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The Legal
Hallucinogen Targeted at Teens
by Laura Dawn Lewis
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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.
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This isn't a new designer drug.
It's a member of the Sage family and legal. Experts
compare its effects to LSD. |
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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.
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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 |
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Actual Sales Copy from a Salvia Dealer's Web site
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NEW Salvia Divinorum Special
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Get the best of both worlds with 1/2 oz. of Prime
Salvia Leaves & 1 gm Salvia
standardized 5x Extract
For a limited time $36
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...
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that the effects “Aren’t much more "intense" than smoking
tobacco”.
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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.”
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This looks
like a real prescription. It is actually an over
the counter remedy. |
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Access
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.
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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. |
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