ST. PETERS POLICE AND MAYOR WANT TO RESTRICT SALES OF HERB

St. Peters is poised to limit the sale of an herb that has been reported by
a Web site to have LSD-like effects, and in so doing could become the first
city in the nation to restrict the substance.

The herb, Salvia divinorum, can be sold legally to anyone and currently can
be bought at two stores in St. Peters. Another shop, a candy store that
recently stopped selling the herb, was in the Mid Rivers Mall.

Local emergency rooms have reported no instances of patients who are under
the influence of the herb, but doctors are aware of it, officials say.

Police and Mayor Tom Brown first heard about the substance when another
business owner at the mall complained, saying he had seen young teens
frequenting the store to buy salvia.

"We wanted to reassure parents that 12- and 14-year-olds are not going to
be able to save up their allowance to buy this - at least not in St.
Peters," said Sgt. David Kuppler of the St. Peters Police Department.

The restriction St. Peters seeks is modeled after the state's tobacco law.
If it passes at Thursday's council meeting, no one younger than 18 will be
able to buy it. A majority of alderman indicated during last week's work
session that they would approve the measure.

According to a Web site run by erowid.org, an online library of information
about psychoactive plants and chemicals and related topics, Salvia
divinorum originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico where it was used by
the Mazatec Indians for healing and religious ceremonies.

"Depending on the dosage, the salvia experience can vary from a subtle,
just-off-baseline state to a full-blown psychedelic experience," the Web
site says. "At higher dosages, users report dramatic time distortion, vivid
imagery, encounters with beings, travel to other places, planets or times,
living years as the paint on a wall or experiencing the full life of
another individual."

Long-term side effects of the herb are not known, but the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has added salvinorin A, the active ingredient in
salvia, to its list of drugs of concern.

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., introduced a bill last fall to
make the substance illegal, but it has not been voted on yet.

St. Peters Police Chief Tom Bishop has been in contact with Baca in his
investigation of the substance. Bishop said he had found no claims of
legitimate benefits for users of the herb.

Australia has outlawed the herb completely, giving it a classification
similar to crack, heroin and PCP.

Another Web site, one for the Center For Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, lists
St. Peters as the first U.S. city to propose a restriction on the herb. In
October, St. Peters was one of the first cities in the nation to put
restrictions on ephedrine, an ingredient in cold and allergy medications
that is used to manufacture methamphetamine. Retailers in St. Peters must
keep products containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

Salvia is sold by the gram and retails for $20 to $33, depending on the
potency of the herb.

To achieve its hallucinogenic effects, users inhale the fumes after
igniting them and, in some instances, chew the leaves.

Sgt. Mike Grawitch of the St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force says
that even though members of the task force have not seized any of the herb
during drug arrests, he believes salvia should be controlled.

"It's just a matter of time before we start seeing it," he said. "It seems
like a legal LSD or mescaline."

Gary Grafeman, owner of Retro-Active, one of the two shops in St. Peters
that sells salvia, agrees that the herb should be restricted to adults.

His shop in the 400 block of Mid Rivers Mall Drive posts warnings that
customers must be 18 years old to buy legal herbs, including salvia.

Grafeman, 46, his wife and daughter all say they have tried the herb and
got differing results. They say the effects happen immediately after
inhaling the fumes and last for about 10 minutes.

Grafeman says his customers range in age from 20 to 60. He gives all of
them a brochure that tells them about salvia and how to use it. The shop
sells between 10 and 15 bags of the herb a week.

Aldermen in St. Peters had initially wanted to outlaw the substance
altogether, but City Attorney Randy Weber said they didn't have the
authority to do so.

Kuppler said that police were not even aware of salvia until about six
months ago. He said that police had been torn about their decision to
educate the public about salvia.

"You're always taking the risk that the publicity is going to cause some
people who didn't know about salvia to try it, but we felt we had to let
the parents know what was going on," he said.

Correspondent Bryan Edwards contributed to this report.