|
States cast wary eye on salvia
Legal herb is hallucinogenic
Sunday, July 27, 2008
NEW YORK STATE — Two years ago, the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services put an informational item about a little-known hallucinogenic herb called Salvia divinorum on its Web site. Salvia is unregulated and can be purchased in head or smoke shops or on the Internet by anyone with a credit card, and it isn’t illegal. Now, a growing number of states are considering banning or regulating salvia, which is said to trigger intense but relatively brief hallucinations. Earlier this year, the New York State Senate passed a bill that would have made it illegal to sell salvia in New York, but a similar measure died in the state Assembly. In Massachusetts, legislators are considering a bill that would ban salvia, and the Drug Enforcement Agency lists salvia as a “drug of concern.” Twelve states, including Maine and California, have already moved to ban or regulate it. Though salvia use is far from prevalent in the Capital Region, it’s something drug-prevention experts are aware of. “We haven’t seen a lot of use,” said Patty Kilgore, clinical director at the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention. “We’ve seen a lot of kids who are aware of it. … More kids know about it than are actually using it. It’s not classified, but it probably should be.” Kilgore said she’s talked to a few teens who have used salvia. She said there are several reasons teens are less likely to use salvia than other drugs. For one thing, they may not have a credit card, which would make it more difficult to purchase salvia online. Some kids have also complained that salvia is not a “good high” — that because the drug is unregulated, it doesn’t always produce the desired effect. And addicts, she noted, are less likely to use hallucinogenics because you develop a tolerance to them more quickly. “Salvia isn’t a daily use type of drug,” she said. Nancy Johnson, coordinator of the Schenectady County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership, said staff first learned about salvia about a year and a half ago, when a parent reported that a child’s friend had used the drug. “We were all on the Internet researching it, but then things died down,” she said. “We haven’t heard anyone talk about salvia since.” The Schenectady County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership sent information about salvia to parents, Johnson said, to make them aware of it. But in terms of teenage substance abuse, alcohol and marijuana remain the biggest problems, and officials are concerned about illicit prescription drug use, she said. Some kids have started holding “rainbow parties,” where they throw different pills into a bowl, mix them up and then take one or two of them, she said. Dianne Henk, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, said OASAS decided to post the item on salvia on the agency’s Web site after the agency’s medical director read several articles about the drug. Henk said that it’s important that parents know about the drug, and how easy it is to obtain over the Internet. “Because it’s so easy to obtain and not regulated, it’s something the medical community is talking about,” she said. “Because we know the Internet spreads the word, and because we know there’s a great deal of information on the Internet, the sense was that it was important to address it.” Right now, the state has no plans to regulate salvia, Henk said. “Our focus is ‘let’s educate as much as possible,’” she said. The legislation to outlaw salvia in New York was proposed by state Sen. John Flanagan, R-Smithtown. “Parents are unaware of this,” said Robert Caroppoli, a spokesman for Flanagan. “[Flanagan] sees it as a gateway drug to harsher drugs. He decided that if the federal government wasn’t going to do anything, he would try to do something here.” Determining how many people in New York have used salvia is tricky. “It’s not a substance which we track,” Henk said. A National Survey of Drug Use and Health report released in February found that more people are using salvia. “There is evidence suggesting the emergence of new hallucinogens, such as Salvia divinorum, which has been marketed as an ‘herbal high,’” the report noted. About 1.8 million people aged 12 and older have used salvia in their lifetime, and approximately 750,000 did so in 2006. In comparison, approximately 23 million people aged 12 and older have used LSD in their lifetime, but fewer than 700,000 people used LSD in 2006. Salvia, which is also known as diviner’s sage, is a psychoactive drug that is typically smoked, but can also be absorbed by chewing, tea infusions or inhaling the vapors of the burning leaves. It is a perennial herb in the mint family, native to Mexico, where the Mazaetc Indians use it in healing ceremonies. But little is known about its long-term effects. The OASAS item on salvia states, “Currently, there is a lack of information regarding plants or weeds commonly found in our environment that can cause serious legal harm when ingested, smoked or rubbed into the skin. Most of these substances are not illegal. … Research suggests that teen misuse of these weeds and plants increases when they are in bloom in the spring and summer months, though they can be used year round and could possibly be purchased over the Internet.”
comments
|
Advertisement
|
November 21, 2008
2:06 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Salvia divinorum has tremendous potential for the development of a wide variety of valuable medications. The most promising of these include safe non-addictive analgesics, antidepressants, short-acting anesthetics, and drugs to treat disorders characterized by alterations in perception, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, chronic depression, and bipolar disorder. Studies show Salvia divinorum’s mechanism is actually "aversive"—the opposite of addictive. There are numerous case reports in which people testify to the effectiveness of this herb for managing pain. There are also many psychotherapists who have used this herb in their practice and are impressed with its effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic tool. It has even been used to successfully treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A case report in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology describes a patient that obtained relief from chronic depression by using Salvia divinorum (Hanes, 2001). Many accounts can be found online of people who have recovered from serious, life-threatening depression with the help of this herb. It is especially interesting that these people are able to obtain persistent relief from their depression after only a few treatments. Quite unlike the continuous medication regime required with conventional antidepressants such as Prozac—which in most cases only offer symptomatic relief from depression—Salvia divinorum often produces long-lasting clinical
There are many popular misconceptions about Salvia divinorum. Many of these misconceptions have their origin in a few sensationalistic articles that have appeared in the popular press, and others derive from the absurd advertising claims of unethical herb vendors who deliberately exaggerate the effects of Salvia divinorum in an effort to increase sales.
