THERE ARE MANY DRUGS THAT HELP PEOPLE GET OUT OF THEIR MINDS YET STAY
WITHIN THE LAW - THEY'RE CALLED 'LEGAL HIGHS'

Salvia divinorum, used by Aztecs to alter consciousness, can be bought
on eBay; 'spice' is four times stronger than cannabis, yet can be sold
over the counter; mephedrone is similar to crystal meth, but is
completely legal. Jamie Doward and Oliver Shah report on the growing
concern among politicians and police on both sides of the Atlantic

Earlier this month Kenneth Rau, 47, made history, for all the wrong
reasons. He is thought to have become the first person in America to
be charged with possessing salvia divinorum, a little-known drug
derived from the mint plant that was originally used by Mexican
shamans to alter their states of consciousness.

When chewed or smoked, the drug is said to have hallucinogenic
properties, with "highs" lasting anything from one to five minutes.
Users report that the apparently non-addictive drug can promote
uncontrollable laughter and evoke childhood memories. After-effects
also include an increased feeling of insight, an improved mood,
calmness and an enhanced connection with nature.

Not all users agree that salvia is an pleasurable experience, however.
"I like taking drugs to enjoy myself, but that wasn't fun," said Jo
Puddle, a London student who tried salvia once. "I thought all my arms
and legs had turned into tubes. I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone."

Rau, from Bismarck, Dakota, who bought the drug on eBay and received a
deferred sentence, can count himself unlucky. Few countries have
outlawed salvia and indeed only a handful of US states have made
possession of the drug a criminal offence.

That those states chose to criminalise the drug was largely in
response to a growing media clamour. There are concerns among a
powerful network of US broadcasters that what the Aztecs started the
YouTube generation is now appropriating for a more sinister intent.
Exploiting the drug's legality, videos promoting salvia - also known
as "Sage of the Seers" - have appeared on the web, spawning its own
glamorous subculture.

An entry on an online pro-drugs forum, where Rau has become an
unlikely hero, appears typical of users' experiences. "About 10
seconds later, I feel everything start to rush and it came so intense
I just started laughing hysterically and stood up," the user said.
"Then I started to feel like something was pulling on me and next
thing I know I'm thinking cartoon characters were coming away to take
me to their cartoon land. Then I was in the cartoon land. The high was
short but it was so intense and I've never tried anything else besides
pot and liquor."

The backlash against salvia is growing. Media interest in the US has
been heightened after the mother of Brett Chidester, a 17-year-old
Delaware student, blamed the drug for the suicide of her son. In his
diary, Chidester noted: "Salvia allows us to give up our senses and
wander in the interdimensional time and space. Also, and this is
probably hard for most to accept, our existence in general is
pointless. We earthly humans are nothing."

Kathleen Chidester is now leading a national crusade against the drug.
"My hope and goal is to have salvia regulated across the US," she
said. "It's my son's legacy and I will not end my fight until this
happens."

The US is not alone in its concerns. Just as the panic over crystal
meth went from the US to the UK, so concerns about salvia are now
lapping this country's shores - part of a wider anxiety about the
increasing visibility of "legal highs", a catch-all phrase for a
bewildering panoply of drugs that help people get out of their minds
while staying within the law.

Indeed its legality is one of salvia's USPs. "I know a few people who
do this and they always go back for more," said Danny Smith, a railway
worker from London who takes salvia occasionally. "I don't take
illegal drugs because of my job, so I take these instead. I smoked
some the other day. I felt like I was being pushed down into the
ground, like I was floating, at the same time. It's not something you
could do every day, but it's fun at the weekend."

John Mann, a Labour MP, claims the drug is "very harmful". In 2005, he
sponsored an early day motion calling for it to be banned and nothing
that has happened since has made him change his mind.

In a recent letter to the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, Mann writes:
"Sadly the issue has come to light again as our young people are using
the internet and sites like YouTube to broadcast their friends taking
the drug and witnessing the hallucinogenic effects. Our young people
are at risk and a wider cultural attachment to this drug seems to be
developing that I am sure you agree - regardless of its legal status -
needs nipping in the bud."

Last week, Mann's request was partially answered. A Home Office
minister, Phil Woolas, confirmed to parliament that the market in
"legal highs" was now an issue for the government. When asked by an
Ulster Unionist MP, Lady Hermon, whether the government intended to
classify salvia as an illegal drug, Woolas said the home secretary had
written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the
independent body that advises government on drugs, asking it to
investigate.

Woolas said the council had been asked to "provide advice to
government on the availability and harms of psychoactive legal
alternatives to illegal drugs, so-called 'legal highs', with a
particular focus on protecting young people. I fully anticipate that
this work will include salvia divinorum. The government's position on
its control will be informed by advisory council's advice."

Both Smith and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) are
concerned about the sale of legal highs through "head shops" -
retailers who sell drug paraphernalia such as bongs and rolling equipment.

Close interest in the activities of the shops, which have spread
rapidly across Britain, was sparked by the advisory council's recent
work around cannabis reclassification. The council observed how
cannabis seeds were widely sold through the shops and their online
counterparts, allowing users to grow their own drugs.

Currently the sale of cannabis seeds is legal because they can be used
for non-criminal ventures - chiefly the production of the material,
hemp. But the police fear the head shops are exploiting legal
loopholes. As a result, last month Acpo published new guidance on head
shops for the police. It advocated officers make test purchases as "an
effective way of gathering evidence of the true nature of a business".
It recommended that "covert observations of premises may be considered
appropriate in order to establish patterns of behaviour and the
movement of vehicles".

The move has been interpreted in some quarters as a declaration of war
on head shops, one that could have damaging consequences for the
"legal highs" market. Unsurprisingly, head shops have been quick to
launch their defence.

