Salvia: another new(?) psychodelic

Pubdate: Sat, 17 Feb 2007
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)Copyright: 2007, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact: editor@tor.sunpub.comWebsite: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: David Hutton, Special To Sun Media

ON A MAGIC MINT RIDE
Users Say Potent -- And Legal -- Herb Is Safe, But Police OfficialWarns Of 'All Sorts Of Bad Trips'
Reality shatters in front of your eyes. Your ego dissolves. And youcan find God on your lunch break.
These are just a few of the accounts from hemp store employees whohave taken a psychedelic ride using an increasingly popular -- andperfectly legal -- herb that packs a powerful punch.
The herb is Salvia divinorum, more commonly known as Salvia, magicmint or the diviner's sage.It has come under scrutiny in several U.S. states, with one Delawaremother saying the herb was a major contributor to her son's suicide.
Some in the Ottawa police are concerned about its use in the city,especially among youth, but users defend the powerful herbalpsychedelic as a mind-altering but safe trip they only sell to thoseof age.

*****

Salvia first attracted attention four or five years ago as a "new" and legal psychodelic drug.

Since then its use has grown, but it still is not widespread.

But is there anything "new" about it? One anthropologist claims that over 150 different plants have been used throughout human history and pre-history for their psychodelic effects (this doesn't include soporants like opiates, stimulants like cocaine, or mood effectors like cannabis), and that all human cultures except for the polar eskimos in their sparse environment have used one or more of them. Salvia is just another drug in that long chain, with its own long history of use; but it is just now becoming somewhat popular because the US and other Western nations have not yet outlawed it.

Ghat, or Kat, is another example of a widely used drug that has recently caught Western attention. It is a plant, native to East Africa, whose leaves, when chewed released a mild amphetamine. It has been widely used as a social drug for a very long time in Ethopia, Somalia, Yemen and other Horn of Africa, Red Sea locales. As the US started accepted refugees from these areas, they brough Ghat with them.

When I was young and LSD was the rage, many people went on an enthusiastic search for other magical doses. In addition to the effective ones like peyote and mushrooms, other things were tried as well: smoked banana peels (no effect), morning glory seeds (psychodelic, but the dose was too large to manage), nutmeg [yes, the household spice](psychodelic, but the effective dose was too close to the potentially effective lethal dose).

Alexander Shulgin, the great chemist, detailed over 250 synthetic compounds whose psychodelic effects he examined. They included, among many others, MDMA (ecstacy).

There is no shortage of chemicals, natural, processed, or man-made, that can be used for their effect on the brain. Those who hope to change behavior that seems to be an inborn part of human nature by placing some of these substances in quarantine, are not only fighting a hopeless battle, they are depriving us of spice for our pumpkin pies.