Senate committee weighs ban on Salvia
January 27, 2009 - mddailyrecord.com
ANNAPOLIS — A legislative proposal to ban the sale or possession of Salvia — described by police as a drug of choice for teenagers and young adults in Ocean City — drew much sympathy but little support from Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee members Tuesday.
At a hearing on the bill, SB 9, members assailed the scourge of drugs but said an outright ban on Salvia Divinorum, “Diviner’s Sage,” might be inappropriate in the absence of federal regulation of it and amid ongoing studies of the herb’s potential palliative affects.
“Congress has never been bashful about [banning] substances that are dangerous,” said Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery, the committee’s chairman. He noted that Congress, the Justice Department and the Food and Drug Administration have not found it necessary to regulate Salvia, which is said to produce a hallucinogenic effect when chewed or smoked
And bans have not reduced the supply of or demand for other harmful substances such as cocaine and marijuana, said Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County.
“How are we going to win this one after losing miserably in the other ones?” Brochin asked. He said a better way to prevent drug use might be to attack “the source” by regulating Salvia’s sale over the Internet, a major source for purchases of the herb.
On the medical front, Sen. Jamin B. “Jamie” Raskin, D-Montgomery, said researchers have told him of Salvia’s potential in treating dementia, adding that a ban would discourage further research.
The most compelling testimony in support of a ban came in a letter to the committee from Kathleen E. Chidester.
She wrote of her 17-year-old son, Brett, an honor student in Wilmington, Del., who killed himself while under the influence of Salvia in January 2006. The Delaware medical examiner listed Salvia Divinorum as contributing to the suicide.
Later that year, the Delaware legislature enacted “Brett’s Law,” which bars the sale of Salvia by classifying it as a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance.
On the boardwalk
Sen. Richard F. Colburn, R-Eastern Shore, the bill’s chief sponsor, said a ban is necessary to curtail the sale of a hallucinogen that is readily available for purchase online or from boardwalk merchants in Ocean City. Like Brett’s Law, Colburn’s bill would put Salvia on Maryland’s list of Schedule I controlled dangerous substances, with marijuana and peyote.
As a controlled substance, possession of Salvia would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to four years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Possession with intent to distribute would be a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Ocean City Police Capt. Robert Bokinsky, in support of the proposed ban, said young adults from Delaware are crossing the border into Ocean City to buy and use Salvia. Much of the disorderly conduct he encounters is a result of people high on Salvia they purchased legally on the boardwalk, he said.
“All that is required to obtain it is cash or a credit card,” said Bokinsky, who was testifying on behalf of the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association and the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association.
Concerned residents have alerted merchants to the herb’s dangers but only a few shops have stopped selling it, Bokinsky said.
“The rest will continue to sell it until they’re forced not to,” he added.
But the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, in a statement to the committee, said a ban would be “unnecessarily restrictive and disproportionate to any potential danger to public health.”
Salvia, unlike Schedule I drugs, is not considered toxic, addictive or a “party” drug, the office stated. Except for Brett Chidester’s suicide, Salvia has not been linked to any deaths, the public defender’s office added.
“Given the current controversy and evolving knowledge regarding the medical uses of marijuana, placing another substance in the highest controlled schedule, essentially saying it has no ‘currently accepted medical use,’ and harshly penalizing even its mere possession, would seem premature and pre-emptive at best,” the office stated.
Middle ground
Naomi Long, who directs the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, urged the committee to adopt a middle ground. She pressed for legislation that would treat Salvia like cigarettes, prohibiting its sale to minors and alerting the public to the dangers of its use. Such efforts have led to a sharp decline in cigarette use among teenagers during the past decade, she said.
“We didn’t have to criminalize tobacco or create long prison sentences for cigarettes to achieve these amazing results,” she told the committee. “The decrease was due to quality, comprehensive education al all grade levels about the health consequences of smoking and strict laws about sales to minors.”
Committee leaders did not say if and when the panel would vote on the proposed ban.
Related article:
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2009/01_28-03/GOV
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