<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, salvia]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, salvia]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/salvia http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/salvia <![CDATA[Say goodbye to Salvia trips on YouTube]]> Leading online video site YouTube has updated its community guidelines, and among the "common sense" restrictions are rules against "drug abuse" and "underage drinking and smoking," both of which are commonly featured in the thousands of videos of kids smoking psychotropic Salvia Divinorum. Also against the rules? "Don’t create misleading descriptions, tags, titles or thumbnails in order to increase views." In other words, quit it with the gratuitous tits in your preview stills, sxephil. The best part is where YouTube effectively calls its users higher-order illiterates: "We know most of you video heads are not necessarily interested in reading a novel, but this is an essential read for anyone with a YouTube account." Why not just produce a community guidelines video? That seems easier.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5048419&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Salvia Users Fight For Right To Legal YouTube Wackiness]]> 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]

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