Kenneth Rau is the North Dakota man who is the first to be arrested for salvia possession. I have contacted the District Attorney's office in the Burleigh County State's Attorney's office to educate them on salvia in an effort to reduce Mr. Rau's possible sentence but we need you to send emails to the D.A.'s office to help out. Please help to ensure the life of this man is not wasted to uneducated old fashoined witch-hunt justice. Below is the email I sent to Richard Riha of the North Dakota D.A.'s office of Burleigh County: Email is: rriha@nd.gov, send him your thoughts! FREE KENNETH RAU! May 21, 2008 Frank Ramirez Kalizhada Inc. To: U.S. District Attorney Richard James Riha IF THIS EMAIL WAS DIRECTED TO THE WRONG PERSON PLEASE FORWARD TO THE APPROPRIATE RECIPIENT OR TO CYNTHIA FELAND. Mr. Riha, thank you for taking time to read this email. This email is in regards to the recent arrest of Kenneth Rau on April 9th and his possession of Salvia Divinorum. First off let me state that I am a current grad student researching salvia divinorum and its chief component Salvinorin-A in my graduate thesis for my pharmaceutical masters degree. I do own and operate my own botanical store in San Antonio, Texas and do retail salvia divinorum legally and only to adults over 18 years of age. I have been a major advocate for safe and responsible salvia divinorum use for medicinal and religious evaluations. Any and all proceeds from my sales have been directly re-inserted for salvia research, development and it's potential for our medicinal future. I was shocked to hear the potential sentencing of Mr. Rau because of his possession of the 8.0 ounces of Salvia Divinorum he was apprehended with. Now, also let me point out that I don't know the full story or what the media reports might have excluded, because the media will only report what brings in viewers or readers. Now if he had in possession other items i.e. marijuana or other illicit items, then I understand but 20 years for what he had on him is excessive and I think that without any clarity on the subject Mr. Rau might get sentenced unfairly. Frankly, it doesn't affect me if Mr. Rau goes to jail or not, but I think you must take a look at this case closely. Yes, you have adopted Salvia as a controlled substance and that should be respected, I along with other vendors immediately removed any retailing to North Dakota the immediate moment it was considered for scheduling. If anything it must have been purchased through Canada or the U.K., but the fact is Mr. Rau broke the law and he should be punished, that is indisputable. But the salvia facts are distorted and misunderstood and should be examined. Allow me to point this out simply and quickly. Salvia Divinorum in its raw leaf form offers little or NO effect, extract leaf is what's used on those silly Youtube videos which have destroyed Salvia's image. Extract leaf is created when you extract the salvinorin-a from the raw leaf and re-deposit it onto fresh leaf, thus creating a stronger leaf. In order to create a leaf strong enough to the desired use you must use at least 10 ounces for salvinorin extraction alone or more. It is my opinion Mr. Rau probably wanted to create his own extract for personal use. Which again it is outlawed in your state so I don't argue the fact that he broke the law. Again, I don't know what else he had OR his prior arrest record, but please weigh the facts evenly. Mr. Rau doesn't need to be made an example out of, it seems with the Amanitas he had with him, he wanted to explore the world of botanics, which used to be part of our human right. I don't know where he bought the salvia from and the vendor should have known better to put Mr. Rau in jeopardy like that. I instruct all my customers to the current law in various states to ensure that every person is educated in its legality. I have been to my state capitol in Austin to debate the salvia issue and won to keep salvia legal in Texas as long as buyers are over the age of 18. This standard has always been met by me and every vendor in our network even before the state ruled. I was in New York to debate the issue on live T.V. on the Mike and Juliet show in March and is available on the web. Although the show was a set up to paint salvia unfairly. I am currently heading to Florida to take the salvia issue up with Gov. Charlie Crist to help ensure salvia is not outlawed to the vast Hispanic and Mexican Americans who have used salvia for generations and is part of Mexican culture. I'm not trying to convince you to release or drop any charges on Mr. Rau, I'm asking to take a moment to look at the case fairly. Is this possession enough to send a struggling working American to 20 years. If anything Meth use and labs are the scariest things facing our country right now, not salvia. We should be using the resources to combat this "true evil" of our society, with a 97% rate of addiction this should be our priority. I am sending you the same letter I sent Gov. Crist of Florida regarding facts on Salvia Divinorum. Please read and contact me here in San Antonio, Texas if you have any questions. I hope to hear from you or your office, again I have nothing to gain from trying to explain this, except trying to help a man who made a mistake. ATTACHED BELOW IS THE LETTER SENT TO GOVERNOR CRIST: Frank Ramirez Saturday May 10, 2008 Kalizhada Inc. 13 Palomar Hills San Antonio , TX 78238 Attn: