example of what it can do," Mr. Maziarz said. The senator said he has never tried the drug.
Mr. Maziarz's bill is the Senate's most recent attempt to ban the substance - a similar bill passed the Senate last year but stalled in the Assembly - and is part of a growing movement by states to treat salvia like marijuana, LSD, and other illegal drugs.
Ten states have passed laws criminalizing or restricting possession and sale of salvia: Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Delaware, Maine, North Dakota, Illinois, Virginia, and Kansas. More than a dozen other state legislatures are considering criminalizing the drug.
Assembly Democrats in New York have proposed two measures that would impose civil penalties on people possessing and selling the plant.
Suffolk County in March passed a law criminalizing possession of salvia, making it punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and one year imprisonment.
Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive herb that is a member of the mint family and grows in the Mazatec region of the Sierra Madre mountain range in southern Mexico. Mazatec Indians have traditionally used it as a medicine to treat headaches, arthritis, and burns, and also as a means of contacting spiritual realms, according to a Malibu, Calif.-based independent ethnobotanist, Daniel Siebert.
Its primary psychoactive chemical, Salvinorin A, produces a wide range of effects, including uncontrollable laughter, confusion, loss of balance and coordination, and dreamlike visions. In lower doses, it is said to cause a sensation of tranquility and a higher state of awareness.
"People take it to get messed up without any real reason for taking it. It's most useful as a meditative tool for going inside oneself," said Mr. Siebert, whose Web site sells "potent" leaves for $125 an ounce.
Salvia can be smoked, chewed, or consumed by drinking a solution of water and crushed leaf juice.
Another state lawmaker wants to ban public urination.
"While many think that it is illegal to urinate in public, in actuality it is the indecent exposure of the potential perpetrator that subjects such individual to an arrest," states a bill memo drafted by Republican assemblyman, David Townsend, who represents a district in Oswego County.
Mr. Townsend's bill, which has not been introduced in the Senate, adds a new section to the penal code that creates the violation of urinating or defecating in public. It would be against the law to relieve oneself in a public place - or in a private premise belonging to an owner who did not give permission - without using a toilet facility. The legislation also prohibits urinating in a private place where the person could be "readily" observed by neighbors.
Violators would face a fine of up to $100 for a first-time offense and a $250 for subsequent infractions.
"While this bill does not make this act a crime, it does send a message that this offensive behavior will not be tolerated," the memo states.
Potentially encouraging the violation of that bill is another proposed law that would allow movie theater operators to sell beer and wine to patrons. Those who purchase the alcoholic beverages would be required to drink out of clear, plastic cups - no bigger than 18 ounces - and wear wristbands that can be seen inside a darkened theater. People would be forbidden from walking into the theater with more than one cup at a time. The bill has sponsors from members of the majority parties in the Senate and Assembly.
State lawmakers are not just punishing bad behavior but honoring service.
Republican lawmakers in the Senate and the Assembly want to rename New York's scenic Route 218 after General Petraeus, who has led the counterinsurgency in Iraq and who President Bush has tapped for a promotion to head Central Command.
The general is a native of Cornwall-on-Hudson and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
"He's one of the most distinguished military men I have ever known in my life. What he's done for America and Iraq is second to none," the bill's Senate sponsor, William Larkin, a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, said.
A companion bill has been introduced by a Republican in the Assembly and is not likely to pass the chamber.
Route 218, which is located in Orange County and is 11 miles long, is a narrow, winding cliffside road that stretches to Highland Falls from Cornwall-on-Hudson. It carries much of the traffic leading to West Point.
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