By BRIDGET CARTER
New Zealanders are getting "legal highs" on a mind-bending herb from Mexico that gives LSD-like hallucinations. Experts warn that salvia divinorum users can suffer frequent flashbacks, with effects similar to post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Britain is considering banning the drug.
NZ police are still unfamiliar with the drug and
Health Ministry officials say it is not classified because it is not available here.
But local suppliers, who know salvia as Mexican Tripping Weed - its overseas names include Lady Salvia or the "magic Mexican mint" - say it has been in NZ for nearly three years and is as potent as any illegal hallucinogenic.
One supplier at an Auckland outdoor market said that he recently pulled salvia off his shelves because it was "too out there" and too many young people were buying it.
Another said the shop had sold out and she was not sure when more would arrive. A third promised to post the drug to the Herald overnight.
Salvia is a type of sage used for thousands of years in Mexican Indian rituals and is imported by James McNee, the Timaru distributor of Fantasy-type drug One4B.
Mr McNee said salvia gave a psychedelic experience - memory flashes or dream-like sensations.
He claimed the drug was cheap in NZ, selling at $10 a gram compared with £80 ($275) for an enhanced version in Britain.
Salvia was short-acting - about five minutes - but "an experience," like taking LSD or Magic Mushrooms, said Mr McNee.
He knew of longer-lasting formulas of the herb that were available over the internet for $60 a gram.
In nearly three years of selling salvia, demand had been steady - 200g a month - mainly to herb shops, although sales had picked up since publicity over One4B. Buyers were usually aged over 18 and experimenters.
Mr McNee said salvia would never become a party drug. "It's one you would smoke by yourself under some trees."
Experts say users are risking their minds and perhaps their lives. The plant leaves are often impregnated with the hallucinatory ingredient salvinorin A to make it up to 20 times stronger.
"When you take salvia you are playing with fire," said Dr Tim Kendall, of Sheffield University in England.
"People can be very damaged in terms of their personal functioning. They frequently have flashbacks that intrude into their life, which can be almost like a post-traumatic stress problem after very bad experiences."
Detective Sergeant Tony Quayle, of the National Drug Intelligence Unit, said police were not bothered by the herb. "We understand it is very mild and less [potent] than cannabis."
