WANNA NEW DRUG?

Newspaper Story Results In Run On Local Supplier Of Salvia Divinorum

For a businessman selling a product as quickly as he can get it in, Steve
Agee is sure bitter.

"I asked the guy not to discuss what I was discussing," says Agee, the
"corporate president" of Knuckleheads Tobacco & Gifts in Madison. But the
guy -- Reid Epstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- discussed it
anyway, in a Dec. 21 article that was reprinted last Thursday, Dec. 26, in
the Wisconsin State Journal. Says Agee, "He was a real jerk."

The article, which has also been reprinted in papers in South Dakota, North
Carolina and Pennsylvania, discussed the effects of a Mexican plant called
Salvia divinorum, which can be purchased over the Internet or from outlets
including Knuckleheads. The plant, which is legal pending efforts to make
it otherwise, is alternately described in the article as producing, when
smoked, increased sensory awareness useful for meditation and profound
incapacitation.

"You can't get up and walk around on salvia," the article quotes one
enthusiast, Daniel Siebert of California, as saying. (Siebert runs an
authoritative website on the plant, sagewisdom.org . Also see
http://www.erowid.org/plants/salvia/salvia.shtml .)

Knuckleheads has sold Salvia divinorum for several years, like many of its
other products with a wink and a nod. "I sell it as an incense," says Agee.
"Whatever somebody does once they leave here is up to them."

But business has been booming since the media took notice, according to
Agee, who runs the Knuckleheads store at 550 State St. and a second outlet
whose location is, he says, "a secret." During a short interview last
Friday, the day after the State Journal article, he was interrupted
repeatedly by calls from people asking if he had salvia in stock, as well
as his need to tend to a line of customers eager to spend $4.95 per gram
for this particular brand of incense. (A more potent extract form is
available, for $29 a gram, from ethnobotanicals.com, a Madison-based outfit.)

"People have been waiting in line since I opened," said Agee, estimating he
had sold a third of that day's shipment of 500 grams by noon.

Agee was less than precise about why he was so annoyed by media attention
that is rocketing sales. Shouldn't he be pleased? "I am," he answers. "I'm
just not happy with the way it came about. I have morals and shit." A
moment later, after fielding yet another Salvia-related phone call, he
begged off. "I gotta go, man."

Members of a local email listserv devoted to drug policy reform shared
their thoughts about Salvia divinorum with Isthmus. A few have tried it,
but none seemed to think it deserved the hype -- much less the current push
to declare it illegal.

"I used salvia divinorum many times in the early 90s," says Madison
resident Jon Hain. "Reminded me more of chamomile tea than THC [the active
ingredient in marijuana, to which Salvia divinorum has been compared].
"Very mild. The effect was also very short lived which was the main reason
it never caught on with me -- I didn't want to dry out my throat by smoking
every five minutes."

"Salvia is an interesting drug," writes another listserv member, who tried
it once and was not moved to use it again. "I cannot imagine it being
addictive. I would imagine it poses some health risks in that it needs to
be smoked." According to this respondent, the high lasts only about 30
seconds to a minute and "is typically incapacitating. By that I mean it
hits you like a ton of bricks and you will most likely assume the prone
position and lose partial consciousness.

"The experience is very spiritual/mystical in that it is something like
compressing a 12-hour acid trip into 30 seconds. Some have compared the
experience to dying and then being reborn as ego loss is complete at high
doses. Some have reported returning to "normal" with a new perspective on
life.' The danger is that it's debilitating; the downside is that it is not
"the least bit social."

Another respondent has tried Salvia divinorum in its "pure, crystalline
form" calls it "disorienting and reminiscent of PCP, if you've ever had
that experience, although it doesn't last as long as PCP. It is intense for
about 15 minutes and tapers off over the next 30 minutes....

"From my point of view, it is mainly interesting as a pharmacological
curiosity (because it is so potent). I didn't find it to produce any
insights or new understandings. The 'reward' is not very rewarding. I
suspect most people are into it as a novel consciousness-changing
experience but I wouldn't think anyone would want to repeat the experience
more than a few times, it's just not very much fun."

Pull quote: 'People have been waiting in line since I opened.' --
Knuckleheads' Steve Agee