Salvia divinorum has long been a popular legal high among stoners and other substance experimenters. Salvia produces intense hallucinations and makes the user feel like her or she has left his body. Internet forums around the Web are chock full of people telling stories about the “life-changing” effects of taking salvia.

While Salvia is not especially popular among teens in the US, likely because of the potent effects of the substance, other legal and herbal highs have given parents cause for concern, although there is some doubt over what could be done to stop their distribution among children given that the substances can be bought by anyone without restrictions.

In Pennsylvania recently, a group of kids were taken ill after allegedly consuming Snurf pills, just one of dozens of legal highs with similar trendy names that have been attracting kids in a similar way to alcopops.

Snurf pills can be bought by anyone through countless numbers of websites. Although there have been attempts to curb the number of online stores selling the pills, the impossibility of controlling the Internet along with the stumbling block of the pills being legal has left cops and parents stuck.

Experts have said that while teens are less frequently turning to hard drugs, the use of legal highs has significantly gone up.

Nobody seems quite sure what Snurf pills contain, but after studying the effects that users have reported when taking the pills, some experts have come to the conclusion that the pills contain dextromethorphan (DMX), the cough suppressant ingredient found in many medicines.

It’s thought that about one tenth of all kids from grades seven to 12 have dabbled in DMX at one point or another.

Legal highs have been around for a long time already, with herbal ecstasy remaining a fairly popular alternative to the harder, illegal substance.