The law was named after Brett Chidester (September 16, 1988 – January 23, 2006), a 17 year old who died by suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning (by lighting a charcoal grill inside a closed tent),[1] despite it being "unclear" what role the drug played in the incident.
[4] Chidester's parents have argued that the herb played a major role in the teenager's death, and have advocated for "Schedule I"-like legislation beyond their home state of Delaware.
"[6][7] It was reported on August 3, 2007 that Chidester's parents intended to sue Ethnosupply, a Canada-based Internet company that sold Salvia divinorum to Brett some four months before his death.
[8] There has not been anywhere else, either before or since this incident, any other reported cases involving or alleging Salvia divinorum as a serious factor in suicide, overdose, accidental, or any other kind of death.
"[11] Tiffin University psychologist Jonathan Appel, who co-authored a 2007 paper in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction on the rising popularity of salvia, expressed reluctance to draw any firm conclusions about Brett Chidester's death.
"[10] Bryan Roth, a psychiatrist and pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina who has led the research into how salvia's active constituent salvinorin A works, says it remains difficult to say what role the drug might have played in Chidester's suicide.
Richard Glen Boire, a senior fellow at the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, has said that the theory that using salvia encouraged Chidester to reach conclusions about the nature of life that were conducive to suicide could apply to some of the greatest pieces of art in the history of the world.