The I-Team follows up their salvia drug investigation after more than 21 states have ruled the drug illegal.

“It’s the legal s**t bro!” That’s a common reaction. How could such a powerful hallucinogenic drug be legal? 

“These young folks are out of control and they’re a potential risk to themselves and to other people,” said Delegate Doctor John O’Bannon. 

On January 11 Virginia delegate John O’Bannon introduced a bill classifying salvia as a hallucinogen in a class with LSD. Smoking marijuana can get you arrested, but smoking salvia is perfectly legal in the metropolitan Washington area until Tuesday when the new law takes effect in Virginia banning its sale, use, and possession. 

Delegate Doctor O’Bannon says he has a special interest in public health issues. “I’m actually a neurologist. So I understand a little bit about the brain and the receptors.” 

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine signed the bill into law, but many are still watching for federal action.

“All the caveats and harms that we learned about LSD and other hallucinogens over the past 40

»Original Salvia I-Team Investigation

years apply to this drug," said Deputy Drug Czar Bertha Madras said during the I-Team's first investigation on salvia. 
 
Yet the federal government still lists salvia as nothing more than a “drug of concern,” even as thousands of brazen salvia smokers post their intense trips on video on the Internet.

On one YouTube video, a salvia smoker exclaims, “Everything feels like weird!”

Doctor O’Bannon’s says his bill was also motivated by his Virginia constituents telling him salvia led their children to try other dangerous drugs. 

“When you couple that with making this tendency to use it as a gateway drug into a stronger drug culture, that clearly validates in my mind that we did the right thing,” said O'Bannon.

When the Virginia law goes into effect Tuesday it will join a patchwork of laws nationwide. In Massachusetts there is a town that restricts salvia use. In Maine salvia is prohibited just for minors. In April Bismarck North Dakota became the first jurisdiction to arrest a man for salvia possession. Still, in the District and Maryland, smoking salvia is still perfectly legal. 

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