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Web Retailers, Online Videos Promote Teen Abuse of Controversial Hallucinogenic Herb
By Hugh C. McBride
A drug with hallucinogenic properties, possible medical benefits and confusing legal status is becoming an increasingly popular substance of abuse among teen drug users.
Indigenous to the mountainous regions of northeastern Mexico, salvia divinorum (more commonly referred to simply as "salvia") is a psychoactive herb from the mint family that has a centuries-old history of use in religious and shamanic ceremonies.
Though anthropologist Jean Basset Johnson wrote about salvia use in the 1930s, the drug remained relatively unknown outside its indigenous areas until the 1990s, when increases in its popularity were fueled in part by the rise of the Internet.
The University of Maryland's Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) has described Salvinorin A (the primary psychoactive element in salvia) as "the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen."
Use & Effects
Salvia can be ingested via a number of means, including chewing the plant's leaves, smoking it in a cigarette or a bong, or vaporizing the drug and inhaling the fumes.
Drawing comparisons to LSD and psilocybin ("magic mushrooms"), salvia can create hallucinogenic or dissociative experiences in individuals who use the drug. CESAR reports that when LSD pioneer Albert Hofmann and a colleague acquired a salvia sample in 1962, they described the drug's effects as "a less desirable substitute" for hallucinogenic mushrooms.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), salvia use can result in the following effects:
- Hallucinations or delusional episodes that mimic psychosis
- Psychedelic-like changes in visual perception, mood and body sensations
- Emotional swings
- Feelings of detachment
- Highly modified perception of external reality and the self
- Decreased ability to interact with one's surroundings
Unlike LSD or psilocybin, the effects of salvia are short-lasting, typically ending less than 10 minutes after ingestion.
In their Sept. 8, 2008, New York Times article, writers Kevin Sack and Brent McDonald reported that salvia use can result in widely divergent (and potentially jarring) experiences:
Known on the street by nicknames like Sally D and Magic Mint, salvia can have vastly different effects depending on dose, potency and the mindset and tolerance of its users, according to researchers and experienced smokers (though bitter, it can also be chewed or consumed as a tincture) ...
Users often report a sudden dissociation from self, as if traveling through time. The experience tends to be solitary, introspective and sometimes fearful ...
“I’ve used several psychedelics, and salvia’s definitely the most intense experience that I’ve had,” online salvia retailer Brian D. Arthur told Sack and McDonald. “Salvia takes you out of the world and puts you in a different place.”
Another salvia user, 19-year-old Jo Puddle, told British journalist Keri Sutherland that when it comes to salvia, "intense" and "enjoyable" do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.
"You don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are. That feeling is horrible. It lasts for about five minutes, but the fear stays with you for about half an hour," Puddle said in Sutherland's Sept. 13 Daily Mail article. "I would not recommend it. I’ve never heard of anyone who enjoyed it."
Salvia Online
As Brian Arthur's presence in the New York Times article indicates, the Internet has been closely associated with increased salvia abuse.
In addition to the prevalence of online sales sites (the Times reported that dozens of online vendors sell mild extracts for as little as $5 a gram; the strongest, at up to 100 times the potency of the raw leaf, sells for more than $50), the drug's popularity has also been fueled by young people who have filmed themselves and friends under the influence of salvia, then posted these videos on popular sites such as YouTube.
Sutherland described one of these videos in her Sept. 13 Daily Mail article:
In recent months, thousands of young people have posted footage of themselves smoking salvia on YouTube. In one clip, a terrified young man drops to his knees and begins crawling on all fours, while another man is reduced to a mumbling wreck, muttering: “Excuse me, I have to go to space now.”
While online videos such as this one have been blamed with expanding the recreational use and abuse of salvia, they have also resulted in the drug receiving additional scrutiny by legislators and law enforcement personnel on both the state and federal levels.
"In state after state ... the YouTube videos have become Exhibit A in legislative efforts to regulate salvia," Sack and McDonald reported in the Times. "[In 2008], Florida made possession or sale [of salvia] a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. California took a gentler approach by making it a misdemeanor to sell or distribute [the drug] to minors."
Legal Status and Medical Value
Sutherland's Daily Mail article noted that various British officials have proposed legislation to outlaw or limit the use and distribution of salvia, though none of these efforts have yet resulted in the drug being banned in the United Kingdom.
As is the case in the U.K., most nations do not have laws against the possession or distribution of salvia. According to the collaborative online reference site Wikipedia, the following nations have implemented restrictions or outright bans on the drug: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
In the United States, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has yet to recommend adding salvia to the controlled substances program, though a number of states have regulated the sale, distribution or use of the drug.
Publicity about salvia's propensity for abuse and resultant efforts to ban the drug have caused a bit of consternation among physicians and scientists who believe that the drug may have medicinal value. For example, Dr. Bryan L. Roth (who discovered that Salvinorin A affects only a single receptor in the brain), told the New York Times that this fact may lead to significant medical benefits.
“If we can find a drug that blocks salvia’s effects, there’s good evidence it could treat brain disorders including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and maybe even HIV,” Roth said.
