Salvia Divinorum: A Potent Hallucinogen

For the average person, Salvia is an herb that can be used in cooking, or put in a diffusor. But for some, it is a powerful drug that works quickly to give them a high coupled with hallucinations. Salvia Divinorum is being studied in order to regulate it to make our communities safer as well as seeing how it can help certain people with pain or mood disorders Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Salvia Divinorum: A Potent Hallucinogen

Herbal supplements are popular, as are street drugs in modern America. Both are misused. Then there are those that fall into both categories. Salvia (Salvia officinalis - known better as Sage) is an herb that can season your stuffing, and help with your digestive issues, while a different type of Salvia (Salvia divinorum) can be used as an hallucinogenic. We will look at the Salvia divinorum in detail, it's history, describe hallucinogens and how salvia is subject to that definition, and its reaction in the human brain.

What is Salvia used for?

Herbs are plants in which any part or parts can be used in food, perfume, or medicine. Herbs have been used since the beginning of time, just their smell can soothe the soul and their taste can evince joy.

Being part of the mint, sage family, Salvia is used as a medicinal herb to help aid people with diarrhea and regulating bowel habits. It is an easy to grow annual with pretty purple blue blooms. The Black and Blue variety attracts hummingbirds if you are a bird lover.

The stems, flowers and leaves are used for their medicinal, aromatherapy, and culinary uses. Salvia is also used as a deodorizer and disinfectant. Herbs have multiple purposes, making them a delight to grow and use. However, when using herbs for medicinal reasons, always check with your doctor. As of now, there are no approved medical uses for Salvia in the United States.

History of Salvia

Salvia is native to Mexico, for hundreds of years, the Mazatec Indians ( Sierra Mazateca, Oaxaca Southern Mexico) have used salvia for medical practices, shamanism (practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness to interact with spirit world), and divination (gaining insight through ritual) according to the article, "What Are the Effects of Using Salvia" by Kathleen Davis FNP.

The Indians would brew a tea from the Salvia leaves, or roll fresh leaves to chew without swallowing so it is absorbed into the bloodstream and not be deactivated in the gastric juices.

Because of Salvia's fast action and low addictive and side effects, it is popularly used as an hallucinogenic among young people. Chewing on the leaves, inhaling, and extracts under the tongue are ways that Salvia is used as a recreational drug. Being legal in most states, it can be purchased in smoke shops and on the internet. Tennessee, Oklahoma, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, and Missouri have declared Salvia illegal according to the article on WebMd, "Salvia Divinorum Overview Information."

Salvia as an Hallucinogen

According to Davis, Salvia's hallucinogenic effects are similar to LSD. Salvia is popular because it produces visual hallucinations quickly with low side effects. Also, due to the fact that Saliva has little potential for addiction makes it popular.

Salvia is not just grown in Mexico, but parts of the United States. Users can experience time and space distortions with its most "potent naturally occurring hallucinogen". It can cause slurred speech along with loss of coordination.

Delaware took action after a teen committed suicide in 2007 while using Salvia passing "Brett's Law," putting Salvia in the class of schedule 1 controlled substance. The same year the DEA put salvia on the list of drugs that they were concerned about, calling it a risk to its users.

Salvia possesses an active ingredient called "Salvinorin A, a kappa opiate receptor (KOR) agonist". The agonist stimulates some central nervous system receptors in the brain. This is where much of the human perception is located.

Effects of Salvia are felt within two minutes and can last up to 30 minutes when smoking such as in a hookah, but when taken orally the effects are lessened but can last from 1 to 3 hours.

Those most likely to use Salvia are wealthy, white males between the age of 18 and 25 according to Davis. In the survey, "2015 Monitoring the Future Survey," showed that just below 2% of 12th graders had used Salvia in the past year, with over half expressing no desire to use it again.

In certain vulnerable people the space and time disturbances can last hours after the effects are gone when the dose is 500mg or above.

Health risks listed in Davis' article when using Salvia

  • Sweating
  • Dizziness
  • Lack of coordination
  • Confusion
  • Slurred speech
  • Difficulty concentrating

How Does Salvia work in the brain?

In the article, "Brain's Reaction to Potential Hallucinogen Salvia Explored" a chemist named Jacob Hooker is one of the first to study the effects of Salvia on the brain in- primates using PET scans. The purpose of the study was to track how salvia travels through the brain to see its relevance for medicinal purposes and understand why it is used as a recreational drug.

Salvia's peak concentration was found to be 10 times greater than that of cocaine at the fast rate of 40 seconds. The most concentrations of the drugs were found in the cerebellum and the visual cortex which makes sense that the effects are felt in motor and visual function of the brain. Hooker concluded that as little as 10 mcg is needed for a psychoactive response in humans. Because it does not give people a euphoric sense, it can be studied for pain control and mood disorders. They plan to do more research on Salvia in the future.

Conclusion

Salvia can be dangerous, even deadly. Because it can easily be bought, the thought may be that is not harmful. For those touched by drug abuse, this can be scary. Hopefully as research comes in, more regulations will be put into place making it illegal to buy as a recreational drug. Keep enjoying it in your food and grow it in your garden for its beauty.

If you know someone who has tried Salvia as an hallucinogen, please share your story with us.

References

Davis, Kathleen FNP. "What Are The Effects Of Using Salvia?" May 2, 2016. MedicalNewsToday. 2 May, 2016. Web.

DOE/Brookhaven National Library. "Brain's Reaction To Potent Hallucinogen Salvia Explored." April 28, 2008. ScienceDaily. 2 May, 2016. Web.

"Salvia Divinorum." WebMD. Nd. 2 May, 2016. Web.

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Brenda F. Johnson

About Brenda F. Johnson, MSN

Gastrointestinal Columnist

Brenda F. Johnson, BSN, RN Specialty: 25 years of experience in Gastrointestinal Nursing

61 Articles   326 Posts

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Specializes in Hospice.

Get your facts straight: the sage used in cooking is salvia officinalis, aka garden sage. There are almost a thousand species of Salvia, many of which used ornamentally in Southwest gardens. Don't conflate them.

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Specializes in Gastrointestinal Nursing.

You are right, the sentence in the first paragraph will be restated to clear that up

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Specializes in Hospice.

Thanks ... I had visions of people raiding supermarket spice shelves or calling the cops on someone's garden!

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Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

Enjoyed your article. Salvia has been a fringe drug gaining in popularity in some areas. One minor thing, I am quite confident the photo you used is of Lobelia sp, not Salvia. No big whoop.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTDOMrzBX4pRyVmWDbk0HFCSjn9-S0FRUX4KivXxhv0IF6BIuve

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Specializes in Psychoactive Drugs.

No long-term effects of salvia divinorum have been discovered and at time of writing has largely been agreed upon as pharmacologically safe. To say it is potentially deadly in the manner you have is somewhat misleading. It is potentially deadly in the same way alcohol can usually be: people using it recklessly can get in dangerous situations. The difference is that it’s possible (and relatively quite common) to overdose on alcohol but virtually impossible to overdose on Salvinorin A. We don’t even know what a salvia overdose would look like because no human has ever come close. You also state at the beginning that people take it for a high but this is simply not the case. You do not get high with salvia but instead experience space-time distortions at lower doses and interdimensional visionary experiences at higher doses. None of its effects are commonly considered to be similar to LSD to any extent, save some visuals occasionally experienced with chewed leaves or oral tincture (both uncommon ROI’s). Not to say that resembling LSD is necessarily a bad thing but simply that it is not a realistic comparison whatsoever.

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