Newest Tabloid in Town - The Anchorage Daily News

I always know when the BJ Warehouse has a big sale. I read their ads in the ADN. You could get half-racks of Steinlager there for nine weeks for $9.99. I bought a few.

On TV, I can find out about all sorts of drugs that can get me up or put me to sleep or get me hard or make me soft. My MTA e-mail box gets filled with junk ads sent to me about these kinds of products. They somehow make it through the spam filter. People pay a lot for these advertisements of their products.

Merchants expect that as part of the cost of doing business. But free advertising is a great bonus. Of all places, the Black Market in downtown Anchorage, got some of the latter yesterday, when ADN writer James Halpin penned a story titled "Hallucinogen is Legal; That May Change."

Halpin was writing about Sen. Gene Therriault's proposed legislation to ban the sale, possession or use of a psychotropic plant, Salvia Divinorum. Apparently, the plant gives a person an intense LSD-like high for a half an hour or so. Within hours of the ADN article coming out, the Black Market was sold out.

I especially love this, from the article's blog comments:

i was a customer at the black market today.

i just thought i would let you know that your article sold more Salvia than the word of mouth underground that has kept it alive for years.

and not to the "target" age group. the younger people in the store, fresh into their twenties, were actualy TRYING to talk people OUT of buying the stuff as it is "no fun".

i watched them sell out of salvia in almost 30 minutes, mostly to people in their late 30s and early 40s.

all of whom said they read about the leaf in the paper and had no prior knowlege of it. and they didn't buy one or two boxes. these adults bought up to 10 boxes of it at a time.

good job.

Therriault's legislation is just plain dumb. And it is probably going nowhere. New drug laws that don't target racial minorities tend to be put on the back burner. I've never tried the stuff, but, as my wife said after reading the ADN article, "Sounds interesting."

And, Gene, while you're at it, why don't you just ban every psychotropic plant that isn't yet illegal? There are hundreds of them. If Gene was willing to listen to my advice, I'd suggest he come up with legislation to bring down the prices of prescription drugs, or a bill to police the standards of our existing drug treatment industrial complex. Or help get Sen. Charlie Huggins off his butt and introduce legislation to have all our National Guard soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo thoroughly tested for exposure to the far more toxic danger than Salvia Divinorum, known as depleted uranium.

Nah! That would be supporting our troops.

The comments at the ADN article are worth reading. The war on drugs has failed in far more ways than it will ever succeed. So, why add to the misery?

image from the University of Buffalo's photo collection of previously legal products containing cocaine, opiates and amphetamines