MADBURY LAWMAKER MAY BRING BILL TO OUTLAW LEGAL HALLUCINOGEN

DOVER - Not long ago state Rep. Janet Wall found a news article on
the powerful and, in New Hampshire, legal hallucinogenic herb salvia divinorum.

She expected to explore whether the herb was being used around here.
Then she got a call from a parent of a local high school student who
was shocked to find her daughter had used it.

Now Wall's considering filing legislation to possibly make the
Granite State the 14th state to make salvia a controlled and illegal
substance. Seven states are considering regulation.

Salvia - also known as Maria Pastora, Sage of the Seers, Diviner's
Sage, Sally-D and Magic Mint - is also under review by the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency for inclusion in Controlled Substances Act.
The DEA has warned of the "substantial risk of injury or death" of
getting high off the herb.

"I always thought of salvia as a plant outdoors," Wall, D-Madbury,
said this week.

Salvia, which belongs to the biological species commonly known as
sage, can be quite common. But there's also a species known for
altering perceptions and zonking out users - and local police have
expressed concern.

"It's is very disturbing and it's a serious concern that it's
available locally," Wall said. "I don't know if legislation will be
filed. I don't know to what degree the problem is. But I want to be
ready as soon as the date opens for filing in case this problem is
more than one family."

There's a good chance it is, considering the Dover smoke shop that
sells salvia says it's become popular and the Dover Police
Department, which wants to see it become illegal, dedicated an
education program with middle school patents to it.

The DEA reports salvia divinorum, which is native to certain areas of
the Sierra Mazateca region of Oaxaca, Mexico, is more common among
people 18 to 25 years old, with an estimated 1.8 million people 12
years old or older having used the substance as of February 2008.

The DEA says the effects of smoking salvia are felt within 30 seconds
and last about 30 minutes, with effects including uncontrolled
laughter, "a sense of loss of body, overlapping realities and hallucinations."

The parent who called Wall requested her name not be printed out of
concern for her daughter's reputation.

"She used a gram of it. I have the empty package," the parent said.
"It's kind of shocking to know that it's being sold locally."

She's concerned teenagers are experimenting with legal substances
akin to hallucinogenic mushrooms.

"There's a real dissociated state at first where they can be a danger
to themselves," she said. "One (web) site recommended having a
sitter" if using it.

Wall said testimony regarding lowering the legal drinking age has
shown that young people's brains do not begin to fully develop until
their 20s and the parts of the brain affected by things like salvia
control judgment.

"So people who think something may be harmless try it and get
themselves in more trouble than they ever imagined," she said.

Wall said she appreciated the parent being proactive and trying to
draw attention to salvia.

The filing period for filing new legislation is usually in September
or October, she said.

In 2007, Maine began regulating salvia as if it were tobacco so only
adults 18 and older could purchase and use the herb.