Everyone Knows who MaryJ is but are You Acquainted with SallyD?

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When I was a little nipper, mum used to grow all sorts of things, and ornamental poppies were no exception until the day when a whole carload of federal agents came onto her property and started whacking them down. "No," she yelled, running outdoors in her apron, "Those are ornamental poppies!" I watched and listened as the men roughly told her it was illegal to grow poppy seeds, as when they went to seed they could be used to make uncontrolled substances. My eyes were got as big as saucers when hearing that, and in my mind's eye there was an image of a plate with a big slice of mum's home made poppy seed cake on it, but the cake had wings that were flapping as the cake flew away. When the agents left, and our beautiful garden lay in shambles, mum did something quite rare--she bawled her eyes out, and in a rare display of mother/daughter closeness, I cried with her. Little did we know that there was a rather more pernicious ornamental plant growing along the walk way which the drug enforcement fellas overlooked: SallyD aka salvia. The following link contains questionable language toward the end, so consider before clicking, but it gives one of the best overviews of the subject that I have seen: http://fracas.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/have-you-heard-about-sallyd/ Here is a more family-friendly link: http://www.banderasnews.com/0612/hb-salviadivinorum.htm There are over a thousand varieties of salvia, a member of the sage family, and only a few are dangerous. Salvia does make a beautiful garden accent, and in fact looks lovely in official photos of the US Whitehouse: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/images/20041019_7-f6186-36-2-515h.html Remembering that my parents had always had several different kinds of this plant growing ornamentally in our gardens (how could I forget, having been the family member assigned to weed there?), I rushed to Mr. Google and brought up a plethora of articles about salvia divinorum, also known as Mary the Shepherdess. Nope we never grew that, but we did grow Salvia splendens, which is the Red Flare featured on the Whitehouse lawn, along with Dusty Miller, which we also used as a border for the salvia: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/images/20041019_5-f6188-12-515h.html As it turns out, Red Flare contains some of the same chemicals as Divinorum, but presumably in milder strength. In searching to see if any other myLotters started discussions about salvia, I noticed that quite a few people were aware of the alternative uses of these plants, but apparently they were unfamiliar with the name MaryD. Had you heard of this name before? Did you know what it meant? Do your or did you grow salvia or any other ornamental plants that are either poisonous or now restricted for some other reason? What do you think about this subject. Am I doing more harm than good in publicizing it? Do you love ornamental poppies or eat the seeds? Go ahead and hijack this discussion in any direction you please, as long as it is tasteful...