The Legal Hallucinogen Targeted at Teens

by Laura Dawn Lewis

Salvia Divinorum (Salvia) or Salvinorin A, street names Salvia, Divine Sage and Magic Mint is a legal, powerful natural hallucinogen marketed to and easily accessed by teens on the web and at times, health and spirituality stores. Health care and law enforcement officials described Salvia as an organic hallucinogen as potent as  LSD.   Users dispute the comparing of Salvia to LSD and insist that it is a mild, harmless perception and spirituality enhancer.

This isn't a new designer drug. It's a member of the Sage family and legal. Experts compare its effects to LSD.

Generally it takes science a few years to catch up with new herbal remedies that create potentially harmful reactions.  This may be why even the DEA cannot respond to many questions regarding Salvia Divinorum.  Though the DEA may not be able to junior high, high school and college students can.

Salvia Divinorum is currently legal in every country but Australia.  The Australian government banned Salvia effective as of June 2002. Salvia is a member of the sage family and a common garden plant.  To date, the Divinorum species of Salvia seems to be the only member of this family with perception-altering or intoxicating capabilities. Divinorum seeds are rare. 

Salvia Divinorum is not a new drug or plant.  Classified in the sage/mint family the Mazatec Indians of Northern Mountains in Oaxaca, Mexico have been using the leafy plant in healing and in religious ceremonies for centuries.  The drug itself provides a trip for the user that can range from mild to extreme. Cases have been documented of users falling asleep while driving and walking through glass walls while under its influence. 

Referring to the above cases, a 23-year-old Salvia defender in Pittsburgh, PA commented, “You state things like, it could cause a user to fall asleep while driving. What idiot would use this while trying to drive a car?”

Users argue that the effect lasts only about five minutes. One responded to this article by stating, “When salvia is smoked the "trip" only lasts about 3 minutes.”  The few medical sources we were able to find with some background on Salvia placed intoxication closer to thirty to forty minutes.  Several aficionados also insist that the effects “Aren’t much more "intense" than smoking tobacco”.

Actual Sales Copy from a Salvia Dealer's Web site:

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Salvia Divinorum Leaves **Prime Oaxacan Harvest Leaves

The leaves are harvested fresh in the high mountains of Oaxacan by the native people of that region, then dried, cured & blessed. Oaxacan salvia leaves are known to be 50% more potent than Hawaiian or other grown salvia leaves.

These are the highest potency and quality leaves you can get anywhere.

$20 for 1/2 oz. 

(14 g) of Prime Salvia Divinorum Leaves

$35 for 1 oz. 

(28 g) of Prime Salvia Divinorum Leaves...
_____________________________

User sites dispute our reader’s assertion that Salvia highs are no more intense than smoking tobacco. Search and you will see notations referring the 5th and 6th levels of intoxication, called immaterial and amnesiac.  These notations dispute what many of the users are stating and do warn of the potential hazards and need for supervision.  These are stressed for the highest level, Amnesiac.

 “User remains conscious but loses accurate perception of actual surroundings. At this point the person should not be left alone and must have a sober person in the room.  The user is in an altered reality, will wander and encounter brief periods of unconsciousness and blackouts.”

The DEA’s limited information on Salvia describes its use as follows: “Salvia is being smoked to induce hallucinations, the diversity of which are described by its users to be similar to those induced by ketamine, mescaline, or psilocybin.  It is being widely touted on internet sites aimed at young adults and adolescents eager to experiment with these types of substances.”

Obtaining this drug is as simple as entering a store or visiting eBay.  Users adamantly defend its virtues and their right to partake in its pleasures. The following came in to Couples Company from a reader.  We found this letter interesting because unlike the others it wasn’t angry but it does illustrate the allure. The writer is also mature and in his mid-thirties, showing the appeal to this drug transcends generations.

___________________________________________

Dear Couples Company.

Thank you for bringing this subject to parents’ attention. I wonder, why would the parents be the last to know about this plant? In answer to my own question, I say the parents are too comfortable in their lives and they don't want to know. Answering your question - I do know what salvia is. My first experience took place last December. Even though I had been reading what other people posted about their encounters with salvia for a few months before I got enough courage to try it myself (unfortunately, I am not a teenager any more). It was so unexpected, so moving, so out-of-this-world that you wouldn't believe. That experience that lasted no more than 5 minutes of Earth time changed my outlook on life in general and my life in particular. I set up a site to collect any salvia related posts that were ever published online - SalviaDivinorumCorps.org, started a discussion group "SalviaD Alliance" on Yahoo and recently formed "Salvia Buyers Club" to provide good quality salvia at wholesale prices to salvia community. My advice to the parents - take it into your hands, "say once to salvia" and be the judges what is good for your children.

Sincerely,

Slava M 37, 

Potomac Falls, VA   

This is not just an intercity drug issue; like crack or ecstasy it is in small towns and the big cities.  This legal consciousness altering drug is being used in small towns and major cities around the world.   The Internet makes it accessible by overnight delivery to anyone with a credit card, checking account or money order.  About half of the 30 web sites we visited selling this drug were based in Germany.  The rest are US based.

“Some drugs alter reality in such a way that you come face to face with thoughts that which you have been afraid to confront. There is a reason these substances have been (some still are) researched for psychiatric application,” states an anonymous reader of Couples Company.

"This is an escape drug?  You are totally wrong, unless you consider 3 minutes of calm an escape.  No, alcohol is an escape drug,” comments another reader.

Though users argue the drug does not offer an escape from reality, their web sites, comments and culture contradict this through the act of assigning varying descriptions to levels of intoxication or the exaltation of the trips; the creation of a special language for the drug and its altered states of reality. The documentation of experiences under the influence of the drug as exceptional, extraordinary and life-changing.  These actions dispute and disprove claims of non-escapism or of a drug with little impact on the user.