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YouTube and the rise and fall of a powerful hallucinogen.

Salvia divinorum -- a mostly legal herb -- produces ecstasy, which is fun to video-record and watch on YouTube, because the person who experiences that ecstasy tends to look like an idiot. And then more people start using the drug and they too make videos, and YouTube actively propogates the drug's use.

But now:

In state after state, however, including here in Texas, the YouTube videos have become Exhibit A in legislative efforts to regulate salvia. This year, Florida made possession or sale a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. California took a gentler approach by making it a misdemeanor to sell or distribute to minors.

"When you see it, well, it sure makes a believer out of you," said Representative Charles Anderson of Waco, a Republican state lawmaker who is sponsoring one of several bills to ban salvia in Texas.

YouTube cuts both ways.

Full post as published by Althouse on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).