More States Ban Salvia

When Benjiman Madderom, 32, of St. Petersburg, Fla., saw that his state planned to ban the hallucinogenic herb Salvia divinorum, he quickly went to a head shop on Park Boulevard and purchased the powdered leaf in a yellow envelope. He wanted to try smoking "Sally-D" or "Magic Mint," as it's also known, while he still could. He described his experience as "profound" and "otherworldly."

Salvia Divinorum extract

"It actually removes your brain from your body," he said. "You don't exist in the few minutes you're under the influence of a salvia trip."

Madderom says he should be able to consume what he wants, whether it hurts him or not. But it is just that potential for harm that has caused lawmakers in the Sunshine State to ban the sale and possession of salvia by classifying it as a Schedule I hallucinogen, placing it in the same category as heroin, LSD, marijuana, and ecstasy. Passing the State Senate by 39-0 and the House of Representatives by 109-4, the law took effect on July 1, adding Florida to the expanding list of states to outlaw or regulate the herb. Similar bans went into effect in Kansas and Virginia on the same day.

Missouri, Delaware, North Dakota, and Illinois had already passed laws against selling and possessing salvia, and Louisiana, Maine, and Tennessee have restricted its distribution. Bills to ban or control the entire plant or its primary active chemical are pending in a number of other states.

Native to Oaxaca, Mexico, salvia has been used for hundreds of years by the Mazatec Indians to treat a host of ailments, including headaches, rheumatism, and diarrhea. The plant's popularity for other purposes has spiked since the late 1990s, when it first became available from online retailers advertising a spiritual high.

A national survey in 2006 found that about 1.8 million people 12 or older had used salvia in their lifetime, with approximately 750,000 in the past year. Adults were nearly three times as likely as kids ages 12 to 17 to have experimented with the drug that year.

Now, typing the term "salvia" into the search engine of the website "Youtube.com," yields more than 4,600 results. Titles range from "Gardening on Salvia" to "Driving on Salvia." "Anecdotally, YouTube seems to have been an influence," says Florida State Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who co-sponsored the bill to criminalize salvia in her state. "I guess if you're foolish, then you might think the videos of people high and doing stupid things is cool."

Salvia, which is generally smoked through a water pipe but can also be chewed or made into a tea, causes uncontrollable laughter, a sense of loss of body, overlapping realities, dizziness, and slurred speech, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Most don't find using salvia particularly enjoyable, says medical botanist Daniel Siebert, who has tried the drug and spent more than 20 years studying the plant. "It's certainly unusual and can be interesting, but most people don't really like the effects," he says, noting that the high lasts for about five minutes, tapering off over about half-an-hour.

Despite the fact that it makes him "uncomfortable," Siebert says there is no evidence that salvia is an addictive herb; on the contrary, he says, studies show that animals go out of their way to avoid exposure to it, whereas they can become highly addicted to morphine, cocaine, or heroin. He does not think the plant should be "demonized" by Florida and other states. "It can be potentially harmful if used in a very careless way, but so can aspirin and all other kinds of things that we don't seem to worry much about," he says.

Brandenburg says Florida legislators are primarily concerned with salvia's role as a gateway drug. "When the kids get used to using salvia, the idea is that it's a little easier to step across the line and buy drugs that are already illegal," she said. "We wanted to nip that entry level in the bud."

The active ingredient of salvia, a compound called salvinorin A, targets a single receptor site in the brain called the kappa-opioid receptor, according to Bryan Roth, a professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who discovered how salvia works in the brain. Salvinorin A is the strongest naturally occurring hallucinogen, with the same potency as LSD, he says.

Researchers aren't sure if salvia has long-lasting effects on the brain, but it seems that the active ingredient is eliminated quickly from the body, Roth adds. "We're not aware of really any deleterious effects physically," he says. "The biggest concern is somebody driving a car or wandering out on the street or something like that." On the other side, Roth notes that by classifying salvia as Schedule 1 drug, Florida and other states are making it much more difficult to study the plant and to advance any therapeutic uses of it. (Salvia divinorum is a different species from the common garden plant.)

While the herb has its defenders, many Floridians have praised their state's initiative. Jules Cohn, 53, an assistant state attorney for Broward County, Fla., says he was disturbed to find salvia on sale this June at a kiosk at Broward's Coral Square Mall. "I was surprised it was being sold at a mall open to the public, even if legal," he said. "A substance that is capable of producing such intense and automatic loss of motor control can be very dangerous not only to the person taking it but to others around them." Cohn pointed particularly to the risks of driving under the influence of salvia, whose effects include a decreased ability to interact with one's surroundings. "At least this bill will help to bring the dangers of this particular drug to light, he says.

Doris Carroll, the executive director of the Palm Beach County Substance Abuse Coalition, says that other states should follow Florida's example. "The scary part is the Web access," she says. "We need a unified system to say that this is bad enough, that it's illegal." In 2002, U.S. Rep. Joe Baca of California introduced legislation to list salvia as a controlled substance at the national level, but the bill did not make it to the floor for a vote.

Cecilia Garcia, a Chumash spiritual healer who has used salvia to make liniments for arthritis, has a different law in mind. Garcia, who accuses Florida and other states of going on a "witch hunt" and not respecting the religious freedom of others who still use the plant in ceremonies, would like to see salvia protected under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. "It's not a party plant," she says. "That's an abuse we're not responsible for, nor should we be punished for it."