AMATEUR BOTANIST PREACHES VIRTUES OF LEGAL PSYCHEDELIC IN LECTURES, ON WEB

MALIBU -- Looking like an Old West preacher, with an earnest manner
and long, wavy hair, an amateur botanist takes the podium and soberly
lectures a small but keenly interested audience on a hallucinogenic
drug that is legal and available.

This is Daniel Siebert, the Southern California apostle of an
unlikely Mexican herb called ``salvia divinorum,'' or diviner's sage.

Like peyote, the sage is said to cause vivid hallucinations and a
deeply transcendental sensation, and it has a tradition of ritual use
by American Indian shamans seeking spiritual realms.

But Salvia divinorum is not a controlled substance. Americans looking
for consciousness-altering experiences buy it on Web sites, grow it
in their yards and share their experiences at conventions.

And they pepper Siebert with questions at appearances, such as his
Los Angeles lecture earlier this year, which was videotaped and can
be rented at some video outlets.

``It's a fairly rare thing to be working openly with a psychoactive
drug,'' Siebert said in an interview at his home, perched on the edge
of a Malibu ravine overlooking the sea.

Information on the sage -- and enthusiastic testimonials from users
- -- is all over the Internet. The most elaborate Web site, Salvia
Divinorum Research and Information (www.sagewisdom.org), is managed
by Siebert, who sells the sage from his online Sage Wisdom Salvia
Shop.

Siebert worries that the exposure the drug is getting could lead to
government intervention.

``The more press, the more people experimenting with it, and the more
it will be seen as a problem or be used in an irresponsible way,''
Siebert said. ``Like any drug that alters consciousness, if you do it
and, say, get in a car, that can cause a problem.''

Anti-drug authorities are aware of the situation.

``We know it's out there,'' said Will Glaspy, spokesman for the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration. ``We're looking at it to see
if it needs to be controlled.''

But at this point, ``It's not a controlled substance,'' he said.

Siebert and other advocates of the sage say it has psychoactive
healing potential and is not likely to be adopted as a recreational
drug like ``ecstasy'' or make an appearance on the rave scene.

``It is not something that will be passed around at parties and
concerts,'' Siebert said. ``That will limit its appeal. If you take
it in a social context, you'll wish you hadn't. It's a very
introspective experience. You can't walk around and socialize.''

It all began in December 1999, when Details magazine trumpeted Salvia
divinorum as ``The New Ecstasy: It's Not Illegal.''

Since then, there has been a small but growing drumbeat of reportage.

Siebert said he believes the drug has deep healing properties. He
points to a ``trip report'' sent to his Web site by a man who said he
was so depressed after his lifetime companion died of cancer that he
was considering suicide.

``The feeling was one of incredible lightness,'' the account said.
``I felt as if I had shed an incredible burden.''

The sage's native range is the misty mountain cloud forests of
Oaxaca, a rugged area in southern Mexico. Shamans of the Mazatec
Indians have used it for years.

The plant was ``discovered'' for modern science in 1962 by Albert
Hofmann, a chemist who was an early pioneer in LSD research, and
Gordon Wasson, who went to Oaxaca to research psilocybin mushrooms
and other hallucinogens.

In recent years, it has aroused renewed scientific interest because
it is unclear precisely how it works on the brain.

Dr. Ethan Russo, a neurologist who studied the sage, said that
although scientists have isolated the chemical compound that triggers
the hallucinations -- salvinorin A -- the sage does not act on known
neurotransmitters such as serotonin or dopamine.