A neutral article? Really? I think this is a horrible article. I think they made some small effort to make it appear neutral, when it is clearly not. Let's take a look....
"Shooting Suspect Had Been Known to Use Potent, and Legal, Hallucinogen
By A. G. SULZBERGER and JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: January 17, 2011
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TUCSON — No one has suggested that his use of a hallucinogenic herb or any other drugs contributed to Jared L. Loughner’s apparent mental unraveling that culminated with his being charged in a devastating outburst of violence here.
Yet it is striking how closely the typical effects of smoking the herb, Salvia divinorum — which federal drug officials warn can closely mimic psychosis — matched Mr. Loughner’s own comments about how he saw the world,"The very title links salvia to the shooter. Then the article says "no one is saying the use of psychoactive herbs had anything to do with the shooting.... but it sure is surprising how similar the psychotic shooter is to comments written about salvia." Really? That's pretty damning. But whatever, there's always going to be bad press.
What bothers me here is that people seem to be using this shooter as a scapegoat for everything. As soon as the shooting happened, people desperately wanated to know if he was liberal or conservative so they could blame and scold whichever party he was from. I heard an article on the radio by a Mexican American whos first concern was if the shooter was Latino or not. She was afraid that if he was Latino, it would cause a backlash against Latino's. She was very happy when she learned the guy was white, and she admitted that finding the race of the shooter was her first concern. The only reason she made a radio segment about this was because she wanted to get the point across that if it were a Latino, then people should be ashamed of themselves for blaming Latino's. She was accusing people of being accusatory for things they haven't even done! That's how out of control this whole blaming situation is.
What bothers me is that they can document this guy's whole life, and if someone feels like it, like ANYTHING to the shooting. Next they'll find out that he used a Mac instead of a PC and start claiming Mac's are evil. I just hope people have enough sense not to fall for this sort of thing.
Interesting though, note how the article says the shooter also did other drugs in high school, including weed and mushrooms. This should strike people that obvioulsy the law didn't have any effect on his drug usage. Marijuana is illegal for everyone. Yet this high school kid was
somehow able to get weed
So what is making salvia illegal going to do? As I said, the fact that he used other illegal drugs SHOULD strike people, but I have a feeling it probably won't. People should realize that not everyone who uses salvia is violent or psychotic, just like not everyone who wears black like the suspect is violent or psychotic.
I hate to think of a society where some innocent person goes to prison just because they have salvia. Talk about danger to society. What about imprisoning innocent people? That's not a danger to society? The public is concerned about violent people? Then they should be concerned about sending people to prison. I highly doubt a person who goes to prison will come out better off and less violent. Not to mention the psychological damage that prison does the individual and their family. All over taking salvia? Come on. To make salvia illegal because this shooter did it would be very wrong. I would hate to think people take the attitude, "the shooter did salvia, now anyone else who does salvia should go to jail for 7 years".