Photo: "memphis kitty" by gp0256, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your (I set my alarm for PM by accident!) Toronto morning news roundup for Monday September 15th, 2008:

The head shops sell it, people get super high and have hallucinations off it, the police are powerless to do anything about it, and the Toronto Sun gave it front page on Sunday as if it were new and worth being really freaked out about. Should salvia divinorum be made illegal? Local users tell all here (as far back as 2002).

The coffee cup, in addition to being a part of daily life to many caffeine-dependent Torontonians, is a significant source of garbage (some statistics) that could otherwise be avoided. The city is considering options for curbing this problem, including introducing a deposit system on cups, a tax on disposable cups to further encourage people to use their own perma-mugs, or even an outright ban (the latter being one that makes most people actually laugh out loud).

--

Although oil refineries in the path of the hurricane were not nearly as devastated by hurricane Ike as was initially predicted, gas still sits near record high pricing in the GTA. Prices are expected to drop overnight tonight, but not by as much as they rose last week. In related news, oil is trading at its lowest price in a long time, which means that gas company execs fully understand the concept of "buy low and sell high". If you can, wait to fill er' up and you may save a buck or two.

A couple has been arrested and their severely malnourished baby was taken into hospital care. But there's a wrinkle to this story - the reason why the child hasn't been taken to hospital and given proper professional care is because the couple's religion looks down upon institutional medicine. Hmmmm. Let our baby die, or be true to our faith? That must be a tough spot to be in. Jail must suck too.