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Editorial: Military must ban Salvia

The powerful hallucinogen Salvia divinorum is legal to purchase -- readily available over the Internet -- and undetectable with current urinalysis technology.

But the Defense Department is doing almost nothing to take on this increasingly popular drug among its troops.

That is inexcusable.

Police agencies, drug enforcement experts and scientists have sounded the alarm, determining that as many as 100 airmen may be using the drug at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., alone. The Food and Drug Administration lists Salvia as a substance "of concern."

But defense officials remain unconvinced that Salvia use is widespread enough to warrant their attention.

It's almost enough to make one wonder what they're smoking.

Consider, for example, this description of a Salvia-induced drug experience taken from a Web site devoted to this and other drugs:

"Salvia was the most terrifying experience I have ever been a part of," the writer says. "I went absolutely insane."

The government waited too long to combat the date-rape drug GHB in the 1990s, and the results were disastrous. Similarly, the military also was late to see and respond to the Ecstasy craze, which went like wildfire through the military community in the late 1990s.

Now the hot new drug is a common plant that's cheap, easy to grow and easy to get.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., tried to push legislation in 2002 to add Salvia to the drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act. But his efforts failed, and he has no plans to revive them.

The Defense Department is left, then, to fend for itself. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathologists, which is studying Salvia, should create a test to identify its use through urinalysis or other means. The military services should ban its use, purchase, sale and possession. Military leaders should be alerted to the dangers posed by the drug.

If Congress won't take on this problem, the military will have to do so.