SALVIA 'THE MOST POTENT' NATURAL HALLUCINOGEN

Online video of Miley Cyrus smoking the plant in a bong has peaked
interest in the legal psychoactive, which is sold locally

Health Canada is warning people to avoid using the Mexican herb
Salvia divinorum until its effects are better understood.

Native to Oaxaca, Mexico, the plant known as Magic Mint or Seer's
Sage has been used for centuries by Mazatec Indian shamans for
medicinal purposes and to induce visions, but also has gained a
foothold in Canada and United States as a recreational drug.

Salvia divinorum is not illegal in Canada, but the herb has been
under study by the national health agency since at least 2006 to
determine whether it should be regulated under the Controlled Drug
and Substance Act.

But Health Canada warns that products containing Salvia divinorum or
its extracts may violate the Food and Drugs Act, according to
spokesman Stephane Shank. Natural health products must be reviewed by
Health Canada and approved for sale; so far none has been approved.

Fortified Salvia is sold at head shops and some corner stores in a
marijuana-like smokable form as well as in alcohol-based tinctures.

Salvia is not on the radar of local law enforcement as a dangerous
drug, according to Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard of the RCMP's Greater
Vancouver Drug Section.

"It really hasn't come to the attention of police here in the Lower
Mainland," said Goddard, who attended a police workshop last month in
Montreal that included a segment on Salvia. "I know back east in
Toronto and Montreal they are talking about it and hearing from
parents about kids using it. It's become a problem out there with
more reports and incidents."

In its more potent forms, within a few seconds of smoking, Salvia
induces intense debilitating hallucinations that may last from 15 to
30 minutes, according to experienced users who responded to a blog
post on The Sun's website ( vancouversun.com/randyshore).

"It's not even comparable to marijuana. I could not see, move, or
speak. I thought I had died and gone to hell. I could not remember my
name, what I looked like, what species I was. I felt nothing but
fear," wrote a woman who identified herself as Betty C.

Interest in Salvia intensified late last week when a video leaked on
the Internet showed pop star Miley Cyrus laughing and hallucinating
after smoking the herb through a large plastic pipe. YouTube contains
dozens of videos of teens who enter a state of total disorientation
and panic after smoking Salvia divinorum.

"What the video will do is raise awareness of this drug and that may
lead to more people experimenting with it and raise demand and
profits for legitimate and illegitimate enterprises," said Robert
Gordon, director of the Simon Fraser School of Criminology.

Media reports from the United States suggest that sales of the herb
have tripled in some states since the Miley Cyrus video was released.
Salvia is banned in 15 states, including Delaware where the herb was
blamed in the 2006 suicide of 16-year-old Brett Chidester.

A 24-year-old man convicted of raping and killing a mother of five on
Calgary's C-Train in 2008 claimed to have been drinking and smoking
Salvia beforehand. The court ruled that Christopher Watcheston was
not so intoxicated that he didn't know what he was doing.

A 2009 drug and alcohol use survey conducted by Health Canada found
that 0.5 per cent of adults have tried the herb, but 7.3 per cent of
youth aged 15 to 24 reported having used Salvia at least once. Only
0.2 per cent of Canadians report having used it in the past year,
compared with 10.6 per cent for marijuana.

The herb has a steady following in Vancouver where it has been sold
openly for at least the last 10 years, according to Vancouver Seed
Bank owner Rebecca Ambrose.

"A wide range of people are interested in its psychedelic effects and
don't want to be out of it for a long time," she said. "It's not like
mushrooms or LSD where you are in for an eight-hour journey. In its
extract form, Salvia causes an intense hallucinogenic effect for
about 15 minutes."

"It's not a party drug," she added.

The store sells Salvia in variety of forms and as fresh cuttings.
Chewing fresh leaves or smoking Salvia in its non-fortified form
produces a much milder intoxication.

American academic Daniel Seibert notes that the pharmacological
properties of Salvia divinorum are unique and not similar to those of
other known psychoactive drugs such as LSD and marijuana, with which
it is most frequently compared.

He is widely credited with identifying salvinorin A, the psychoactive
molecule in Salvia divinorum.

The plant has a low toxicity and appears to have no addictive
properties, according to Seibert, who sells the herb in a variety of
potent forms on his website.

A 2006 study by Iranian toxicologists at Mashad University of Medical
Sciences called Salvia divinorum "the most potent naturally occurring
hallucinogen thus far isolated."