AN obscure hallucinogenic herb from Mexico has become the latest fashion in the world of recreational drug-taking.

Suppliers are using a loophole in the law to sell the powerful drug - known as Lady Salvia or the magic Mexican mint - to young people.

Users have reported sensations of travelling through time and space, assuming the identities of other people and merging with inanimate objects. Experts say they are risking their minds, and perhaps their lives, by taking the drug.

Salvia divinorum, a type of sage used for thousands of years in Mexican Indian rituals, is legal in Britain and America and is available on the internet.

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