Salvia

File photo: Packaging and a packet containing salvia divinorum, which is a legal hallucinogenic drug sold at novelty stores, smoke shops and adult video stores, are shown here in Tigard, Ore., March 3, 2007. Salvia divinorum is native to Mexico and has been used for hundreds of years in indigenous healing rituals. Lawmakers in eight states have put restrictions on it. Alabama lawmakers are currently considering a ban.

By: Donathan Prater | Opelika Auburn News
Published: March 15, 2008

A pair of Alabama senators have a little ‘sage’ advice for the state’s legislature concerning a relatively new player on the drug scene.

Make it illegal.

If State Sens. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, and Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, have their way, a type of plant called salvia divinorum, a powerful, psychoactive herb, will be classified as an illegal drug and carry with it the same penalties as marijuana.

“But this drug is much stronger than marijuana from what I understand,” said Bedford. “Police are catching kids with this drug but aren’t able to do anything because this stuff isn’t illegal.

“It’s another classic case of the law having to catch up with the drug trade,” Bedford said. “Who would have thought Sudafed would be a key ingredient in Methamphetamine that we’d have to keep behind the counter, but we passed a law that done exactly that.”

Salvia is known by more popular nicknames such as “Sally-D” and “Ska Pastora.”

Salvia divinorum extracts can be purchased online in extracts of 5x, 10x, 15x and 20x (the higher the number, the greater the strength of the extract).

“The plant is native to the Mexican state of Oaxaca and, like most salvias, should grow best in the full sun in reasonably dry and hot conditions,” said Gary J. Keever, professor with Auburn University’s Department of Horticulture. “Information indicates that the plant has been used in the past by the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca as an aid in ritual divination.”

Salvia is classified in the mint family of plants.

Some of the first live specimens of Salvia were cultivated in the early 1960s, Keever said.

“Some experts believe this plant may be the intentional or unintentional genetic cross between two different species because the plant exhibits low seed viability,” said J. Raymond Kessler, associate professor with the AU Department of Horticulture.

Whatever its composition, Bedford thinks the potential for abuse of the herb is high.

Some lobbyists for salvia are trying to have the herb in the mint family age-regulated, meaning that it wouldn’t be criminal to possess the herb if you were old enough.

Bedford says a bill is out of committee in the state Senate and hopes to see it passed before the legislative session ends this May.

“I don’t think Alabama has any place for this drug in its society,” Bedford said.