Irish Cream "Salvia"

Parents of teenagers are becoming concerned about an emerging drug of abuse that, until recently, few had ever heard of: Salvia divinorum.

Salvia is a member of the sage family. It's also a cousin to the popular flowering salvia plants that many of us may have in our gardens.

Scientific researchers say the public is right to be concerned about the herb's growing abuse. But some say salvia is also showing promise in legitimate laboratory research.

Salvia divinorum's active ingredient, Salvinorin A, is a powerful hallucinogen, "as potent as LSD, and essentially, the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogenic drug," says Dr. Bryan Roth, a biochemist and neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve University.

Roth also directs the National Institute of Mental Health's Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. Three years ago, he and others in his Cleveland lab discovered how Salvinorin A affects the brain.