Charlie Crist First let me thank you for taking time to read my email. I’d like to take this opportunity to give my opinion into the adoption of HB 1363 regarding Salvia Divinorum and its legality. In my personal and professional opinion, being a current graduate student focusing my study into the possibilities and benefits of salvia divinorum’s chief component salvinorin-A, a ban is not the right decision and I hope this email can help shed some light. I also retail salvia products online and only accept credit card payments through paypal to ensure all buyers are card holders 18 years old and above. In fact 100% of all funds generated from our sales go into further study into salvinorin-a pharmaceuticals and research. I do understand that videos on youtube have distorted the truth about salvia divinorum and have prompted many media vultures to create a sensationalized panic on its threat to “our children”. I personally was televised in March on “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet” in New York to debate the issue. However I was ambushed in a one-sided event to condemn salvia. You know as a politician that the American media is always looking for a scandal or to blow an issue out of proportion and right now salvia divinorum is the current focus. In fact the youtube videos represent only a small percentage of actual salvia use, and many of those videos are also mostly people over the age of 18. But put into perspective there are more videos (3 to 1) of underage alcohol intoxication on youtube that salvia, but that fact is never represented on the media. Salvia is not the “dangerous” drug that the media claims it to be. I have been personally experimenting and researching this plant for over 8 years now. I have read published reports and have submitted my own research for study in the hopes that salvia divinorum and salvinorin-a can be used to help provide a new era of clinical research and application towards treating an array of ailments. I have been using salvia divinorum in research to help heroin users curb their addiction. A personal family member who has been battling heroin addiction for over 10 years has been my focus and a willing participant into an addiction cure. Since starting treatment over 18 months he has been free and clear of any illegal chemical intoxication and has been verified by probation officers and lab results. In fact he will be removed from salvia testing in August. Not even methadone works that effective in the treatment of rehabilitation. Now this might be a unique case, however I have documents and affidavits of other salvia users who have stopped heroin, crack, and even methamphetamines use and have signed professional witnesses statements who attest by this result. Think about it, would saving 1 person from the horror of heroin or meth addiction be worth it? Would salvia’s fight be justified? We have been using Salvinorin-a in research with Alzheimer’s to some promising results. 2 routine buyers in Seattle have been using our form of liquid salvia in a controlled study with Alzheimer’s testing and have recorded ground breaking results which are to be published. A letter was written to me from a buyer suffering from multiple sclerosis and has used our salvia to aid in her pain relief. She, among many of our Americans don’t have insurance to help alleviate the burden of high cost prescription pain medication but she has written many letters of thanks to a natural pain reliever at a fraction of the cost of inflated pharmaceutical prices. As children of God we are put here on earth to help each other to the best of our abilities, in any event please weigh the facts evenly, not as a political figure but as a human being. The addiction factor of salvia is an issue most media likes to scare “little town America ”, so lets look at the facts. I have personally used salvia for 5 years, first I used salvia up to 2 times a week and decreased to 1, and the effect was not the dramatic scene you see on Headline News but a more controlled relaxed and tranquil elevation during my personal prayer. Today, I use salvia on average once a month during my prayer session, and many times I go months without ever doing it. Simply put salvia is 100% non addicitive. FACT: Salvia divinorum, is not an alkaloid (does not contain a nitrogen atom) like other chemical substances i.e. cocaine, heroin, or even tobacco and coffee. This fact simply put is this, salvia or salvinorin-a does not attach itself to these receptors of the brain that crave addiction, in fact these opoiod receptors are blocked by salvinorin-a, making “the crave” of such narcotics such as crack, meth, or heroin decrease substantially. An addiction cure? Perhaps, however without further study due to illegalization will we ever know? Please consider these facts. Fact: Salvia is a Hallucinogen, it does alter perception, temporarily. Acid aka LSD is also a hallucinogen but it is a man made hallucinogen that contains an array of chemicals that DO contain alkaloids. Salvia is 1 element (salvinorin-a) and carries 0% dependence. FACT: 95% of salvia first time users report they will never do it again because an irresponsible user will most likely experience bad visions comparable to a bad nightmare and ward off any future use. This would actually help deter them from even considering Acid on a future experiment. On average salvia can last as little as 1 