WATERLOO - Andrew Tomayko was prepared to experience salvia.

Having tried the psychoactive herb before, the 21-year-old leaned back in a rocking chair. He took two hits from a glass pipe filled with salvia divinorum, a concentrated form of a substance legal under federal law.

He awaited the effects. It didn't take long.

"My legs are starting to get shaky," Tomayko said after just a few seconds, tapping on the arms of the chair.

A minute later, he reported his legs felt "gooey," and said he felt a "tingly sweat, like you've been running outside and it's hot, and you come into a cold room."

But while Tomayko described the physiological effects of smoking salvia, he asserted they were inconsequential compared to the emotional response.

"It's just calming," he said. "I feel good. You feel light, kind of. It's a different feeling."

Salvia divinorum, a type of sage with psychoactive properties, is legal in Iowa and most other states. That could change, however, as soon as next year.

The Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy in Des Moines has proposed four study bills - two in the Iowa House and two in the Iowa Senate - and plans to introduce a bill in both chambers. The intent is to classify salvia divinorum and its psychoactive element, salvinorin A, as schedule 1 controlled substances. That would put salvia on par with cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines.

The bill passed the House unanimously in 2007 but died in a Senate subcommittee in 2007 and 2008. The measure will go back to the House in January.

In Iowa, 123 substances are classified as schedule 1 substances.

When chewed and kept in the mouth or smoked and held in the lungs briefly, salvia induces everything from a meditative calm to a hallucinatory state.

When purchased, sometimes via the Internet, the substance frequently comes with warnings: Don't take it and try to drive. Don't take it if you're pregnant or nursing. Don't mix it with other drugs.

Salvia, though, largely remains an underground phenomenon in Iowa. Few other than those specifically looking for the substance know anything about it.

Originally grown exclusively in Oaxaca, Mexico, salvia was cultivated by Mazatec shamans for spiritual healing purposes. Researcher Daniel Siebert, who has studied salvia extensively since the 1980s, was the first to identify salvinorin A as the compound responsible for the herb's psychoactive effects.

The cultivation and possession, as well as buying, selling and using salvia, are not illegal in Iowa. Anyone 18 or older can walk into smoke shops in the Cedar Valley and around the state and buy as much as they want. The product comes in a variety of potencies starting at "beginner's 10x" - which represents 10 times the potency of a single salvia leaf.

First time

Tayler Martin, 23, a first-time salvia user, was initially apprehensive but wanted to see what it was like.

"I feel like I'm really slowing down, like in that movie 'Old School'" with Will Ferrell, she said between giggles.

"It's so infuriating, because in my head I'm thinking totally normal - I just can't get the words out," she said.

Martin kept laughing for a few minutes but explained it wasn't because she found anything particularly funny. She also reported feeling a tingling in her hands and said she had no urge to stir.

"I feel relaxed. I feel like I can only move my eyes - I can't move anything else. Too much work," Martin said. "But I like it."

After seven or eight minutes, Tomayko and Martin reported sobering up. At about the 15-minute mark, neither reported any effects from smoking salvia and both were talking and moving as they had before. Almost an hour after first inhaling salvia, the only effect Martin reported was a sensation of relaxation.

"I feel a little looser than before coming in," she said. "It's like I had a half-hour massage."

Tomayko recalled a time he tried a higher-potency salvia, specifically 60x.

"I remember uncontrollable laughter, and the wall was moving away from me. It was really cool," he said.

Another time, he decided to run to his bathroom to take a shower but couldn't explain why.

The local popularity of salvia is unclear. The Waterloo Drug Task Force did not respond to messages seeking comment.

An employee at Etc Treasures declined to answer questions about the popularity of salvia except to say the amount of customers for the herb was "normal."

Schedule 1

The Office of Drug Control Policy noted in its Iowa's Drug Control Strategy 2008 report that legislation to schedule salvia "as a controlled substance would be a proactive step toward protecting Iowans from this harmful drug."

"Salvia divinorum … has shown up sporadically in drug investigations," the report goes on. "Its abuse can cause intense and debilitating hallucinations that can result in harm to the user and others. In addition, abusers report the negative long-term effects being similar to those produced by LSD or other hallucinogens, including depression and schizophrenia."

Gary Kendell, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, said the use of salvia hasn't reached an epidemic level, and there have only been "anecdotal reports" of problems. He referred to one case in 2006 regarding a woman in Des Moines who reportedly went into convulsions. The Des Moines Division of Narcotics Enforcement could not confirm the incident.

In 2007, House File 491 passed 97-0.

Rep. Tami Wiencek, a Waterloo Republican serving House District 21, said she didn't remember much discussion about salvia when House File 491 came to the floor last year, and said it isn't a priority.

"Literally not one of my constituents has ever talked about it," Wiencek said.

Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, an Arlington Democrat serving Senate District 12, chaired the Senate subcommittee overseeing the bill in 2007. In an e-mail, he said the Department of Public Safety provided "a substantial amount of information" about salvia, said he supports making it illegal if the bill comes to a vote again.

Wiencek agreed.

"I don't think we want to go down the road of another substance out there," Wiencek said.

Kendell doesn't define salvia as a large issue at the moment but believes action would be prudent.

"It's more a desire to be preventive," he said. "For once, we need to deal with something before it becomes a major problem."

To ban or not to ban

But others think classifying salvia as illegal would be a major problem in itself. Michael Anthony, a community activist in Waterloo, has spoken out against what he considers the futility of the government's "war on drugs." He said banning salvia won't stop people from using it and will only send it underground, resulting in criminal activity and a need for increased enforcement.

"We need to start treating the drug problem in America as a health and moral problem, and not a crime problem. Putting that (proposed) law in place will start treating it as a crime problem," Anthony wrote in an e-mail. "No matter what laws you put in place, you can't defeat the law of supply and demand. We need to focus on eliminating the conditions that influence that type of lifestyle or behavior."

He added those conditions include improving the education system and eliminating poverty.

Tomayko and Martin do not consider repeated salvia usage to be a lifestyle they would adopt, nor would they care if the herb was made illegal.

Though he's tried it before, Tomayko doesn't consider salvia addictive.

"It's not, like, a crazy experience to me," Tomayko said. "I like doing it, though."

Contact Amie Steffen at (319) 291-1464 or amie.steffen@wcfcourier.com.