LAWMAKERS PURSUE BAN ON HALLUCINOGENIC PLANT

TALLAHASSEE -- Shamans in part of Mexico find value in Salvia
divinorum, a hallucinogenic sage plant. So, apparently, do some young
adults who post giddy, sometimes incoherent on-line videos of
themselves smoking it.

The Florida Senate? Not so much.

On Tuesday, the plant that migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, to the United
States made what could prove a fateful trip -- to the Senate Committee
on Criminal Justice.

The committee endorsed a ban on the plant and its extract -- which
researchers say are comparable in potency to LSD, arguably the
best-known hallucinogen.

Salvia divinorum would join cannabis, peyote and LSD on the state's
most unwanted list of Schedule I controlled substances. Sale or
possession would become a felony punishable by up to five years in
prison.

While the idea got a lukewarm reception Tuesday from some locally, it
cleared the committee unanimously.

"It's extremely hallucinatory, and when you have a drug that is that
hallucinogenic, it can lead to endangering yourself or others," said
the bill's primary Senate sponsor, Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

Lynn said use has spiraled. She cited a 2006 federal survey that
concluded 1.8 million Americans had tried Salvia divinorum, which can
be eaten or smoked.

Several other states have banned or proposed bans on the plant, which
is widely available through the Internet. The bill also has been
introduced in the Florida House.

To be listed as a Schedule I controlled substance in Florida, a
substance must have a "high potential for abuse" and no accepted
medical use in the United States. A Senate analysis concluded it met
those standards.

Bryan Roth, a professor of pharmacology at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he thought "everybody agrees it should
be regulated in some way."

But conclusions about its abuse potential are based largely on
anecdotes, which suggests many people find it too intense and don't
use it many times.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any human studies, controlled clinical
studies to show what the abuse liability is," said Roth, who was a
pioneer researcher on the plant.

Locally, Douglas Davies, medical director of The Stewart-Marchman
Center, said no one has shown up for treatment for it. He said the
Legislature should be spending its energy addressing tobacco and
prescription drug abuse problems.

At Tropic Shores, 3111 S. Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach Shores, owner
Harrison Griffin sells Salvia divinorum as aromatic incense with
prices ranging from $20 to $70, depending on quantity and potency.

He has a few customers who come in regularly for it and described one
as "ravenous" for it. He was not surprised the government would want
to ban it.

"It's part of our Puritan heritage to clamp down on anything and
everything," Griffin said.