Salvia: Hallucinogenic drug is legal here — so far

Maryland officials are renewing efforts to outlaw the sale of a hallucinogenic herb called Salvia divinorum, or Magic Mint, sold over the counter from T-shirt shops in Ocean City to head shops in Baltimore and beyond.

[Editor's note: Ocean City's City Council voted Aug. 3 to ban the possession and sale of Salvia.]

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler said last week he will reintroduce legislation in the 2010 General Assembly to make Salvia illegal in the state by classifying it as a Schedule 1 substance, like the hallucinogen peyote, or mescaline.

Similar legislation failed in the General Assembly and the Baltimore City Council this year.

Gansler said legislation is needed because the substance is a direct public health threat. Salvia is compared to LSD, and has become a popular topic on YouTube, where videos show youths tripping on the substance; one alarming clip shows a young man getting high behind the wheel of a car.

Many states, including Delaware, Virginia and Florida, have barred Salvia, or are considering it.

“Most people have never heard of it,” Gansler said. “But the issue is that young kids are using this stuff. It’s a major issue here and a major issue in Ocean City, and it tends to be found or sold near college campuses.”

Salvia resembles dried mint and is sold by weight, priced by strength of concentrate of the weed. It has been used as a hallucinogenic drug as well as for medicinal purposes, including as a diuretic and to treat anemia. At Johns Hopkins Hospital, neuroscientists are studying Salvia for possible use in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

But state officials say the over-the-counter sale of Salvia is a direct health threat to young people. In 2006, the substance was linked to the suicide of a 17-year-old Delaware student who had purchased it months before his death.

In Fells Point, at Karmic Connection, 1 gram of low-strength Salvia under the “Purple Sticky” brand sells for $14.99, while 20-strength “Purple Sticky” sells for $44.99.

“We sell moderate amounts to those over age 18,” said a store clerk who declined to identify himself.

Gansler said he learned of the substance while attending a conference in Ocean City last summer. “I walked in a T-shirt shop and saw it on the counter and asked what it was,” he said. “A clerk, who was properly tattooed and pierced in all places, explained to me that it was like taking LSD or mushrooms. She didn’t know I was attorney general – I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt – and I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me.’ ”

Ocean City sheriff’s deputies have wrestled with the consequences of Salvia for years, said Pvt. Michael Levy, department spokesman. The weed is sold in shops on the Ocean City boardwalk.

“We believe it should be outlawed in Maryland because it is a dangerous substance,” Levy said. “It’s a hallucinogen and it has different effects on different people. It’s not been evaluated for safety. It is being marketed in a manner consistent with other substances that are illegal.”

Johns Hopkins researchers Roland R. Griffiths and Matthew W. Johnson say the active ingredient in Salvia could be used in neurological studies. The scientists said in a letter that Salvia “has potentially important implications for understanding a variety of disease states, including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia and drug dependence.”

Griffiths and Johnson said last week they are conducting laboratory research using Salvia under grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. Attempts to outlaw the substance may harm their research, according to their letter.

But Gansler said medical research using Salvia is not a target.

“We have no problem on that – it is not the issue,” he said. “The issue is little kids using this stuff. The problem is these kids get on it and hallucinate and do things like jump in the ocean and then drown. It adds to sexual molestation, and runs the whole gamut of things that can happen on hallucinogenic drugs.”

Melody Simmons is a freelance writer based in Baltimore.