The fact is that the effects of Salvia divinorum are not appealing to recreational drug users. The majority of people who try it find that they do not enjoy its effects and do not continue using it. People who use it medicinally take it infrequently. It is not euphoric or stimulating. It is not a social drug. Since it increases self-awareness, it is useless as an escapist drug. It is most useful as a natural medicinal herb.
Salvia divinorum is a relatively obscure medicinal herb with no potential for abuse. It does not present a risk to public health or safety. Criminalizing it would only create a problem where one did not previously exist. The regulation of herbal medicines is a matter handled by the FDA, not the Controlled Substances Act. There is no reasonable justification for making Salvia divinorum a controlled substance. Placing it in schedule I would deprive people of a safe natural medicinal herb, and hamper promising medical research.
Schedule I is intended for substances that have a high potential for abuse, a lack of accepted safety, and no currently accepted medical use. Salvia divinorum does not meet any of these criteria.
2:07 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Salvia divinorum is completely non-toxic. Toxicological studies have been performed by Dr. Leander Valdés at the University of Michigan, Jeremy Stewart at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Frank Jaksch of Chromadex Inc., and Wayne Briner of the University of Kansas. Neither Salvia divinorum nor salvinorin A showed toxicity in any of these studies. There is a vast body of empirical evidence that indicates Salvia divinorum is a remarkably safe herb. Indeed, the Mazatecs, who have used S. divinorum for hundreds of years, do not attribute any toxic properties to this plant.
Studies have shown that Salvia divinorum is not addictive or habit forming. Its mechanism of action indicates that it is actually anti-addictive. Many people have reported that Salvia divinorum helped them to overcome Severe Depression or substance abuse problems. This has included addictions to alcohol, caffeine, crack, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, nicotine, and XTC.
Even after over 40 years of scrutiny the plant is still considered harmless. It has no lingering effects like a hangover, and no one, the DEA included, has heard of a person overdosing or experiencing long-term consequences. Calls to law enforcement agencies, hospitals, rehab clinics, colleges and universities across the state, as well as a survey of the rest of the US, failed to reveal Salvia divinorum as a problem or a direct contributor to any addictions, conditions, accidents, injuries, crimes, or deaths.
Salvia divinorum is a remarkably safe medicinal herb that is not a danger to anyone.
10:16 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
If you're looking for a religous experience, insightfulness or the keys to the universe - go get a Bible - stop this rediculous defense of your personal hallucinations. If it is medicinal, then let it be controlled and monitored.
The fact remains that each and every person reacts differently to each and every herb or drug. I for one, have found that marijuana has greatly benefitted me with various medical issues, especially depression. On the other-hand Salvia posed a severe and potentially grave danger to me and perhaps others.
On the flip side - Salvia may be good for you and marijuana may make you hallucinate.
Just the same way peanuts, for instance, could be extremely beneficial to some and may cause another to die.
It's always a crap shoot.
I went to a store on Long Island looking for an herbal tea or extract that would be calming to me. I was seeking something I read about called "Avena Sativa". I was recommended (by what I thought was a knowledgeable store-owner)a product called "Salvia", which I know only to be an herbal plant. You can smoke it, drink it or eat it. I figured I would try it and would smoke it.
I went home and smoked a very small amount. Within 30 seconds, I was hallucinating, I could not find my body-parts - meaning I perceived my arms & legs had disappeared from my body & I had to look for them. The tv was on and, either I melded into the set or the people on tv came right out of the set and began to speak to me. A mosquito approx. 40' tall was after me. I was thrown into a 3rd dimension.
It lasted only a few minutes, yet I last remember sitting in my living room and was flabbergasted to find myself outside my home - hallucinating. I hope my neighbors did not see me, because I have no idea what else I did.
After I stopped hallucinating (tripping) and experiencing an altered state of reality, I looked on line to see what in the world I was given.
Salvia is similar to LSD and kids all over (see YOUTUBE.com) are buying it legally from local shops and "tripping" their faces off. It is legal.
I can't comprehend how marijuana is illegal, but this crazy stuff is not.
Please alert your readers to this, new type of high. If I would have smoked a little more, I am sure I would have either walked in traffic (not realizing I was doing so), or killed someone. Who the hell knows what could have happened - especially me. I cannot tell you what may have happened - because, well, um, hello, I was HALLUCINATING!
This is not to be taken lightly...
Sheila