SALVIA, MADE POPULAR BY MILEY CYRUS VIDEO, SOLD LEGALLY IN VANCOUVER

Hallucinogenic plant legal in Canada; 15 U.S. states have banned it

The drug Salvia divinorum, made famous in the viral You-Tube video in
which pop star Miley Cyrus smokes a bong, has been sold quietly for at
least the past 10 years in Vancouver.

Fox News and other agencies are reporting that sales of the drug have
tripled in some U.S. states, such as California, where people are
specifically asking for "the stuff Miley was smoking."

But Vancouver Seed Bank owner Rebecca Ambrose says Salvia has long had
a following of perhaps a few hundred people locally.

"People come in fairly steadily asking about it and the effects from
it, but we haven't seen a big influx," Ambrose said. The East Hastings
shop sells live cuttings and a concentrated form. "We sell out of it
quite regularly."

"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."

The drug is widely available on the Internet in both Canada and the
United States as a dried leaf, a tobacco-like form fortified to
enhance its potency, an alcohol-based tincture and a nearly pure
crystalline form, used mainly for research purposes.

The leaves of the plant have been used for centuries by Mazatec
Indians in Oaxaca, Mexico, mainly by shamans seeking to induce visions.

A powerful hallucinogen in its concentrated form, the plant and its
derivatives are completely legal in Canada, according to the RCMP.
Fifteen U.S. states have banned it.

Cyrus was videotaped smoking the herb from a glass pipe known as a
bong on her 18th birthday. She begins to laugh hysterically and is
heard to say: "Omigod, I'm having a bit of a bad trip."

"I always recommend that people do it with someone who won't be
smoking it so you have someone there to make you feel secure," said
Ambrose. "You do for 15 minutes lose all sense of time and space."