"These drugs aren't like magic mushrooms," said Ahmed Noar, sales
assistant at a head shop on Camden High Street, north London. "Magic
mushrooms were made illegal because they were dangerous. These highs
are perfectly safe. If they were made illegal it would damage our
business - we rely on legal highs for about 20% of our income."

Paradoxically, because many of the drugs are legal they have escaped
scrutiny - which means little is known about their side-effects or the
size of their market. Given this lacuna, misinformation is rife. "The
problem is people often hear about them by word of mouth," said Martin
Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, an organisation that collects
street data on the drugs scene. "The highs are often exaggerated and
the harm understated. They are technically legal. Does that mean they
are safe? No, it does not."

Indeed, close analysis often reveals many of the many apparently legal
drugs contain illegal and dangerous substances. One of the most
popular is spice, which comes in varieties such as spice gold, spice
arctic synergy and spice yukatan fire

The drug, usually rolled into cigarettes and smoked like cannabis, was
recently made illegal in Austria and Germany after some varieties were
shown to contain a synthetic material, JWH-018, that is four times
stronger than THC, the natural psychoactive substance in cannabis.

"It has been confirmed that the fashion-drug spice is indeed not the
harmless herbal mixture its manufacturers say it is," said Sabine
Baetzing of Germany's Social Democrats party when the ban was
announced earlier this year. "Tests have shown that smoking the drug
can cause undesirable side affects on the heart, circulation and
nervous system, in some cases leading to unconsciousness. There is
also a danger of addiction."

The reverse also applies. Some head shops are advertising a "legal"
form of BZP, a compound drug similar to ecstasy also known as "Benny"
and "Frenzy" - which is available in the UK only on prescription and
is banned in many other countries. Tests show, however, that much of
the "legal" BZP sold in the UK bears little chemical resemblance to
the restricted drug.

The truth is that - as with illegal drugs - buyers don't know what
they are getting unless it is tested. And manufacturers of legal highs
are adept at churning out new varieties at an impressive rate. A new
drug called mephedrone, for example, sells for around UKP 14 a gram
and has many of the effects of amphetamine and cocaine. Chemically,
the compound is extremely similar to crystal meth, but its legal
status is ambiguous, banned in some countries but not in others given
its relatively recent appearance and its low profile.

Drugscope's magazine, Druglink, reports that drugs similar to
mephedrone first appeared in Israel around 2004, under the name
"hagigat" and were outlawed following several hospitalisations in Tel
Aviv. But its producers modified hagigat's chemical structure and
started selling the new drugs under the name "neorganics".

The advisory council's working group has pledged to outline its
initial findings on the legal highs market at an open meeting next
month. The task promises to be a mammoth one, according to Barnes.

"Drugs policy should be based on evidence," Barnes said. "Where there
is clear evidence a drug is harmful it should be made illegal, but I
suspect the working group will have difficulty in gathering evidence
both of the prevalence [of legal highs] and of establishing how
harmful they are."

Many believe the government would be wasting its time attempting to
tackle the legal highs market, given its limited success in tackling
the sale of illegal drugs.

"Cannabis is completely fine, salvia and spice are perfectly safe too
if you're healthy," said Danny Mango, manager of Shoprite Market,
another head shop in Camden High Street. "What the government says is
all propaganda."

But the manager of a head shop a few yards further down the street
suggested there was at least a case to be made against salvia. "I
think it's really dangerous and I'd never try it myself," he said.

"If I caught my kids smoking it, I'd give them a smack round the head.
If you try it once, fine. But if you smoke it for five, 10 years,
you'll have big problems. It'll change who you are. If I ever see
parents come in here with their teenagers, I have a quiet word with
them and say, 'You should not be letting them near this stuff'."

[Sidebar]

AVAILABLE OVER THE COUNTER ...

Herbal Ecstasy

Sold at dance events, clubs, concerts and festivals. Often contains
ephedrine, an extract of the Chinese herb ma huang, which is reported
to have effects such as shivers down the spine, sensitive skin and
muscles and feelings of exhilaration. Higher doses can be unpleasant,
possibly causing muscle spasms and heart attacks. In China, ma huang
is sold as a medicine and an aphrodisiac. In the UK, it is sold as
Cloud 9, Nirvana Plus, and other herbal highs said to mimic ecstasy.

Yohimbine

Marketed as an aphrodisiac (and often referred to as herbal Viagra)
and sold as a hallucinogenic with stimulant effects in some
natural-high capsules, such as Yohimbix8, or as an additive to other
herbal highs. Yohimbine is derived from the west African Yohimba tree
roots or bark, Corynanthe yohimbe or Pausinystalia yohimbe. The drug
increases the availability of noradrenaline (a "fight or flight"
hormone) that in turn raises blood pressure and increases heart rate.
The hallucinations are said to be quite strong and the effects on the
body similar to that of ecstasy.

Salvia

Salvia is derived from the American plant Salvia divinorum, a member
of the mint family. It is marketed in the UK as herbal ecstasy, using
names such as Eclipse. It is purchased dried for smoking or as a
herbal remedy under its botanical name. Its effects are more
hallucinatory than other legal highs, although high doses are usually
needed to achieve these effects. Banned in several US states.

Spice

Brand name for a mixture of herbs, usually smoked for their
cannabis-like effects. Several different "flavours" of Spice have been
shown to contain different proportions of the synthetic cannabinoid
active ingredients. Banned in several countries, including Austria and
Germany.

BZP

Benzylpiperazine, to give it its proper name, is a recreational drug
with euphoric, stimulant properties similar to amphetamine. Its sale
is banned in a few countries, including the United States, Australia,
New Zealand, Ireland and other parts of Europe. Restricted in the UK.
Currently under investigation by the EU.