Feds eye ban on obscure herb

JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image

Bart Stras of The Joint shows salvia for sale, at no small price.

A little-known leaf is facing lockdown as Ottawa moves to ban a hallucinogenic herb that has turned into a YouTube hit.

At a press conference in St. Vital on Monday, St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover announced the federal government plans to put salvia divinorum onto its list of controlled substances. The move would make selling, owning or cultivating the herb a criminal offence.

Currently, salvia is sold and designated in Canada as "natural health product." This gives Health Canada the ability to limit its sale to approved vendors, though it has done little to enforce its regulations.

But while the feds move to ban the herb, one head-shop owner shrugged at the prospect of sales going up in smoke.

"The popularity goes up and down. It isn't something that goes flying off the shelves," said Bart Stras, who owns The Joint on Marion Street. "It's not like people are running in here going 'Salvia, salvia salvia!' "

After all, it isn't cheap. Sold legally at head shops as a specialty incense, a tiny bag of salvia divinorum extract will set buyers back between $24.99 and $79.99, depending on its potency. When left to smoulder, the herb produces an "earthy" aroma, Stras said.

Of course, it's not the smell Health Canada is targeting. If it is inhaled directly, salvia can produce a brief but intense high, including hallucinations. In most cases, the effects begin to fade within five to 10 minutes.

Still, that's enough to make it a hot novelty item, especially with curious youth. Glover hopes stiffer restrictions on salvia will keep the psychedelic stuff out of teens' hands. "I'm concerned about it and I don't know a single parent who wouldn't be concerned," she said. "We are very worried about the long-term effects."

According to the 2009 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, the first to measure the spread of salvia, just over seven per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 24 had tried the substance.

Despite this, few members of the public knew about the herb until December, when partygoers uploaded a video of teen pop idol Miley Cyrus giggling uncontrollably and rapping Nicki Minaj lyrics while having what she called a "bad trip" on the stuff.

It wasn't the only hit video showing wacky antics after smoking salvia. On YouTube, hundreds of videos featuring salvia trips -- including one intrepid fellow attempting to garden and write a letter to Congress while tripping -- helped fuel headlines about the herb, which is sometimes called "magic mint."

Salvia is already banned in a handful of countries, including Australia, as well as some U.S. states, but most countries have few or no restrictions on selling, possessing or growing the plant.

Across the world, some high-profile incidents have contributed to fears about salvia's impact. The intense trips have been blamed for at least one teen suicide and a 2006 case, described by Health Canada, where an incoherent teen threatened to shoot police officers.

Stras said he's not aware of any situations locally where people were injured after choosing to smoke salvia, but stressed that ingesting it in that way is not its intended use.

If the ban does go ahead, Stras said it won't make a large impact on his shop.

"If they feel it needs to be banned, we'll comply with it," he said. "This is a product that has never had any issues as a herbal incense product... until people decided to abuse it."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Mexican shamans traditional users of the member of the mint family

What is salvia?

Salvia divinorum is a plant in the mint family. Native to Mexico, the herb produces pretty flowers... and leaves rich in a unique psychotropic substance called salvinorin A.

What does it do?

For generations, Mexico's Mazatec shamans have chewed the fresh salvia leaves to trigger spiritual visions during meditation. Since the 1990s, dried leaves, and ones coated with salvinorin extract, have gained popularity in North America as a recreational drug.

What are its effects?

Effects vary, but smoking salvia usually produces a brief, intense and often unpleasant high, which generally fades within 10 minutes. Users may see dreamlike hallucinations and go on psychedelic journeys -- or just feel terrified and overwhelmed. Advocates often recommend only using it for meditation and under the guidance of a sober "sitter."

Is salvia safe?

Many are concerned that in addition to the intensity of its short-term trips, salvia could have a long-term impact on mental or physical health and more studies need to be done; at least one suicide in the U.S. has been blamed on salvia use. So far, it is not known to be physically addictive, and one study found it had very low toxicity, even at megadoses to which humans are not generally exposed.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 22, 2011 A3