POWERFUL HALLUCINOGEN STILL LEGAL IN CANADA

FREDERICTON -- Scott Christian likes to stand the required five
metres from the front door of St. Thomas University's Rigby Hall and
legally smoke one of the most powerful hallucinogens on the market.

Salvia divinorum is a tropical member of the mint family that can be
bought in leaf or extract form. Smoking it induces a state of
inebriation and it has the potential to generate a more potent buzz
than many of its hallucinogenic counterparts. "I'm on the top of a
building, and then I can see that I'm in a city setting, and then I
jump from one building to the next, landing on the roofs," said
Christian about his experience on the drug.

"I go to jump onto the third building and I don't make it. I'm
falling. I can see all the windows flying past me because I'm falling
down, and then I just start to fly."

The drug can be bought in local stores and sold to minors. Even in
the United States, salvia is legal in most places. In Canada, there
have been no moves to make the drug illegal.

"You could sell it to an eight-year old," Christian said. "Imagine
seeing an eight-year-old tripping out on the side of the road."

Health Canada said salvia isn't enough of a problem to bother regulating.

"Neither salvia divinorum nor its main active ingredient salvinorin a
are controlled under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,"
Carolyn- Annik Sexauer of Health Canada said. "Internationally,
salvia divinorum is not controlled under the United Nations Drug
Control Conventions."

She says the drug has never been made illegal because users are
rarely harmed or harm others.

"The plant's effects are short-acting and lack any known toxicity or
health risks," Sexauer said. "No cases of dependency to salvia
divinorum have been reported."

Health Canada's research into the drug included Internet scans,
international reports of drug abuse by the World Health Organization
and the International Narcotics Control Board, and contact with
policing and drug organizations.

"Should evidence arise that suggests a significant risk to public
health and safety, Health Canada will take action accordingly," Sexauer said.

An employee of Things, a store that sells salvia in a Fredericton
mall, says it's not a party drug. It's only good for a brief,
"lunch-hour" high.

The employee recommends users have someone present to make sure they
don't hurt themselves during their high.