EUPHORIA, UNCONTROLLED

A Cafe Owner Is Drawing Patrons To His Establishment By Offering Two
Novel - And Legal - Psychoactive Substances

The latest buzz in the city's Plateau Mont Royal district is around
two psychoactive substances being served up to patrons of a small local cafe.

Montreal police, the Mounties and Health Canada agreed yesterday the
two new offerings aren't illegal.

About a half-dozen Montrealers drop in daily - more on weekends -
into the cozy, brown-themed cafe near Mount Royal, either to smoke
salvia divinorum, a member of the sage family, or drink a type of
euphoriant tea made from kratom leaves, said Matthew Lipscomb, the
cafe's owner-operator.

Nobody's breaking any laws, added Lipscomb, who said he spent much of
the past six months researching the substances.

In January, satisfied he wasn't setting himself up to get busted, the
Vancouver native transformed what had been his Internet cafe, where
business had been slowing down, into a 900-square-foot lounge
featuring live music and hookahs.

The 30-seat spot, called Les Mentheurs, is located at Mount Royal
Ave. E., near Hotel de Ville Ave.

Lipscomb said he was looking for a traffic draw. The space costs him
rent of $1,600 a month and $500 in taxes and related expenses, and
"I'm in business to pay my bills."

As far as Montreal police are concerned, the 34-year-old entrepreneur
is doing nothing that contravenes any law, said Det.-Sgt. Nick
Milano, who has been on the drug squad since 1994.

About salvia, "I've heard of it, mostly from anecdotal information,"
Milano said.

As for kratom: "I've never heard of that."

In both cases, Milano said, "It's not illegal in our books."

As Lipscomb put it: "A lot of people are tired of smoking pot. They
don't want to drink (alcohol) and they want to try new things."

Lipscomb says he's taken salvia divinorum "maybe 20 times" in recent
months while he fine-tuned the dosage to serve to customers.

There were only two patrons at Les Mentheurs yesterday afternoon.
Things liven up in the evenings, Lipscomb said, adding the place was
packed last weekend.

He says he insists on supervising all salvia users personally, and he
bars anyone under 18.Users so far have ranged in age from 22 to the
low 30s, he said.

One lungful of salvia, burned in a water pipe in combination with
herbal tobacco and held in for 15 seconds, provides an altered state
of consciousness for "three to five minutes," he said.

Lipscomb charges $22 for a water pipe loaded for two users.

Salvia is being smoked by "17-year-olds getting so high they can't
even speak," he said. "Their videos are all over YouTube."

The RCMP "are aware of the drug," Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes said from
national headquarters in Ottawa. "But it's not a controlled
substance," she added.

She referred further questions to Health Canada.

"This is not on our list of controlled substances," department
official Paul Duchesne said.

"I have not evaluated any patient with this intoxication as yet,"
said Sophie Gosselin, a toxicology specialist and an emergency-room
physician at the McGill University Health Centre, "and I have not
heard of any colleague who has."

What are they smoking?

- - Salvia divinorum, a species of sage that belongs to the mint
family, is a hallucinogen native to Mexico. It is found in the form
of dried leaves, extract and plant cuttings.

- - It is not listed under Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act. It is illegal in Australia and Italy and is a controlled
substance in Denmark, Belgium and South Korea. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has labelled it a drug of concern.

- - Reliable, systematic and controlled observations on the
psychotropic activities of salvia divinorum are scarce, but effects
reported by users include sensations of travelling through time and
space, feelings of merging with inanimate objects, laughter, sense of
well-being, sedation/calmness, confusion/anxiety, lack of
coordination, chills/sweating, increased urination.

- - Health Canada "is collecting information about the plant and
assessing the risk that the unrestricted sale of the plant poses to
public health and safety" as well as "its abuse and dependence potential."

- - The department has "no specific information about actual usage in
Canada" and "has not elected to regulate salvia divinorum as a
controlled substance."

Sources: Health Canada, royal canadian mounted police