Vickie D. McDonald

Vickie D. McDonald (born May 26, 1947) is a Nebraska state senator from St. Paul, Nebraska in the Nebraska Legislature and account executive. __NOTOC__

Personal life

She was born on May 26, 1947, in Phillips, Nebraska and graduated from Phillips High School. She was a 1990 Dale Carnegie graduate, 1996 Nebraska LEAD Program graduate, 1997 Life Underwriters Training Council graduate, 1999 Hall County Leadership Tomorrow graduate and a 2002 Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development graduate. She then worked in many financial services occupations and currently sits on many Grand Island, Nebraska organizations.

tate Legislature

She was appointed to the legislature on August 10, 2001 to replace her husband, deceased senator Richard N. McDonald. She was then elected in 2002 to represent the 41st Nebraska legislative district and reelected in 2004. She currently sits on the Education, Natural Resources, Executive Board, Reference, Legislative Performance Audit committees and is the vice chairperson of the Intergovernmental Cooperation committee.

Drug policy

alvia divinorum

Senator Vickie McDonald supported a proposal for the addition of the psychoactive herb Salvia divinorum to Nebraska's Schedule I classification early in 2008. Salvia divinorum is currently legal in that state, but Senator McDonald has said - "Nebraska needs to classify salvia divinorum and its active ingredient, salvinorin A, as a controlled substance in order to protect our children from a drug being portrayed as harmless when it's not." [Bruning 2008-01-07 (US Media).] [...] "Videos of teens using this common plant to get high have become an internet sensation" [...] "Anytime anything's on YouTube it's an issue," [...] "Legislators, parents, grandparents, we need to be on top of these things," [...] "We need to protect our children and this is one way we can do it." [Berry 2008-01-07 (US Media).] [White 2008-01-08 (US Media).]

Her bill proposes addition of "Salvia divinorum" to Schedule I of the Nebraska Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Possessing Salvia would be considered a Class IV felony with a penalty of up to five years. Trafficking would fall under a Class III felony with up to a 20 year penalty.

Opponents of extremely prohibitive Salvia restrictions argue that such reactions are largely due to an inherent prejudice and a particular cultural bias rather than any actual balance of evidence, pointing out inconsistencies in attitudes toward other more toxic and addictive drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. ^{[#noteAlcohol| [i]} [Nutt et al. 2007.] While not objecting to some form of regulatory legal control, in particular with regard to the sale to minors or sale of enhanced high-strength extracts, most Salvia proponents otherwise argue against stricter legislation. ^{[#noteSalvia| [ii]} [Siebert (Legal status).]

Tobacco and alcohol

Senator Vickie McDonald's second highest political campaign contributions from industry groups in 2006 came from "Beer, Wine & Liquor" related industries. Her third highest campaign contributors in 2006 came from industries related to "Tobacco companies & tobacco product sales".MiSP 2006.]

ee also

*Nebraska Legislature
*Legal status of Salvia divinorum (Nebraska)

Notes

1. ^ The worldwide number of alcohol related deaths is calculated at over 2,000 people per day, [Lopez 2005, Table 2.] in the US the number is over 300 deaths per day. [NIAAA 2001.]
2. ^ Those advocating consideration of Salvia divinorum's potential for beneficial use in a modern context argue that more could be learned from Mazatec culture, where Salvia is not really associated with notions of drug taking at all and it is rather considered as a spiritual sacrament. In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen. [Blosser (Mazatec Lessons).]

Citations

References

*cite web
last = Blosser
first = Brett
title = Lessons in The Use of Mazatec Psychoactive Plants
publisher = The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center
url = http://www.sagewisdom.org/lessons.html
accessdate = 2007-10-19
*cite journal
author = Lopez, Alan D
year = 2005
month = Apr
title = The evolution of the Global Burden of Disease framework for disease, injury and risk factor quantification: developing the evidence base for national, regional and global public health action
url = http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/5
journal = Globalization and Health
volume = 1
issue = 5
publisher = BioMed Central Ltd
doi = 10.1186/1744-8603-1-5
pmid = 15847690 - [http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/5/table/T2 Table 2] . Global burden of disease and injury attributable to selected risk factors, 1990.
*cite web
author = MiSP
year = 2006
title = Follow the Money
url = http://www.followthemoney.org/Institute/index.phtml
work = e.g. [http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200629&c=421462 Nebraska/McDonald]
publisher = The National Institute on Money in State Politics
accessdate=2007-10-16
*cite web
author = NIAAA
year = 2001
month = Aug
title = Number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates per 100,000 population for categories of alcohol-related (A-R) mortality, United States and States, 1979-96.
work = Database Resources / Statistical Tables
publisher = National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
url = http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/Resources/DatabaseResources/QuickFacts/Other/armort01.htm
accessdate=2007-10-20
*Citation
last1=Nutt
first1=David
first2=Leslie
last2=King
first3=William
last3=Saulsbury
first4=Colin
last4=Blakemore
year=2007
date=Mar 2007
title=Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse
journal=The Lancet
volume=369
issue=9566
pages=1047-1053
url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607604644/abstract
doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4
accessdate=2007-03-23
*cite web
last=Siebert
first=Daniel
title=The Legal Status of Salvia divinorum
publisher=The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center
url=http://www.sagewisdom.org/legalstatus.html
accessdate=2007-03-04

News references

*cite news
author = White, Steve
title = Lawmakers Want to Ban YouTube Drug
url = http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=7590482&nav=menu605_2
publisher = Nebraska TV
date = 2008-01-08
*cite news
author = Berry, Jeniffer
title = Salvia becomes new drug threat among teens
url = http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?com_mode=flat&com_order=0&storyid=12191
publisher = KHAS TV News 5
date = 2008-01-07
*cite news
author = Bruning, Jon (press release}
title = Bruning Unveils 2008 Legislative Package
url = http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=7588488&nav=menu605_2
publisher = Nebraska TV
date = 2008-01-07
*cite news
author = Stoddard, Martha
title = Nebraska attorney general wants to curtail somes uses of insanity plea
url = http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10226073
publisher = Omaha World-Herald
date = 2008-01-07
*cite news
author = Chicago Sun-Times editorial
title = Lawmakers manage to outlaw licking an obscure plant
url = http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/719757,CST-EDT-edit31b.article
publisher = Chicago Sun-Times
date = 2007-12-31

General references

*cite web | title=Nebraska Unicameral Legislature | work=Sen. Vickie D. McDonald | url=http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/senators/district41.htm| accessdate=March 15 | accessyear=2006