The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the makers of Botox (Allergan) to place a “black-box” warning on its packaging, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Black-box warnings are required for drugs that present serious or life-threatening health risks. This order also applies to Dysport and Myobloc, rival products that, like Botox, are derived from a bacterial by product called botulinum toxin, which causes botulism. The drugs are used to smooth facial wrinkles, but can also interfere with breathing and swallowing.

Bad enough that each batch of Botox tortures and kills animals, it can also make you gasp and choke. And wasn’t the hideous sight of Ryan O’Neal’s frozen, immobile face as he grieved for the passing of Farrah enough to warn any rational person away from that stuff? (OK, I don’t know for sure if that is the reason for Ryan’s frozen face, but I’m not certain what else can turn a human face into a mask like that.)

Photo by AJ Cann/courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/people/ajc1/

Listen, people, faces that move and emote and express and even, God forbid, sag a bit, are human faces. We are human beings. We should have those kinds of faces.

Be kind to your face—and the rest of you—by eating lots of fruits and veggies, exercising, taking quality supplements, laughing a lot, having as much fun as possible and saying an emphatic NO! to tobacco products. Then as age has its way with you—and we all know it will (see mug shot of yours truly for verification)—you’ll have a face full of character and charm, rather than something that looks like it’s been dipped in lacquer.

Do yourself a favor with some natural, herby, fabulously aromatic lotions, potions, salves and creams that actually feed your hair and skin and give Botox and all that other unwholesome crud the old heave-ho!

From the Baby-Out-With-the-Bathwater Department, this just in: States and local governments are rushing to outlaw salvia because of its hallucinogenic properties!

Goodbye sage dressing, goodbye pretty sages in the flower garden, goodbye … What? They’re only banning one sage species? One exceedingly uncommon species, Salvia divinorum, also known as “diviner’s sage” or “sage of the seers”? One persnickety, hard to cultivate little salvia species that likes low light, high humidity and a few thousand feet of elevation? Well, why don’t they say so?

(Click here to read more about how to keep your sage plants alive.) 

Photo by cdunx/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muncadunc/

Across all media, this story is being reported in terms like, “Salvia: High—and legal!” or “Salvia: A little-known, legal hallucinogen.” Frankly, this worries me. Maybe it’s far-fetched to think these lawmakers could be so pinheaded as to ban “salvia” without making the distinction “divinorum,” but then again, I have come to belive some of our lawmakers are not strangers to pinheaded choices.
 
One of my favorite genuses (genae?) is being tarred with a very broad brush and I would like you to join me in a mission: Every time you see a newspaper article or hear a bit of broadcast news discussing the new societal scourge of salvia, please contact the author or broadcaster (or, better, their bosses and sponsors) and set her or him straight: There are more than 900 salvia species in the world, found on several continents. Humankind has used salvia for hundreds of generations to heal minds and bodies in many different climates and a zillion cultures. Just because a few American kids get it in their heads to smoke one specific, uncommon species doesn’t mean the whole genus represents a threat to health, hearth and home.

(Click here to discover the many sage species.)
 
In fact, just how much a threat Salvia divinorum poses is much to be debated.  It’s been used for centuries by shamans for certain indigenous people in Mexico as an aid in diagnosing sickness and promoting visions. The fact that a handful of U.S. residents got hold of the plant, smoked it, made videos of themselves laughing like hyenas, then posted the videos on YouTube shouldn’t necessarily lead to lawmakers expending a lot of energy legislating a nationwide ban on the stuff.

Photo by swanksalot/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swanksalot/ 

But, politics being politics, this seems to be the direction we’re headed, so at the very least, it would behoove those of us who know and appreciate salvia in all its other uses to make sure a distinction is made between divinorum and the whole other world of salvias. Getting busted plucking a few sage leaves for my Thanksgiving turkey isn’t exactly the way I want to spend the holidays, thank you.

And while we’re all getting worked up about this particular little purple flower, we might take into account a large body of research and statistics that show more teens and young people are being injured and dying due to alcohol than all other illicit drugs combined. What are we going to do about that?

Drop me a comment and let me know your opinion over this matter!