Pubdate: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: Anne-Marie O'Connor AMATEUR BOTANIST PREACHES VIRTUES OF LEGAL PSYCHEDELIC IN LECTURES, ON WEB MALIBU -- Looking like an Old West preacher, with an earnest manner and long, wavy hair, an amateur botanist takes the podium and soberly lectures a small but keenly interested audience on a hallucinogenic drug that is legal and available. This is Daniel Siebert, the Southern California apostle of an unlikely Mexican herb called ``salvia divinorum,'' or diviner's sage. Like peyote, the sage is said to cause vivid hallucinations and a deeply transcendental sensation, and it has a tradition of ritual use by American Indian shamans seeking spiritual realms. But Salvia divinorum is not a controlled substance. Americans looking for consciousness-altering experiences buy it on Web sites, grow it in their yards and share their experiences at conventions. And they pepper Siebert with questions at appearances, such as his Los Angeles lecture earlier this year, which was videotaped and can be rented at some video outlets. ``It's a fairly rare thing to be working openly with a psychoactive drug,'' Siebert said in an interview at his home, perched on the edge of a Malibu ravine overlooking the sea. Information on the sage -- and enthusiastic testimonials from users - -- is all over the Internet. The most elaborate Web site, Salvia Divinorum Research and Information (www.sagewisdom.org), is managed by Siebert, who sells the sage from his online Sage Wisdom Salvia Shop. Siebert worries that the exposure the drug is getting could lead to government intervention. ``The more press, the more people experimenting with it, and the more it will be seen as a problem or be used in an irresponsible way,'' Siebert said. ``Like any drug that alters consciousness, if you do it and, say, get in a car, that can cause a problem.'' Anti-drug authorities are aware of the situation. ``We know it's out there,'' said Will Glaspy, spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. ``We're looking at it to see if it needs to be controlled.'' But at this point, ``It's not a controlled substance,'' he said. Siebert and other advocates of the sage say it has psychoactive healing potential and is not likely to be adopted as a recreational drug like ``ecstasy'' or make an appearance on the rave scene. ``It is not something that will be passed around at parties and concerts,'' Siebert said. ``That will limit its appeal. If you take it in a social context, you'll wish you hadn't. It's a very introspective experience. You can't walk around and socialize.'' It all began in December 1999, when Details magazine trumpeted Salvia divinorum as ``The New Ecstasy: It's Not Illegal.'' Since then, there has been a small but growing drumbeat of reportage. Siebert said he believes the drug has deep healing properties. He points to a ``trip report'' sent to his Web site by a man who said he was so depressed after his lifetime companion died of cancer that he was considering suicide. ``The feeling was one of incredible lightness,'' the account said. ``I felt as if I had shed an incredible burden.'' The sage's native range is the misty mountain cloud forests of Oaxaca, a rugged area in southern Mexico. Shamans of the Mazatec Indians have used it for years. The plant was ``discovered'' for modern science in 1962 by Albert Hofmann, a chemist who was an early pioneer in LSD research, and Gordon Wasson, who went to Oaxaca to research psilocybin mushrooms and other hallucinogens. In recent years, it has aroused renewed scientific interest because it is unclear precisely how it works on the brain. Dr. Ethan Russo, a neurologist who studied the sage, said that although scientists have isolated the chemical compound that triggers the hallucinations -- salvinorin A -- the sage does not act on known neurotransmitters such as serotonin or dopamine. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh