CAMPUS ADS FOR SAGE PLANT ATTRACT POLICE

A native Mexican plant called diviner's sage is causing a big fuss in the
washrooms of the Red River College's downtown campus.

Now city police are involved to see if someone is trafficking in an illegal
substance.

Sgt. Rick Guyader said yesterday the drug unit has sent a sample of
diviner's sage to the health protection branch to be tested for
hallucinogenic properties that have been banned under Canada's Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act.

If hallucinogens are found, police will have grounds to investigate how the
plant wound up in the Princess Street campus across from the Public Safety
Building.

"We've never come across it before," Guyader said.

According to a report in this week's Red River College student newspaper
The Projector, someone has been advertising diviner's sage for sale by
leaving home-computer-made handbills in the downtown campus's washrooms.
Diviner's sage, also known as Salvia divinorum, produces a temporary high
when smoked, according to Lycaeum.org.

The person leaving the handbills in the washrooms provides a cellphone
number and e-mail address. It's being sold for $50 a gram. (A gram of
marijuana sells for $10.)

A man who answered the phone claimed his friend was selling the sage only
to make a few dollars. He said he smoked it once, but didn't like the
experience.

Ross McCorriston, head of security at RRC, said his staff were unaware of
the drug being peddled on campus, as no one reported anything to his office.

He said he first became aware of the situation when he read the student
newspaper yesterday.

McCorriston said security staff have not altered their duties because no
one has complained to his office. Guyader said he did not know when results
of the lab test will come back to city police.