Since June 1st 2002 In Australia
Salvia divinorum herb is illegal to manufacture, possess, sell or use.
Salvinorin A is illegal to manufacture, possess, sell or use.

HA!

Enter the Crusaders!

We're not afraid of their guns and fists!
They are afraid of our Honest way of revealing their Blunder!

The Australian Laws, banning the manufacture, possession, sale or use of Salvia Divinorum have major flaws that make them totally un-enforceable and they must immediately be removed.

The first of these flaws is the method used to ban it in the first place. Any attempt to enforce the ban will highlight the dishonesty and failure of the Australian National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to honestly investigate this herb before placing it in any schedule, and restricting it's availability for research and use.

On the first of June 2002, Salvia Divinorum was placed in schedule 9, the most restrictive of all the schedules in Australia, by the NDPSC (part of the TGA). Their method of doing this has been exposed as a dishonest inclusion into Australian Law.

In August 2001, the Office of Complementary Medicines asked the National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC) to consider restricting access to Salvia Divinorum on public health and safety grounds. Not because there was in fact any health concerns being created by the herb but on the fear of it being a new herb that may have a potential for abuse.

The background information offered to the NDPSC was copied and pasted directly from an almost certainly illegal publication, an article found on an alternative drug manufacturers information forum on the internet. This was done without any acknowledgement to the original 1995 "alt.drugs" article, "All About Salvia Divinorum" by William E. White. There was also the self negating suggestion which ignored traditional use as a healing tool by the Mazatec Indians of Mexico, "there was no evidence of traditional therapeutic use other than in shamanistic healing rituals".

In direct line with its past stance on playing a pro-active role in the control of hallucinogens, the NDPSC decided that Schedule 4 of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons (SUSDP) would not be restrictive enough on Salvia Divinorum. However, not having any evidence of a major public health hazard, decided to foreshadow Schedule 9 entries and seek public comment until their next meeting.

At the next meeting it was noted that the only response to the pre-meeting gazette notice of the foreshadowed scheduling was a minute received from the Office of Complementary Medicines, thanking the Committee for considering the inclusion of S. Divinorum into the SUSDP on public health and safety grounds.

So, without any consultation with anyone with any experience or expertise with the herb and stating that no other evidence exists to why it should be banned, Salvia Divinorum was added to Schedule 9 of the SUSDP as well as what appeared to be a systematic chemical name for Salvinorin A. but was copied from the 1995 "All About Salvia Divinorum" article again, without acknowledgement to William E. White, who made it up essentially.

Almost a whole year later a Schedule 9 amendment was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No GN 49 on 11 December 2002 which corrected the previously published chemical name for Salvinorin A. but still no evidence was offered to support the committee's decision to add it to the Schedule in the first place.

There is an August 11th 2003 document Question on Notice: Health: Salvinorin A on the Parliament of Australia website with answers given "with no proof" to five questions that were asked (Question #1963) on the 29th of May 2003. If the correct information was given as answers it would have been instantly obvious the ban on Salvia Divinorum was made as the result of misinformed errors.
Australian Parliment Questions - Salvinorin A [html]  OR  [pdf version]

The law was passed almost 2 years ago now and still it is near impossible to find any information regarding this now old law. A search for Salvia Divinorum on the Australian Government Website, Victorian Government Website, Australian Customs Website, Attorney General's Website and Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) Website ALL return zero (0) Results. You would think if Salvia Divinorum was a dangerous herb these Websites especially would have information about it of some sort.

(See Resources at the bottom of this page)

The Law Is Un-Enforceable

Salvia Divinorum is NOT a product that has a potential for abuse (provable!)

Salvia Divinorum is only one of the many varieties of Sage and we all know that is still very legal. Try taking that away from all the cooks and gardeners around the country.

It has no distinct smell or appearance compared with many other Salvia varieties so it can quite easily be passed off simply as "Sage".

As Sage is traded quite legally around the country detection would require in-depth knowledge of the plants biological and structural details or expensive and time consuming chemical tests.

Unlike marijuana, which has a distinctive appearance and smell which allows for easy identification without any laboratory testing, Salvia Divinorum would have to be accurately identified. There is thousands of Salvia varieties.

In order to charge anybody with possession of this herb a prosecutor will be required to be 100% sure that the variety in question is in fact Divinorum and contains Salvinorin A. To do that is expensive and involves both the time and services of a specialist of plant biology and laboratory testing worth much more than the maximum $1000 penalty that could be imposed.

Considering that Salvia Divinorum poses no threat to the health and safety of the wider community, the idea of pursuing a costly and resource wasting effort to persecute somebody for possession, use or sale of Salvia Divinorum is absurd and a disgraceful waste of the community's assets.

Good enough for Oregon legislators (U.S.A.)

In 2003, with very little research, the state of Oregon (U.S.A.) had introduced two Bills against Salvia Divinorum. After receiving a copy of the Centre of Cognitive Liberty (CCLE)’s written report Salvia Divinorum and its Active Principle, Salvinorin A, and performing further research Oregon legislators decided to reverse the Bills. As of September 2003 both bills are dead.
More Information
The CCLE's Report

Feel A Bit Safer Now?

We are not legal experts and what we have stated above is true only in a rational context only. Understand that the government agencies that would attempt to enforce bans on Salvia Divinorum usually show very little rationale and are often heavy handed when it comes to anything they consider part of the "WAR on Drugs".

If you decide to take the risk and are ever charged with use sale or possession be prepared for some pretty irrational action against you. You will not be able to say "The Crusaders said it was OK" as an excuse, we didn't say that. What we are saying is that the laws make no sense and we believe, if justice stands, could also be defeated in a court of law.

Remember ignorance of the law is not a claim for innocence. Knowing that the law against Salvia Divinorum is based on ignorance and misinformation does however offer a pretty strong case for it not being a crime.

If you are prosecuted or persecuted for Salvia Divinorum sale possession or use in Australia or in any other country that has imposed laws against Salvia Divinorum, please seek legal advice and contact us immediately at salviacrusaders@yahoo.com.

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Disagree With Us? or Think We Are Bias?

We are bias. Knowledge is always bias over guesswork!

We accept that there is always more than one way to look at things and we are always open to new information and or ideas.

We dare you to first read through the entire ©OS 012 documents available from our Miscellaneous / Stuff page then and only then offer your own opinion about the legal state of Salvia Divinorum to us.

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