It's a type of mint plant, with broad leaves and a hollow stem, widely used by landscapers and gardeners as ground cover. It's also sold on the Internet for about $15 an ounce for leaves, $11 for the more potent extract, to be smoked or chewed for a high lasting a few minutes to a half-hour.
Thousands of videos on YouTube.com show bong-smoking teenagers ''tripping'' on the drug.
Called salvia divinorum, it has been banned in Australia, Belgium and Italy but was completely legal in the United States until recently. Now, state legislators from Florida to Missouri to California are pushing to outlaw or regulate an herb that has found another life as a popular recreational drug.
Florida state Sen. Evelyn Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican whose committee Tuesday unanimously passed an anti-salvia bill, said the drug should be criminalized.
''I'd rather be at the front edge of preventing the dangers of the drug than waiting until we are the 40th or more,'' she said.
Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, a West Palm Beach Democrat, also has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
''As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one,'' Brandenburg said. Her bill would make salvia and its extract controlled substances in the same class as marijuana and LSD.
Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others are considering a ban or have previously.
Some say legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive.
Native to Mexico and still grown there, Salvia divinorum is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk.
NICKNAMES
Called nicknames like Sally-D, Magic Mint and Diviner's Sage, salvia has proliferated on the Internet and at college-area paraphernalia shops.
It is usually sold as dried leaves in various degrees of potency. Salvia causes hallucinations, a perception of overlapping realities and a loss of body, dizziness and impaired speech, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says on its website.
Unlike hallucinogens like LSD or PCP, however, salvia's effects last for a shorter time, generally up to an hour.
Since 2005, Missouri, Delaware, North Dakota and Illinois have banned salvia outright by classifying it as a Schedule I hallucinogen, putting it in the same category as heroin, LSD, marijuana and ecstasy.
According the DEA, Schedule I substances are defined as having a high tendency for abuse and do not have a medicinal purpose. Possession of a Schedule I substance (except for marijuana) is often classified as a felony. For example, under the Illinois law that took effect Jan. 1, possession of salvia is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Virginia's governor this week signed a similar bill into law, and it takes effect July 1. Virginia state Del. John O'Bannon, the Republican who sponsored a bill and a neurologist, said salvia potentially has harmful effects. He cited the 2006 death of Brett Chidester, a Delaware teenager whose parents blame salvia for their son's suicide.
''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.
Other states have taken action to regulate salvia in different ways.
In Maine, for example, it's illegal for anyone under 18 to possess or use the drug. In Oklahoma, it is illegal to have salvia if it is ''enhanced, concentrated or chemically or physically altered'' -- a law aimed at potent salvia extracts. In Tennessee and Louisiana, it is legal to grow salvia for landscaping or aesthetic purposes, but not for consumption.
FEDERAL STUDY
Rogene Waite, a DEA spokeswoman, said the agency is studying whether salvia should be declared a Schedule I drug at the federal level. If so, it would be considered a controlled substance in every state, she said.
Also, sending it by mail would then be prohibited.
Daniel Siebert, of the Salvia Divinorum Research and Information Center, a website Siebert maintains out of Malibu, Calif., said he has devoted 20 years to studying the plant. He said that salvia shouldn't be available to minors, but that responsible adults should be allowed to use it.
''Plants are part of the natural world that we are born into,'' Siebert said. To ban salvia ``seems to me to be some sort of crime against nature.''
Siebert sells salvia on his website. He said he has few repeat customers, because most people don't enjoy the experience of using salvia. Even those who do are not inclined to use salvia often, he said. ''It's kind of troublesome having these kids video-taping themselves and putting it on YouTube,'' Siebert said. ``It creates a skewed image of salvia.''
Siebert says he sells to people in states that ban salvia because California law does not prevent him from doing so. But he said he informs customers in such states of the legal risk they take by possessing or using salvia.
Some Internet retailers won't send salvia to customers in states and countries that ban the substance. For example, one seller on eBay has posted a notice that reads, ``I do not ship to the following states in the USA: DELAWARE, ILLINOIS, LOUISIANA, MISSOURI, NORTH DAKOTA and TENNESSEE.''
It's unclear how many states will seek to ban or regulate salvia. Matthew Gever, a policy associate for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said legislators may be more concerned about drugs with higher visibility, such as methamphetamines. ''There are a lot of states where legislators have brought it [salvia] up,'' he said. ``Someone introduces it, but it doesn't go anywhere. It's so far off the radar.''
Miami Herald staff writer Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report, which was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.
