House OKs bill to ban hallucinogen salvia

A bill to ban salvia divinorum unanimously
passed in the Virginia House of
Delegates this week, bringing the currently
legal drug one step closer to strict
regulation.

Salvia is a powerful hallucinogen
– some say as strong as LSD. It’s the
subject of thousands of YouTube.com
videos showing bong-smoking teens
“tripping” on the substance.

A species of the mint family, salvia can
be legally purchased over the Internet
or from specialty shops. The dried
leaves are available in various degrees
of potency, and people smoke them for
a high that can last a few minutes or up
to half an hour.

Delegate John O’Bannon, (R-Henrico),
who is also a neurosurgeon, introduced
the bill to outlaw salvia after receiving
suggestions from law enforcement
officials.

“It’s really not a pleasant thing to take.
It can cause bad trips, dysphoria and
sweats,” O’Bannon said. Dysphoria is a
general feeling of physical discomfort,
anxiety and discontent.

On Tuesday, delegates voted 98-0 in
favor of O’Bannon’s legislation, House
Bill 21. The bill will now go on to the
Virginia Senate for consideration. It has
been referred to the Senate Committee
on Education and Health.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency, salvia causes hallucinations,
a perception of overlapping
realities and a loss of body, dizziness
and impaired speech.

The plant, which is native to the
province of Oaxaca in Mexico, is not
regulated on the federal level, but at
least seven states have salvia laws on
the books. For centuries, the Mazatec
Indians of southern Mexico have used
salvia in shamanistic rituals.

More recently, salvia has proliferated
on the Internet and at college-area
paraphernalia shops.

“I think the Internet has actually
driven this. I think the Internet is one of
the reasons why it’s actually spread out
of the local indigenous areas in Mexico,
where it’s been around forever,” said
O’Bannon.

His bill would make salvia a Schedule
I hallucinogen. This would place the
substance in the same class of penalties
as LSD, PCP, Ecstasy and cannabis.

O’Bannon said salvia potentially has
harmful effects, citing the suicide of
Brett Chidester, a Delaware teenager
whose parents blame salvia for their
son’s suicide. Delaware has since banned
the substance.

“I’m respectful of individual liberties
and public good. I think what’s happening
is this is becoming a drug that can
be misused,” O’Bannon said.

“Putting it on the Schedule I will not
harm anybody,” he said, but would make
“a reasonable balance between public
safety and civil individual liberties.”

Salvia has potentially good uses as
well, said Dr. Thomas Prisinzano, a medicinal
chemistry professor at University
of Kansas. Prisinzano has participated
in several studies on the psychoactive
chemical compound found in salvia,
salvinorum A.

“From salvinorum A itself, salvia can
be used to develop novel treatments
for central nervous system diseases,”
Prisinzano said. “Depression being one,
Alzheimer’s possibly one-and also in
the treatment of addiction.”

Prisinzano is developing methods to
use salvinorum A as a treatment for pain
and as a therapy to end cocaine addiction.
When ingested, salvia is thought
to make contact with the parts of the
brain affected by morphine and heroin.
However, salvia produces effects more
commonly associated with LSD.

Prisinzano, who received his Ph.D.
from MCV, said making salvia a
Schedule I substance would increase
the difficulty for salvia researchers in
Virginia to conduct human trials.

“From a research perspective, it
(new law) is certainly going to be more
paperwork,” Prisinzano said.

O’Bannon acknowledged the research
potential of salvia but said his bill would
not inhibit research.

Staff members of the Board of
Pharmacy assisted O’Bannon with his
research on salvia, but Executive Director
Elizabeth “Scotti” Russell said the
board has not taken a specific position
on the legislation.

“This will be a law-enforcement
issue,” Russell stated in an e-mail. “Not
a Board-of-Pharmacy issue.”