MEXICAN MINT A LEGAL ALTERNATIVE TO POT?

MEXICAN MINT A LEGAL ALTERNATIVE TO POT?

NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) -- Put this in your pipe and smoke it: Some marijuana smokers are switching to a Mexican mint plant that supposedly gets you high but is perfectly legal. "Details" magazine reports potheads are going nuts for a strain of mint known as "salvia divinorum" which is being sold on the internet for between $40 and $90 an ounce. Salvia smells and looks like pot, but it's new to the United States and the Federal Drug Administration has yet to evaluate the substance. Some smokers report experiencing a high similar to the effects of psychedelic mushrooms, but at least one researcher thinks the internet hype is just a bunch of hot air. German mind-altering drug researcher Dr. Christian Ratsch says salvia only provides a brief euphoria similar to laughing gas -- and only in about one in a thousand people. In fact, he says 40 percent of people who try salvia won't feel any effects at all.