In spite of, or probably because of, being old enough to have been straight edge before the attitude really had a name (hell, I'm old enough to remember when the word "goth" was used to describe Germanic tribes in the latter days of the Roman Empire), I have a bullshit meter with a hair trigger when it comes to baseless drug stories in mainstream news sources. Jack Shafer at Slate also has one of those hair triggers, and he noted many of the same issues that I had concerning the sudden flood of news stories on the "dangers" of Salvia divinorum.

Being old enough to remember the media onslaught on "the menace of PCP" and "the menace of Ecstasy", both of which only acted as advertising for drugs that otherwise would have faded into obscurity had they not been great "sweeps week" material, I'm seeing the same trend: a drug that wasn't even on the radar five years ago is suddenly a threat to life and limb, mostly on the authority of fussbudget helicopter mothers and backwoods police officers, both of whom will say and do anything so they can call up the neighbors and tell them "I'm on the tee-vee!" Even better, as with previous Hillbilly Hollow panics about the dangers of rock music, Dungeons & Dragons, and teenagers wearing black to school, these same "authorities" will start citing each other in a feedback loop, as will subsequent reporters, suddenly giving rise to a problem that didn't exist.

Meanwhile, considering the people I know who've tried S. divinorum and related that it's about as far away from a party drug as one can get short of mainlining cucumber soup, the hype makes it that much harder for me to get legitimate supplies for my carnivorous plants. Seeing as how the best sources in Dallas for coarse-grade perlite and coconut husk chunks intended for hydroponic applications are also sources frequented by people who might be using S. divinorum for their own personal use, I can now expect to have a surveillance record on my purchases every time I need to put up a batch of pitcher plants. Gee, thanks, CNN!

(And as far as drug stories this week are concerned, you lose some, and you win some. Start busts on college coke dealing in the Dallas area, and you'll find plenty of parking in Victory Park for months.)