Miley Cyrus and the Salvia Sessions...

I have to offer my sincere thanks to Ms. Miley Cyrus for reminding me of this interesting Mexican herb with the hallucinogenic properties. I wrote a couple of blog posts on Salvia way back when. Salvia is illegal in Australia with respect to possession for the purposes of smoking it and getting stoned. Australia was one of the first, if not the first, countries to ban salvia. However, my understanding is that salvia, despite its hallucinogenic effects, is classed as a herb in the US and it is legal to possess it and presumably smoke it, if one so desires.

Now, as a role model, although I am not sure what kind of role model she is, Miley Cyrus probably does not want to be promoting smoking, particularly smoking herbs that take you to some pretty weird and way out there places. Just do a search of salvia on YouTube and see what pops up.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that she has not in fact broken any laws in the state of California where this video was allegedly shot. How the video came to light is a case of alleged theft of a friends video camera. You can watch a reasonable copy of the video here.

Interestingly, Dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, took to Twitter to profess his disappointment in his daughter's actions. He also intimated that there were some things beyond his control right now. That, Mr. Cyrus, seems to be a pretty good candidate for understatement of the month. In any event, Mr. Cyrus, your daughter is 18-years-old and is legal, and legally if she wants to smoke herbs then she can do so. Whether it is smart to be a smoker at such a young age, or any age for that matter, is an irrelevant point to whether you have, or could conceivably gain, some sort of control over Miley's actions.

Let's face it, you, Mr. Cyrus were initially in favour of a provocative photo shoot that saw an underage Miley Cyrus doing a topless shoot. Hmmm, control, yeah, right!

There is also a copy of the video here.

In the end, perhaps if it is a role model she wants to be, then maybe parents might want to start using the emerging train wreck that could become Miley Cyrus, the adult, as how not to do things. That said, perhaps the lesson is about managing fame and fortune while protecting a wholesome and commercial image.