POWERFUL BUT LEGAL HALLUCINOGENIC SALVIA TARGETED FOR BAN

A little-known hallucinogenic leaf that is legal in most of the USA
is the target of new calls for a ban after the suicide of a teenager
who smoked it.

Salvia, a relative of flowering sages enjoyed by many gardeners, is
the most powerful natural hallucinogen known - almost as strong as
LSD, experts say.

Known as "diviner's sage," salvia has been used for centuries by the
Mazatec Indians in Mexico. In the United States it is sold in leaf
and liquid form by Web sites and head shops and is available to
anyone at any age. advertisement

"Kids fall into a false sense of security because it's legal," says
state Sen. Karen Peterson, a Delaware Democrat. "We control LSD, and
we should control this."

Peterson has filed a bill to make Delaware the third state to
designate "Salvia divinorum" a banned substance like marijuana and
heroin. Louisiana and Missouri have already taken such action.

Her action came in response to the suicide of Brett Chidester, 17, of
Wilmington, Del., whose family blames the drug.

Brett was a straight-A student who ranked top in his state in Spanish
and was making plans for college and to buy his girlfriend roses for
Valentine's Day, his family says. On Jan. 23 he put a charcoal grill
inside a tent in his father's garage, lit the grill and crawled
inside the tent.

A suicide note described revelations that echoed descriptions of
salvia experiences posted by users to various salvia-related Web
sites. "How can I go on living after I learned the secrets of life,"
he wrote. "It took me 17 years, but I finally figured it out. I can't
tell you that here because that kind of information can cause chaos."

His mother, Kathleen Chidester, says her son bought salvia on a Web
site. His father, Dennis, says police took salvia from his room.
Kathleen Chidester says she believes Brett was depressed and used
salvia because it was legal. His suicide note left no doubt in her
mind that salvia had something to do with his death.

Despite salvia's powerful nature, the Drug Enforcement Administration
has not recommended that it be banned as a dangerous drug. The DEA
has been collecting information for years on the leaf, says Rogene
Waite, a spokeswoman for DEA. The process involves measuring its
availability, potential for abuse and medical uses.

"It is a concern and we're looking at it, but just because it hasn't
been scheduled doesn't mean it's safe or healthy," Waite says. "It's
dangerous from what you can see from anecdotal material."

Research on salvia has found that it causes depressive symptoms in
rats and monkeys and dysphoria - similar to depression - in people.
However, some see the potential for beneficial uses.

Daniel Siebert, who sold his T-shirt business years ago to study
medicinal plants, has a Web site where he offers cautionary
information about salvia and sells the leaves and their extracts.
Siebert says moderate doses help people meditate and gain insight
about their inner selves.

The first time Siebert chewed some of the leaves, he says, he had
pleasant visions of "fairy-like beings hovering around the hillside"
of his home in Malibu, Calif. When he first smoked the more potent
extract, however, he experienced an "extreme disembodied state in
another universe" that he says was frightening and unpleasant.

He says he favors "some reasonable controls" but opposes a ban.

So does Bryan Roth, director of the Psychoactive Drug Screening
Program for the National Institute of Mental Health. The federally
funded program looks for new treatments for mental illnesses.

Roth calls Salvia "the world's most potent natural occurring
hallucinogen." He is among several researchers who say salvia may
prove helpful in treating disease. The plant produces large amounts
of salvinorin A, an "extremely potent hallucinogen," nearly as strong
as LSD, that targets a single chemical receptor in brain cells, Roth
says. The receptor is involved in "consciousness and our perception
of reality," and it is located in neurons that have a role in
depression, drug abuse and schizophrenia.

"Many teams of chemists around the world are making salvinorin A for
research," Roth says.

Criminalizing salvia and its derivatives would make it "almost
impossible" to get salvia-related compounds approved for human use, Roth says.

Nevertheless, Ross says, there should be some regulation. "It
probably shouldn't be sold over the Internet to unsuspecting
teenagers," he says.

Kathleen Chidester would agree.

In an essay she found on Brett's computer after his death, he wrote
that the meaning of the universe "is nothing."

"When I read that I thought, 'That's not him talking, that's salvia."
Chidester says.