MEXICAN WEED HAS DEA, COPS CONCERNED

MADISON, Wis. -- The clerks at Knuckleheads Tobacco & Gifts, a Madison
smoking accessories shop, aren't allowed to say words such as marijuana,
weed or pot.

Although some customers undoubtedly smoke marijuana and are drawn to the
store's water pipes and rolling papers, any reference to illegal drugs
could get the clerks into trouble with their boss or the police, who tend
to keep a close eye on counterculture establishments.

So it's difficult for them to describe what it's like to smoke Salvia
divinorum, a legal and increasingly popular Mexican plant that some in
Congress want banned.

"It's like coming down off of, you know, but without the really tired
feeling you would normally get," Mike Molkentin, 20, said from behind the
Knuckleheads counter. "I was able to relax and get into a different mind
state."

Drug enforcement authorities would like to stop the spread of Salvia
divinorum before it explodes the way Ecstasy did before it was criminalized.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers salvia one of its "drugs
and chemicals of concern." And U.S. Rep Joe Baca, D-Calif., promises to
reintroduce legislation in January that would make salvia an illegal drug.
Baca introduced similar legislation in October, but it died in committee.

In Dane County, Wis., police have begun to see increased use of the plant
among teenagers.

"The fact is, it's out there and kids are learning about it," said
Detective George Chavez of the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force.

But because the government does not classify Salvia divinorum as an illegal
substance, there is nothing the task force, or any other government agency,
can do to regulate its use.

A plant that grows wild in Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, Salvia
divinorum is legal everywhere except for Australia, which criminalized it
in June.

Users either smoke or eat the plant's dark green leaves. For now, it can be
bought at shops such as Knuckleheads, which charges $4.95 a gram, and, more
prominently, from stores on the Internet.

A small amount of salvia, about half a gram, is enough to produce a
"clearheaded state" that is useful for meditation, said Daniel Siebert, a
California man who has studied the plant for 20 years and, in the eyes of
its devotees, is to Salvia divinorum what Timothy Leary was to LSD in the
1960s.

At medium doses, Siebert said, Salvia divinorum can bring greater awareness
of color, including "subtle visions that are geometric patterns not seen
with your eyes open."

Higher doses are said to produce more realistic visions in which one sees
dreamlike scenery. Such visions can resemble those induced by
hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD.

But Salvia divinorum is by no means a social substance, Siebert said.
Unlike Ecstasy, which has been labeled a "party drug," Salvia divinorum
users become very introverted.

"You can't really engage much with people," Siebert said.

Whether there are health risks involved with using Salvia divinorum is unclear.