STATES CAST WARY EYE ON SALVIA

Legal Herb Is Hallucinogenic

NEW YORK STATE — Two years ago, the New York State Office of
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services put an informational item
about a little-known hallucinogenic herb called Salvia divinorum on
its Web site.

Salvia is unregulated and can be purchased in head or smoke shops or
on the Internet by anyone with a credit card, and it isn't illegal.

Now, a growing number of states are considering banning or regulating
salvia, which is said to trigger intense but relatively brief hallucinations.

Earlier this year, the New York State Senate passed a bill that would
have made it illegal to sell salvia in New York, but a similar
measure died in the state Assembly. In Massachusetts, legislators are
considering a bill that would ban salvia, and the Drug Enforcement
Agency lists salvia as a "drug of concern." Twelve states, including
Maine and California, have already moved to ban or regulate it.

Though salvia use is far from prevalent in the Capital Region, it's
something drug-prevention experts are aware of.

"We haven't seen a lot of use," said Patty Kilgore, clinical director
at the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention. "We've seen a lot of kids
who are aware of it. … More kids know about it than are actually
using it. It's not classified, but it probably should be."

Kilgore said she's talked to a few teens who have used salvia. She
said there are several reasons teens are less likely to use salvia
than other drugs. For one thing, they may not have a credit card,
which would make it more difficult to purchase salvia online. Some
kids have also complained that salvia is not a "good high" — that
because the drug is unregulated, it doesn't always produce the
desired effect. And addicts, she noted, are less likely to use
hallucinogenics because you develop a tolerance to them more quickly.
"Salvia isn't a daily use type of drug," she said.

Nancy Johnson, coordinator of the Schenectady County Substance Abuse
Prevention Partnership, said staff first learned about salvia about a
year and a half ago, when a parent reported that a child's friend had
used the drug. "We were all on the Internet researching it, but then
things died down," she said. "We haven't heard anyone talk about salvia since."

The Schenectady County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership sent
information about salvia to parents, Johnson said, to make them aware
of it. But in terms of teenage substance abuse, alcohol and marijuana
remain the biggest problems, and officials are concerned about
illicit prescription drug use, she said. Some kids have started
holding "rainbow parties," where they throw different pills into a
bowl, mix them up and then take one or two of them, she said.

Dianne Henk, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Services, said OASAS decided to post the item on
salvia on the agency's Web site after the agency's medical director
read several articles about the drug.

Henk said that it's important that parents know about the drug, and
how easy it is to obtain over the Internet. "Because it's so easy to
obtain and not regulated, it's something the medical community is
talking about," she said. "Because we know the Internet spreads the
word, and because we know there's a great deal of information on the
Internet, the sense was that it was important to address it."

Right now, the state has no plans to regulate salvia, Henk said. "Our
focus is 'let's educate as much as possible,'" she said.

The legislation to outlaw salvia in New York was proposed by state
Sen. John Flanagan, R-Smithtown. "Parents are unaware of this," said
Robert Caroppoli, a spokesman for Flanagan. "[Flanagan] sees it as a
gateway drug to harsher drugs. He decided that if the federal
government wasn't going to do anything, he would try to do something here."

Determining how many people in New York have used salvia is tricky.

"It's not a substance which we track," Henk said.

A National Survey of Drug Use and Health report released in February
found that more people are using salvia.

"There is evidence suggesting the emergence of new hallucinogens,
such as Salvia divinorum, which has been marketed as an 'herbal
high,'" the report noted. About 1.8 million people aged 12 and older
have used salvia in their lifetime, and approximately 750,000 did so
in 2006. In comparison, approximately 23 million people aged 12 and
older have used LSD in their lifetime, but fewer than 700,000 people
used LSD in 2006.

Salvia, which is also known as diviner's sage, is a psychoactive drug
that is typically smoked, but can also be absorbed by chewing, tea
infusions or inhaling the vapors of the burning leaves. It is a
perennial herb in the mint family, native to Mexico, where the
Mazaetc Indians use it in healing ceremonies. But little is known
about its long-term effects.

The OASAS item on salvia states, "Currently, there is a lack of
information regarding plants or weeds commonly found in our
environment that can cause serious legal harm when ingested, smoked
or rubbed into the skin. Most of these substances are not illegal. …
Research suggests that teen misuse of these weeds and plants
increases when they are in bloom in the spring and summer months,
though they can be used year round and could possibly be purchased
over the Internet."