LEGAL, INTENSE HALLUCINOGEN RAISES ALARMS

Salvia Divinorum Produces Short, Dreamlike Experience

Salvia divinorum is a bright, leafy green plant from Mexico that when
chewed or smoked causes intense hallucinations comparable to LSD or
"magic mushrooms."

And it's legal in California.

The drug is available all over the Bay Area, mostly in smoke shops and
herbal stores. It's also sold over the Internet. For $15 to $50 a hit,
users get a high that sends them into a dream-like state for anywhere
from a few minutes to an hour or two.

Unlike well-known illicit drugs such as marijuana or cocaine, salvia
is not in widespread use. It hasn't caught the attention of state or
local health departments. San Francisco police said that while they're
aware of salvia, it's not yet a problem.

But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has taken notice, and the
drug has been outlawed in at least four states. Legislation was
introduced in California earlier this year to make it illegal.

The fear is that salvia seems to be appealing to a growing group of
young people, drawn to the drug by the fact that it's legal and natural.

"My friend told me he did cocaine, and salvia was more intense than
that. And it's legal, so I figured it wasn't as dangerous," said
Phuong, a 23-year-old from San Jose who has tried salvia twice.

Phuong asked that her last name not be published because she didn't
want people to know she had used the drug.

"Salvia could just be a flash in the pan, or it could turn into an
important trend," said John Mendelson, a senior scientist at the
Research Institute at California Pacific Medical Center, where he is
studying potential health benefits of salvia. "This seems to be an
aficionado drug right now, but the trajectory with things like that is
it starts with a small group of adherents and spreads to larger groups
with less controlled use.

"From my perspective, we have an incredibly unique opportunity to
learn something before it hits widespread use."

But Mendelson might have to move fast to keep ahead of looming
government restrictions of salvia.

The DEA is monitoring salvia to decide whether it should be regulated
or banned outright, and a California assemblyman introduced
legislation to outlaw it after law enforcement agencies in Southern
California reported increased use. The legislation was voted down in
committee in March, but Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia (San
Bernardino County), has pledged to bring it up again next year.

"It's kind of terrifying that we are actively allowing commerce of a
drug that has LSD-like qualities," Adams said. "Use of it is only
going to get worse. There is no way this drug is going to get less
popular."

Not a lot is known about salvia and its long-term effects, but most
medical researchers agree that there don't seem to be any immediate
negative side effects of the drug, and they say it is highly unlikely
that it is addictive.

The main concern of opponents to the drug is what people might do
while they're hallucinating -- get in a car, for example, or react
violently to their surroundings. A Rhode Island teenager claimed to be
on salvia when he stabbed a friend, and the parents of a Louisiana
teenager have said they believe their son killed himself because he
was smoking salvia. But neither incident has been definitely linked to
the drug.

In the meantime, some researchers say salvia could have beneficial
effects -- including uses treating depression or bipolar disorder --
and they worry that a federal ban of the drug would make it difficult
to study its effect on human subjects. Mendelson at California Pacific
Medical Center is starting the first clinical trial of salvia next
month, testing seven or eight people to see how much of the drug they
must take before they start hallucinating. Nearly all medical
researchers say there isn't enough evidence to determine whether
salvia is safe or not.

"Certainly it sounds like it could have potential for harm," said
Cathi Dennehy, a professor in the department of clinical pharmacy at
UCSF. "If you have something that's causing people to have very
intense, out-of-body experiences, that's pretty concerning."

But Jodie Trafton, an addiction specialist at Veterans Affairs Palo
Alto Health Care System, said because the effects of salvia are brief
- -- often lasting just a few minutes, compared with LSD, which can
cause hallucinations for many hours -- and because the drug is almost
definitely nonaddictive, she doubts regulation will be necessary.

"People who use this aren't going to continue using it," Trafton said.
"You're never going to get more than low-level use. And the effect is
too short, so by the time somebody starts freaking out over the
effects, it's over. It's not something that's going to bombard
emergency rooms."

Salvia divinorum is a species of sage, but is the only plant in the
salvia family to cause hallucinations. As a drug, it's usually just
known as salvia but goes by a variety of other names, including "Sally
D" and "magic mint."

The plant is grown primarily in Oaxaca, Mexico, where for decades it
has been used by the Mazatec shamans in religious ceremonies -- thus
the "divination" in the name.

The drug didn't reach the United States until the late 1980s or early
1990s, and even then it wasn't widely available until five or six
years ago. It's now also grown in California and other states, but is
mostly imported from Mexico and Central and South America, and it
comes in the form of fresh or dried leaves, whole plants, seeds or
sometimes just a salvia extract.

In a 2004 study out of UCSF, Salvia divinorum was the second
most-popular ingredient in legal recreational drugs sold on the
Internet, behind only ephedra, a stimulant and dietary supplement that
has since been outlawed. Salvia is often sold on the Internet as the
main ingredient in products that promise hallucinogenic effects, but
it is more commonly used by itself.

A chemical found in salvia called salvinorin A causes hallucinations.
It is considered the most potent known natural hallucinogenic and is
unique in how it reacts with the brain's chemical receptors -- unlike
most psychotropic drugs, salvinorin A does not react to serotonin receptors.

In fact, salvia's similarity with LSD and mushrooms ends with
hallucinations. Even the hallucinogenic effect is different. Rather
than interacting with their environment -- LSD is known to intensify
colors, smells and sounds, for example -- salvia users often report
out-of-body experiences, during which they feel as though they are in
a different place or time.

"It was about dusk, and I saw these little fairy homes that were
nestled in the hillside, like Hobbit houses," said Daniel Siebert, a
Malibu biologist who is considered a worldwide expert on salvia,
describing the first time he used it. "Salvia will induce a
hallucinatory state, but qualitatively it's different from LSD and
other hallucinogens. The feelings it evokes are more dream-like, more
natural. It doesn't feel like a drug."

Siebert, like many salvia users, said he supports limited regulation
of salvia, such as licensing dealers. He sells salvia on the Internet,
but he won't sell to minors and suggests users read up on the drug
before trying it. He worries that young people are using salvia
without taking basic precautions, such as avoiding overly potent
samples of the drug or taking it in an environment where they could
endanger themselves.

He scoffs at the fairly recent popularity of salvia on YouTube, where
young people on the drug have filmed themselves and their friends
writhing on the ground within seconds of inhaling salvia from a pipe,
only to recover a few minutes later.

"Those videos are certainly not going to help the situation. They make
salvia look like some horrible drug that makes people nuts and
dangerous," Siebert said. "Certainly it's a powerful substance, and if
it's used in a reckless way it can be a dangerous thing. Having been a
teenager, I can understand why there's a certain thrill in doing crazy
stuff like that.

"The sad thing is it creates this public image where people don't
realize there are sensible ways to use something like this."