Gawker: salvia

Famous Business Lady Likes Magic Salvia Space Travel

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:37:15 EDT

Do you know who Faith Popcorn is? If not, consider yourself 2.4% wiser. She's a professional "futurist"—essentially, a lady who's learned how to milk money out of corporate CEOs by telling them about "trends" that she's spotted. Like her spiritual cousins, the "brand consultants," she has created an entire bullshit industry out of thin air, and become rich. Cheers to her. So anyhow, wanna know Faith Popcorn's latest important trend? Yea, it's smoking dope and traveling through space on the internet:

[Faith Popcorn]:We are going to be doing a lot of traveling on the Internet. Get me out of here — wheeee. And we’re going to be taking drugs with that travel.

WWD: Drugs, what do you mean?

F.P.: Facilitated travel. Like salvia, which is an herb. There are going to be induced or supported [Internet] trips. So we’re going to learn a lot from the Seventies.

Ha, yes. And here is exclusive video of Faith Popcorn at work:

[WWD]

Salvia Users Fight For Right To Legal YouTube Wackiness

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:10:14 EDT

Country politicos are still trying to ban salvia! How uncool. And it's all YouTube's fault. We warned you in May that New York was moving to outlaw salvia—the legal drug that really works, if you like falling down—based largely on the impression that hick State Senators got from America's dumbest teenagers posting their tripping experience videos online. Salvia is about fifty times more potent than weed (and "twice as prevalent as LSD," dang!), so it wouldn't be surprising if it was banned, though it would still be stupid. What's the danger? Driving on salvia? You'd be lucky to be able to find your keys. Now, in one of those laughable righteous battles between party stoners and philosophical stoners, the real salvia spiritual journeymen are speaking out against those god damn YouTube posers:

Those who support the contemplative use of salvia disdain the YouTubers for disrespecting the herb’s power and purpose.

“They’re not really taking it as a tool to explore their inner psyche,” said Daniel J. Siebert, a Californian who pioneered the production of salvia extracts. “They’re just taking it to get messed up.”

Because if salvia is banned, it could make it hard for researchers to use it to potentially cure serious medical conditions. Such as insufficient fear of couch monsters:

[NYT]

Funny YouTube Videos May Get Salvia Banned

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:20:13 EDT

Salvia: the legal drug that really works. Unlike most of the herbal fake-weed concoctions sold in the back pages of High Times, salvia is actually a powerful drug. As anyone who took one too many hits can attest. Now, New York state lawmakers are moving to ban salvia, with penalties of up to three months in jail for possession, and a year for distribution. And crazy kids have no one to blame but themselves; the state senator who proposed the ban "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." Not so funny now, is it? Okay, it's still funny. The videos in question—which we've helpfully posted after the jump—mostly prove that salvia makes people do one thing very well: fall down.