Could salvinorin A be considered a controlled substance analogue?
Salvia divinorum’s primary active chemical, salvinorin A, is not chemically similar to any other Schedule I or II compound and thus is not covered under the United States’ Federal Controlled Substance Analogue Act of 1986. At one point the DEA had text posted to their web site about S. divinorum suggesting that salvinorin A is chemically similar to other scheduled compounds; however, the author of that text was clearly confused and didn’t understand the chemistry involved. For more information about this issue, see the related Ask Erowid question. The DEA eventually removed the spurious statements from their web site. In other countries or under state laws, S. divinorum may qualify as meeting some criteria for “analogue”-type control, but we are not aware of any prosecutions on this basis as of March 2009, and worldwide, there have been very few known arrests for S. divinorum. One of them occurred in Lincoln, Nebraska, where the plant is not illegal; the arrested individual was charged