minute and last as long as 10. Motor functions such as walking are a near impossibility so the threat of someone driving while on this is absurd. Anyone shown on video walking around while on salvia is faking it and trying to grandstand for friends. Again there are more kids on youtube intoxicated on alcohol which last much longer than the average salvia effect, and nearly 2,000 kids are killed every year due to alcohol intoxication. Fact: Salvia divinorum has not killed 1 person, however the case of Brett Chidester of Delaware is a case that is completely using salvia divinorum as a scapegoat. No parent likes to assume responsibility when something as tragic as this occurs, of course in every suicide almost every parent will claim their child was “perfect” “happy” on “honor roll” or even “popular” to offset the real unspoken problems with their child’s psychological stability. How did this child even purchase Salvia from Canada without a credit card? Fact: Alcohol is the #1 cause of death for children under 18, #3 is suicide so will parent looks for the easiest point of blame other than themselves? We will never know exactly what went through Brett’s mind, or even if a pre-existing mental condition existed. Since these records are sealed the parent(s) can use the excuse of salvia to the cause of death which was in fact added into the death certificate 3 months post-mortem. Salvia was primarily used to achieve spiritual enlightenment from the Mazatec peoples of Mexico and for other remedies. Women would use the leaves in a tea to help rid menstrual cramps, many people would chew leaves to aid in pain relief or as a analgesic. My mother would make an elixir for me as a child to help with colic and minor infections. Hispanic and people of Mexican descent have been using salvia for generations and has been a part of Mexican culture for at least 200 years so for media outlets to blast this as an threat is very insensitive and irresponsible. I understand that up in the sparsely Hispanic populate Northern States salvia is being banned without any input from Hispanic or Mexican-American, so I would like for you to consider these points from an educated and responsible Hispanic-American. These points were brought up when the state of Texas had Salvia divinorum on its docket in SB 2347 when Charles Anderson tried to ban it. The state concluded: not to have salvia available to children or minors under the age of 18, which has been a strict guideline and non-negotiable term for years. 99% of all salvia retailers accept credit card payment as the only method of payment available to ensure this term is met. Please take into consideration that banning salvia is not the answer, regulating it is the responsible method for understanding. Please feel free to contact me regarding this and would even love to discuss this further if you would like, but please consider that banning is not an answer to a problem, education is the best weapon to ridding any fear from misunderstanding. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Frank Ramirez CEO Kalizhada Inc.
This is Kenneth Rau, does this man look like he desreves 20 years!? We need you guys here at hipforums to help him out, you guys spread the word of my accident and sent prayers and messages. Now help Ken, give him the support he needs, send all comments and wishes here and I will forward them to the D.A.'s office and to his family. The War has begun, where do you stand? http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/kennethrau.jpg
That pisses me off! I sent a letter as well, anything is better than nothing. I'm suprised no one has responded to your thread, frickin' lambs dude. Everyone wants to talk but they won't fight, I'm in it with you Kali, in a world of lions and lambs. Rambros stands beside Kalizhada! ONELOVE
I don't know what else I could say that you havn't already, I send my best wishes to Kenneth Rau, and plead to those with the duty of deciding weather or not he should remain in prison to just consider the facts, instead of remaining ignorant to them. If it was your life in jeopardy and Kenneth Rau deciding your fate, you'd want him to do the same.
"hat pisses me off! I sent a letter as well, anything is better than nothing. I'm suprised no one has responded to your thread, frickin' lambs dude. Everyone wants to talk but they won't fight, I'm in it with you Kali, in a world of lions and lambs. Rambros stands beside Kalizhada!" why are you wasting your time on this website? you should be out fighting the good fight instead of telling everyone else to.
Well, im sorta young still, but ill be praying for this man. which is pretty much the most i can do for now, until i know more about this wonderful subculture of ours. Peace dudes
A drunken Fargo man fired around 50 shots from a second-floor balcony and through the hallway walls in standoff that lasted more than six hours. The SWAT team saw the bullets rip through the walls, as the gunman tried to aim at the officers on the other side. One of the first patrol crouched for more than six hours behind a small pile of bricks, unable to move safely. The man also had C4 plastic explosives in his arsenal. David Tofte, 27, a former Army Ranger, was sentenced Wednesday to four years of supervised probation and 218 days in jail, time he has already served. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_8026/is_20050602/ai_n43052292/
