'HEAD SHOP' HERB LEADS TO 'PSYCHIC BLACK HOLE' - OR NO EFFECT

The DEA Is Looking Into Salvia Divinorum, But Sellers Say It's Not Popular,
And A Doctor Warns It's Not For Novices

An herb with hallucinogenic qualities being researched by the Drug
Enforcement Administration is available over the counter in Tucson.

But a drug expert, University of Arizona professor of medicine Andrew Weil,
says it's a bad trip, "like being plunged into a psychic black hole."

Others report no effect at all.

Salvia divinorum is a type of sage sold at "head shops" here including Puff
N' Stuff, 4235 E. Speedway Blvd., and Moon Smoke Shop, 120 W. Grant Road.
Sometimes it's available in pure leaf form, which Moon sells for $2 per
gram. It can be chewed or mixed into liquid, but the type sold in Tucson is
most commonly smoked, shop employees said.

At Puff N' Stuff, where the leaves sold out a couple of months ago, it's
available as an extract boasting five, 10 or 15 times the concentration of
the leaves' active ingredient. The extract ranges in price from $17 to $35
for about a gram.

"You just put it in a bowl and smoke it," said Steve Eckburg, a Puff N'
Stuff employee. "I smoked a gram (of leaves). It was, like, three bowls,
and I really didn't feel anything." The brand sold at Puff N' Stuff - Holy
Smoke! - claims the extract is 100 percent natural and grown in Oaxaca.
Packaging warns people not to drive and to have someone present to watch
beginners. It can be mixed with tobacco.

Eckburg said salvia isn't really popular. The writing on the package
detailing the distributing company is so small it can't be made out, and he
said he couldn't release information about the distributor. He said people
say the effects last up to 30 minutes, and one person complained about the
effects, or lack thereof, but didn't try to return the product.

"A lot of people come in and said they've tried the extract and said
they've really felt the effects of it," Eckburg said. "We don't sell too
much of it, actually, to tell you the truth."

At Moon, employees aren't permitted to speak with the media, but a Salvia
divinorum fact sheet they distribute states, "When used in small doses the
user feels a relaxing state of mind, altered light perception, uncontrolled
fits of laughing."

It continues, "When used in larger amounts, intense laughter and 'out of
body' experiences can occur."

A spokesman for the DEA, Will Glaspy, said the agency is trying to
determine the herb's availability, abuse potential and effects on humans,
including its potential to addict. After the agency reaches a conclusion
about whether the herb needs to be controlled, Glaspy said, his agency
would have the authority to declare it illegal without congressional approval.

"We want to make sure we don't control something that doesn't need to be
controlled, and we want to make sure we protect the public by controlling
something that's dangerous," Glaspy said. "At this point we don't know that
there's a need to make it illegal. But because it's not illegal at this
point doesn't make it a safe substance."

Glaspy, who said he's never tried salvia, said he doesn't know if it's
addictive or if any illnesses were ever documented as a result of smoking it.

UA's Weil, who said he tried a derivative of the active chemical in salvia,
said the psycho-active plant was once used by Indian shamans, or medicine
men, in Oaxaca, Mexico.

"There's growing use of it in the psychedelic community," Weil said. "I
would really warn people to be careful about using it. It was very
frightening."

Weil described his experience as "very scary" and not for "novice users of
psychedelics."

Rick Doblin, who runs the Boston-based Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit public policy group dedicated to
developing medicinal uses for psychedelic drugs and marijuana, says salvia
is not habit-forming.

"Most people who smoke it don't enjoy it and don't ever do it again,"
Doblin said, adding he has never tried it. "It's just not one of your
pleasant, more desirable drugs."

Doblin said the DEA is "being ridiculous" because it is drawing attention
to a drug that it wouldn't otherwise have received.