HEAD-SHOP OWNERS DISMISS CALL TO CRIMINALIZE SALVIA

A new push to criminalize a little-known herbal hallucinogenic drug
isn't giving Chris Bennett cold sweats just yet.

In fact, the Vancouver head-shop owner says any controversy over
salvia divinorum probably will be good for his business.

"Whenever I get a little bit of TV coverage on salvia, I get a burst
of business," said the owner of Urban Shaman, where the sage is sold
for up to $20 a gram in higher concentrations.

"It's more middle-age people who start coming in," he says. "The
college kids all know about it."

The city council in Leduc, Alta., south of Edmonton, is pushing the
federal government to criminalize a drug Mayor Greg Krischke has
called "the new acid."

Sometimes known as Diviner's Sage, the drug is sold as a dark, powdery
substance and smoked like marijuana.

It's available in hemp stores across the country and through the
Internet.

When smoked, it causes intense hallucinations that usually last a few
minutes. The effects of long-term use aren't well documented.

It's already been banned in Australia, Denmark, Italy, Belgium and
South Korea. Health Canada is studying the drug.

Bennett said he's never heard of any health problems or overdoses
associated with the drug.

"This is purely a moral concern about somebody using visionary types
of plants," Bennett says.

Colin Rogucki has been selling salvia for more than five years at his
"cannabis-culture" Shell Shock stores he owns in Alberta.

Rogucki says that if the substance was outlawed, people would just
resort to different means of buying it.

"It would just end up being another black-market problem," he said,
adding it would force users to deal with drug dealers instead of shop
owners.

He says he has a catalogue "full of legal herbs" that could make a
person intoxicated. Getting rid of just one item wouldn't make sense
to him, he said.