ROCHESTER, MN -- Pot, Coke, Crack, drugs we're all too familiar with.
But now mom and dad have even more to worry about.
Our report's called A New High, one dangerous drug so new you can buy it legally right here in our area.
Some call the images down right frightening.
State Chemical Health Director Carol Falkowski says, "This drug is a dangerous drug. There's nothing safe about it. There's nothing predictable. You simply don't know what you're getting yourself in for."
It's called Salvia Divinorum, a hallucinogen smoked through some kind of pipe.
Despite what experts describe as a very intense reaction, the product is still legal.
The Drug Enforcement Administration simply calling it a drug of concern.
Falkowski says, "With drug abuse there is always generational learning and generational forgetting and with drug abuse there are always generations who forget lessons about drugs."
A simple Utube search reveals dozens of homemade videos, people taping what they say are their reactions to the drug.
Narcotics and drug task force commander Bill Reiland says, "Like anything else if it is on Utube it will catch on."
While there is no way to confirm these people took Salvia, the reactions are consistent with what experts describe.
From crying to a complete inability to talk, it's hard to believe this kind of high comes from a product completely legal in Minnesota.
It's a product that can be purchased right here in Rochester.
There are 8 states that regulate Salvia in some form.
Iowa and Minnesota are not in that group.
With a few key strokes you can also find dozens of places to order online, some urging to purchase now.
That could be because earlier this year the DEA ordered an analysis that could result in some type of nationwide restrictions.
But without a nationwide ruling the drugs legality is in the hands of the state legislature.
Representative Tina Liebling says, "It is kind of troubling to see how they are acting."
Liebling is on the states Health and Human Services committee.
Until we asked, she had never head of Salvia and says despite a ban in other states Minnesota lawmakers need to be sure not to rush to any decisions.
Liebling says, "Certainly there are a lot of ways that people can get high with things that are legal. That doesn't mean we should get ourselves involved in banning every single thing that an adult might want to do."
Liebling says the drug does warrant some looking into.
But for now these Salvia hallucinations will continue to be purchasable, right over the counter.
According to Falkowski Salvia can have long term psychological effects and can even trigger psychotic incidents in some people.
Sadly, at least one mom and dad on the East coast say any regulations will come too late.
Their son, they say, killed himself after using Salvia.
01-11-2007, 16:04
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