Salvia
Divinorum Outlawed in Australia
An Update from the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics,
made possible by
the Salvia
Divinorum Defense Fund
Effective June 1,
Australia becomes the first country to make the plant Salvia
divinorum a prohibited drug. Pursuant to a ruling by
Australia’s National Drugs And Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC),
both Salvia divinorum and its active principle salvinorin A, will
be added to Schedule 9 of Australia’s Standard for the Uniform
Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons (SUSDP). Australia’s action raises
fears that other governments may soon follow suit.
Schedule 9 is
Australia’s most restrictive drug schedule, and includes “substances
which may be abused or misused, the manufacture, possession, sale or use
of which should be prohibited by law except when required for medical or
scientific research, or for analytical, teaching or training purposes
with approval of Commonwealth and/or State or Territory Health
Authorities.”
Under Australian law,
drug control is a state rather than a federal issue. Thus the NDPSC’s
decision is technically only a recommendation to Australia’s states
and territories to prohibit both S. divinorum and salvinorin A.
It is practically unheard of, however, for states to deviate from the
NDPSC’s rulings. Accordingly it is a fait accompli that the
possession, distribution, or cultivation of S. divinorum and
salvinorin A will now be considered a criminal offense in all of
Australia.
The Center for
Cognitive Liberty & Ethics has been in contact with a group of
scientific researchers in Australia who are working to challenge the
NDPSC’s ruling and its adoption by the various states and territories.
So far these efforts have been unsuccessful.
Australia’s
scheduling of S. divinorum raises concerns that the US DEA, which
is known to be evaluating the plant for scheduling, may be spurred to
prohibit the plant as well. In anticipation of similar action by the DEA,
the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) has established a Salvia
Divinorum Defense Fund for the purpose of
raising the money necessary to present a legal challenge to any
scheduling move by the DEA. In October of last year, a group of experts
coordinated by the CCLE submitted a written report to the US DEA,
finding that Salvia divinorum does not meet the criteria for
inclusion in Schedule I of the US Controlled Substance Act.
Please Make a
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The CCLE continues to monitor Salvia divinorum’s legal
situation on a daily basis. With your support, we will be able to mount
a legal challenge to a future scheduling move by the US DEA.
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Additional Details
about the Australian Scheduling Decision
The NDPSC’s decision to
place the S. divinorum and its active principle into Schedule 9
– a schedule reserved for drugs with a “high potential for abuse”
and which present a “risk to public health and safety” – appears
to have no factual support.
At
its August 2001 meeting, The NDPSC considered scheduling S. divinorum,
noting that the plant was being “advertis[ed] for sale in Australia
and some broad based e-mail discussion groups on Australian web sites
have included discussion threads on Salvia
divinorum.”
Traditional
shamanic use of the plant was discounted by the NDPSC, which
dismissively commented, “There was no evidence of traditional
therapeutic use other than in shamanistic healing rituals.”
Finally,
while placement in Schedule 9 requires a finding that the plant or
substance presents a public health problem, the NDPSC made an end-run
around this important criterion, stating:
“The
Jurisdictions advised the Committee that they had not been advised that
this herb was causing public health problems, however this may simply
reflect the relative “newness” of the herb as a potential substance
of abuse.”
The
NDPSC concluded its August 2001 meeting by noting: “there appear[s] to
be a prima facie case for control of Salvia
divinorum as an hallucinogen, but … there was no evidence of a
major public health hazard at this stage. Accordingly, the Committee
agreed to foreshadow appropriate Schedule 9 entries and seek public
comment
At
its next meeting, held in November 2001, the NDPSC noted “there was no
response to the pre-meeting gazette notice in relation to the
foreshadowed decision to include Salvia
Divinorum in Schedule 9 of the SUSDP. However, a Minute was received
from the Office of Complementary Medicines of the TGA, thanking the
Committee for considering the inclusion of S.
divinorum into the SUSDP on public health and safety grounds.”
Yet,
with no more evidence than what existed (or didn’t exist) in August
2001, the NDPSC then summarily ruled (Decision 2001/33-7) to include “Salvia
Divinorum in Schedule 9 of the SUSDP, on the basis of high potential
for abuse and risk to public health and safety.”
In
addition, the NDPSC included in Schedule 9
“8-METHOXYCARBONYL-4A,8A-DIMETHYL-6-ACETOXY-
5-KETO-3,4,4B,7,9,10,10A-SEPTAHYDRO-3-(4-FURANYL)-
2,1-NAPHTHO[4,3-E]PYRONE *(SALVINORIN A).”
(See
page 19 http://www.health.gov.au/tga/docs/pdf/legis/rr200111upd8.pdf;
Accord, Page 9: http://www.health.gov.au/tga/docs/pdf/legis/g0111pos.pdf)
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Defend Salvia Divinorum
Against A Similar Move By The US DEA !
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