Evan from Teleomorph sent us this clip of Ron Paul's weekly address. He talks about the recent bills to radically regulate tobacco and he goes into some depth about the necessity of legalizing Marijuana.

Here's another example of the summertime legal highs echo chamber hitting the small town presses, this time from the Morehead News in Kentucky. The title of this piece is 'Deadly drugs exposed'.

If parents didn’t have enough to worry about with the ongoing pain pill epidemic, two new drugs have hit the streets and are causing serious hallucinations and even deaths.

Teens don’t have to sneak into a medicine cabinet or find the nearest drug dealer, when two potentially deadly highs from plants are easy to acquire– and one could be growing right out the back door.

The Carter County Drug Task Force had its regular meeting recently while handing out literature concerning the use of Salvia Divinorum and Jimson Weed.

“We certainly don’t need anything else out on the streets for our teens and anyone for that matter to get hold of,” said Pastor Jim Varney, faith-based voice for ENOUGH and active member of the drug task force. “Parents need to be aware of these drugs and children need to know the side effects and what damage can be done to their bodies by using them.”

In fact, both the Jimson Weed and Salvia plants are the emerging new trends among teenagers and adults from the age of 18 to 25.

This article is actually very long and detailed with decent information. One of the better researched articles on Jimson Weed and Salvia to come out in a while.

The story from the Detroit local Fox affiliate. Check the in-your-face voice of that news reporter.

Their pot cards were issued to them on 4-20. Heh.

This news story was released with the headline 'Teens overdose on jimson weed', but upon closer reading I cannot tell if the overdoses were fatal, when they happened, or if they happened all at the same time.

Three Spokane teens have recently overdosed on the seeds of a hallucinogenic plant called jimson weed.

Health officials want to warn teenagers and their parents about the possible dangers of jimson weed now that the school year is over and many children are left home alone.

Spokane Regional Health District spokeswoman Julie Graham said people should be wary of jimson weed’s toxicity.

Jimson weed is also commonly called loco weed, stinkweed and a host of other slang terms such as angel’s trumpet and Beelzebub’s Twinkie. The plant’s scientific name is datura stramonium, a member of the nightshade plant family.

So that is all the information we are given. No names, no dates, just 'Three teens' and 'recently'. And it's summer, time for the media to run scare stories on legal highs only your teens know about.

As California's economy goes up in smoke, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said it's time to study the possibility of legalizing and taxing marijuana. About four weeks ago, he brought up the subject, and since that time, there has been talk in the media about legalizing pot on a national scale, since the country is having serious financial problems of its own. When President Obama was asked in March about the subject, he wasn't interested. "No, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he said. Schwarzenegger sparked the debate in California, and the nation is joining in. A Zogby poll, commissioned a month ago by the conservative O'Leary Report, showed that 52% of Americans favor legalization of marijuana, with only 37% opposed. The other 11% were too stoned to comment.

Legalizing marijuana not only allows for the regulation and taxation of marijuana, similar to cigarettes and alcohol, but it removes the criminal element, freeing up our legal system and making medical marijuana available without all the obstacles. Like any substance, the potential for abuse is there, but studies have shown that not only is marijuana safer than most drugs, users don't get symptoms similar to what some have called "Starbucks head," commonly known as headaches associated with caffeine withdrawal. Marijuana hasn't always been illegal. Because of sensationalistic stories of murder and mayhem associated with marijuana use, it was criminalized federally in 1937 by the newly formed Bureau of Narcotics. Up until that time it had been used as a household drug treating headaches, toothaches, depression, menstrual cramps and of course just plain stress, and drug companies were working on developing a stronger strain.

In 1938, the mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGuardia, who it was rumored would light up a joint before important meetings, formed a committee to study the actual effects of marijuana. It found, despite the governments claims, that there was no scientific reason to criminalize marijuana. The study found that it did not cause insanity or act as a gateway drug. It did not cause people to go on killing sprees, and it did not cause other types of deviant criminal behavior. Further studies showed that marijuana use actually cuts down on crime, even when used by criminals, because it makes them more mellow. Even President Nixon took up the debate. In 1972, his Shafer Commission also concluded that marijuana should be legalized. Speculation that Nixon used to get high before giving major speeches has never been proven, but many experts site the famous "Checkers speech," when the then-Senator and Vice Presidential candidate got emotional before millions of viewers, as an example of an obviously high politician.

Here is a companion video piece to the article on Morning Glory seeds. Must be summertime, all the legal high news stories are out in force.

I love all the poorly informed data found in this "news" cast.

Looks like the Kush meme is going viral. Get used to this new marijuana backlash in response to all the discussions about legalization.

Not only this, but the anti-pot crowd is also dragging out the old myth that one marijuana joint is 20 times more carcinogenic then normal cigarettes because people hold the smoke in longer. Yeah. Right.

You don't see Morning Glory scare stories very often, but I guess the media is getting tired of picking on Salvia.

Store clerks at Almo's Flower & Garden Center initially thought it was a little strange.

Groups of young teenagers would ride their bikes to the garden store to buy packets of morning glory seeds.

Their specific interest in the small black seeds wasn't for gardening, but rather a hallucinogenic high similar to taking LSD.

"They're (teens) chewing them and swallowing them, and a chemical in the seeds is giving them a hallucinogenic high," warned Dracut Police Chief Kevin Richardson.

The chemical is Lysergic Acid Amide (LSA), the same chemical used to make Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, commonly known as LSD.

LSA is derived from ergot, a type of fungus that grows on grains, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Andy Daigle, a manager at Almo's contacted police after realizing the seeds were being used as illicit drugs."One kid said I take it and I hallucinate for six hours," Daigle said.

While LSD has been widely studied and documented, information about LSA isn't listed on the National Institute on Drug Abuse or U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Web sites.

However, because LSA mimics the hallucinogenic effects of LSD, doctors say it could be dangerous.

"LSD is a potent hallucinogenic; not only is there an acute effect, but people get all sorts of flashbacks and psychological damage," said Dr. Wayne Pasanen, vice president of Medical Affairs at Lowell General Hospital and medical director

Gwyllm sent us news of this amusing story about a new super-potent strain of marijuana.

A strain of highly-potent marijuana is hitting the Chicago suburbs and causing concern for local lawmakers. Now they're calling for stricter laws against trafficking.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC, is the main ingredient in marijuana that gives you a high. It used to measure 4 percent in pot found on the streets in the 90s. But now, pot can be as much as 20 percent THC.

One congressman said with the increased potency, he would lobby to see increased fines because the new marijuana could sell for $600 an ounce. This new 'super marijuana' is much higher in THC. It produce a more intense and longer-lasting high. It also sells for more on the street, and on the street, it's commonly known as "koosh."

"Koosh is a modified marijuana that delivers up to ten times the THC level of the marijuana we may have seen in the 1960s and 70s," Congressman Mark Kirk said.

Congressman Kirk is proposing federal legislation to make dealing it on a higher level like with cocaine.

This reminds me of the 'skunk' scare that goes around the UK. What a load.

A classic 1967 drug propaganda clip from the "Teenage Rebellion" documentary soundtrack.