Special Report: Herb high

It looks a lot like marijuana, but some say it has the same effects as LSD.

"It is the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen out there," said Dr. John Kelly, Massachusetts General Hospital.

And it's completely legal to buy and smoke. It's called salvia divinorum and nicknamed "magic mint," because it's an herb from the mint family.

You can easily get it in shops throughout Massachusetts and over the Internet. Because of FDA guidelines, it usually has a warning label: "Not sold for human consumption." But we found many young people are ignoring that warning and smoking the mint for a high they describe as almost too powerful to handle.

"I felt lightheaded, and my body felt kind of numb,” Vanessa Lins said. “It's really strong. It's very strong."

On the Internet, you can watch hundreds of videos of people smoking salvia. And entire blog sites are dedicated to describing the herb high, saying, "My wall melted," "I couldn't move," and "I saw dragons."

Kathy Chidester of Delaware says for her 17-year-old son, Brett, the drug was just too much to handle. He committed suicide, and his mom believes salvia contributed to his death.

"He said he went to a different realm," Chidester said. "He learned the secrets of life. I just think all the things that he had going on and to add salvia to a mix, it was just a lethal combination."

We bought salvia easily at two stores in Boston. Both stores had signs posted saying you must be 18-years-old to buy it. But only one store asked us for ID, and a clerk at one of the stores gave us recommendations on the best way to smoke it, without us ever asking.

As the dangers of salvia are becoming known, many states are taking action.

In Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri and Delaware, salvia has been classified as a controlled substance. That means in those states, it is in the same category as heroin, LSD or marijuana, and someone caught with it can face the same penalties.

When 7NEWS brought salvia to the attention of a Massachusetts state lawmaker, he was outraged.

"I was utterly shocked, utterly shocked that they could sell an LSD-type drug over the counter," Brian Wallace, a state representative, said.

And now he's pushing a bill to ban it in the Bay State.

"We want to ban the sale of salvia over the counter or on the Internet," Wallace said.

But for now, salvia continues to be sold and smoked. More and more people are putting themselves at risk to get this "Herb High."

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