On 19 Feb 2011, Health Canada proposed to add Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A to Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). Here’s what others have said about Health Canada’s S. divinorum proposal:
Meanwhile, Health Canada insists that it is illegal to sell Salvia divinorum because it is an unapproved “natural health product.” So, what is a natural health product? Health Canada’s website says this on one page:
“Natural health product (or NHP) is a term used in Canada to refer to a group of health products including: vitamin and mineral supplements, herbal remedies and other plant-based health products, traditional medicines (such as traditional Chinese medicines and Ayurvedic [East Indian] medicines), homeopathic medicines, fatty acids (such as omega 3, 6 and 9), probiotics and some personal care products such as antiperspirants, medicated shampoos and mouthwashes.”
The spin changes markedly though, on their page about Salvia divinorum:
“As Salvia divinorum is a plant with hallucinogenic properties when consumed by humans, it currently meets the definition of a natural health product (NHP) under the Natural Health Products Regulations.”
The regulatory definition of a “natural health product” provides no basis whatsoever for their claim which, in my opinion, is deceitful. A jar of nutmeg would satisfy their definition.
I sent Health Canada this e-mail on 30 May 2011, asking for an explanation of their reasoning.
On 5 July 2011, 36 days after my enquiry, an unidentified individual at the Office of Controlled Substances (OCS) responded with this e-mail, which deftly and belatedly sidesteps my question, lobbing it instead to the Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD).
[This is not the first e-mail I’ve gotten from a diffident OCS correspondent. Perhaps a review of Health Canada’s core values is in order, particularly the bit about accountability.]
On 12 July 2011, 43 days after my enquiry, Kathees Anandavel of the NHPD responded with this e-mail purporting to explain why Health Canada considers S. divinorum a natural health product stating, in part:
“When S. divinorum is manufactured, sold or represented for use in modifying organic functions in humans, and hallucinogens work by modifying organic functions in the brain, it meets the definition of a natural health product (NHP) in accordance with the Natural Health Products Regulations and the definition of a drug under the Food and Drugs Act.”
Even if you didn’t ace your first year logic course, it doesn’t take a logician to notice the conditions explicit in the above rationale are glaringly absent from their earlier, deceitful, claim. A jar of nutmeg would satisfy this definition as well—if it were sold as a hallucinogenic drug. In practice, neither packaged S. divinorum nor nutmeg is sold or represented as a hallucinogen. Health Canada is grabbing at straws.
Note too, Health Canada claims to have divined the mechanism of hallucinogenesis. No references pertaining to this breakthrough are cited, which stands in marked contrast to this recent report in PLoS ONE, Investigating the Mechanisms of Hallucinogen-Induced Visions Using 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), which begins with a flatly honest assessment:
“The mechanisms of drug-induced visions are poorly understood. Very few serotonergic hallucinogens have been studied in humans in decades, despite widespread use of these drugs and potential relevance of their mechanisms to hallucinations occurring in psychiatric and neurological disorders.”
On 27 July 2011 I filed an Access To Information (ATI) request with Health Canada requesting copies of three Saliva-related ATIs filed previously by other individuals (My thanks to ATI analyst Leslie Larabie for handling my request):
At almost 3500 pages, this is a deeply disillusioning read. It is testimony on how a fatally flawed proposal based on the flimsiest of evidence but driven by blind ideology takes on a life of its own as it lumbers along. The amount of time and energy that has been squandered on this insignificant threat to health is truly astonishing, a discredit to Health Canada and a disservice to Canadians.
I’ll have more to say about this in due course, and it’s not a total loss: Buried herein, one finds page after page that flatly contradicts Health Canada’s current position on Salvia divinorum:
“There are no regulations or laws prohibiting the possession, use or sale of Salvia divinorum in Canada.”—Health Canada; page 57.
“Monitoring of abuse patterns should continue, however, education aimed at raising awareness of the plant’s unpredictable and occasionally upsetting psychoactive effects, rather than criminal prohibition, is key to reducing individual and social harm with respect to Salvia divinorum and its active component.”—RCMP report; page 72.
“Salvia divinorum, when associated with health claims, could meet the definition of a natural health product under the Natural Health Product Regulations (NHPR).”—An earlier, honest version of what Health Canada now says; page 392.
On 11–12 May 2011, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) hosted the First international multidisciplinary forum on new drugs in Lisbon. Two Health Canada officials attended, and each presented a paper.
Jocelyn Kula (A/Director, Office of Controlled Substances) spoke on The “New Drug” Phenomenon: Update from Canada. Suzanne Desjardins (Director, Office of Research and Surveillance) addressed Salvia divinorum: The Canadian Experience.
Months after the conference I tried, and failed, to find any trace of the latter document. It was certainly not to be found on Health Canada’s website. So, on 21 July 2011 I sent Ms. Desjardins this e-mail requesting a copy. It’s been 4657 days—haven’t heard back yet.
I have both documents now, but it took an ATI request to get them (with thanks to ATI analyst Natalina DiNardo for handling my request.) That doesn’t say much for Health Canada, given the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada states:
[I]nformation requests or inquiries from the public are responded to promptly without undue recourse to the Access to Information Act
Note to Health Canada: the Access to Information Act is meant to supplement other forms of access, not supplant them.
· Isomer Design