Some states and the federal government are considering banning the hallucinogenic herb salvia divinorum, but that could snuff out promising research into the plant's potential medical uses, the Los Angeles Times reported April 28.

Salvia has been used for centuries by Mexican Indians in religious ceremonies, but has gained some recent popularity as a legal hallucinogen in the U.S. The herb is now sold at smoke shops and online, which has raised concerns among the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and led to a number of states outlawing possession, sale or use of salvia.

"We have people getting intoxicated on it, and there have been injuries," said addiction researcher John Mendelson of California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. "But scheduling the drug as a narcotic is playing a big, big hand. If you're caught with it, you go to jail. Are we really interested, at this juncture, in making the drug illegal through this mechanism?"

Salvia's active ingredients, salvinorin A, causes hallucinations, but little else is known about the drugs effects. Some researchers see possible therapeutic uses for the herb because it acts on kappa-opioid receptors, meaning it could blunt pain without causing addiction like opiates, or be useful as an antidepressant or to treat opiate dependence.

"This is a very fertile area of research and it would be foolish to cut off pathways of commercial development with unthinking legislation," said Mendelson.