Local delegation wants ban on salvia

RUSSELLVILLE - It took a quick search on the Internet for Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing to learn what he needed to know about salvia divinorum, a powerful, but legal drug that he believes is becoming a problem in the area.

"I became familiar with it through conversations with local teenagers and youths who made me aware that it's being used here locally," Rushing said.

Salvia is a legal plant often sold at tobacco shops or on the Internet and is becoming popular among teenagers and young adults who are crushing it and drinking it like a tea or who actually chew the plant.

It is a powerful hallucinogenic herb that is a member of the sage plant family and is legal in most all areas of the country, with a few exceptions.

Rushing is looking for help from state lawmakers to make salvia illegal, or at least regulated, in the state of Alabama.

"The fact that a drug like this is legal makes an impression on kids that it must be OK if it is not banned," he said.

State Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, and Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, said Wednesday that they are going to introduce legislation that would make salvia a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it would be illegal to buy, sell or use it in Alabama.

"We want to see the law catch up with these designer drugs," Bedford said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has listed salvia as a drug of concern and is also considering classifying salvia as a Schedule 1 drug, such as LSD, PCP or marijuana. Salvia effects have been compared to those drugs.

"Drug dealers throughout America are always trying to come up with new methods of selling our children drugs," Morrow said. "This legislation is all about protecting our

children."

Dr. Bryan Roth, a professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, began researching the plant a few years ago after hearing students talk about it.

"We still don't know that much about it," Roth said. "But, based on animal experimentations and anecdotal reports on humans, it's a very powerful

hallucinogenic."

Roth said salvia's effects are relatively short, lasting anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, but quite powerful.

"Its effects can be profound for short durations of time," he said.

Studies do not indicate that people become addicted to the drug, however.

"In fact, most people who take it don't like it," Roth said.

Salvia is marketed and sold as producing a high, which induces an intense, dreamlike experience that can be unpleasant or frightening for first-time users, he said.

Those intense moments are what have many people

concerned.

In Delaware in 2006, the state general assembly approved "Brett's Law," named for Brett Chidester, a 17-year-old who committed suicide after he started taking salvia, reports indicate. His parents have sued the Internet companies that sold him the drug.

"It definitely should be regulated," Roth said. "It is easier to buy than cigarettes or tobacco."

Some researchers, including Roth, say the public is right to be concerned about the herb's growing abuse, but hope regulations would not restrict their ability to use it for research.

Studies have shown that Salvinorin A, a component of the drug, works in the same place in the brain as morphine and related pain reducers known as opioids.

The powerful impact of salvia has caused alarm in some areas of the country because of the easy access to it.

"It can be bought on the street or over the Internet," Bedford said. "We want to introduce legislation that would change that."

Rushing said that's why he hopes Alabama can step up as a leader in fighting to control it before it becomes a major

problem.

"It's cheap, it's easy to buy and it's dangerous," Rushing said. "Those are combinations that we need to stop before it's too late."

Jonathan Willis can be reached at 332-0140 or jonathan.willis@timesdaily.com.