'Reason' Mag: Salvia is scary, safe, and too scientifically important to ban
Reason Magazine’s December 2009 issue has a well-written, thorough analysis of Salvia witch hunting in America where they argue: leave the plant alone!
Among the highlights:
One million Americans used salvia in 2007, up from 750,000 in 2006, the first year the survey asked about the drug. [And no one died, unlike booze and cigs.]
“When you smoke,” Siebert says, “the effects come on almost instantly, and it’s disorienting. Suddenly you have this dramatic shift of consciousness, especially if you’re taking a high dose, and it can be frightening and uncomfortable. That starts everything off on the wrong foot.”
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Bryan Roth, a psychiatrist and pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina: “Most people will say they don’t like it,” he says. “It’s just too intense. If it has any effect at all, I would say it would be to diminish the tendency for drug abuse.”
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“I smoked with a friend last week who became the leg of a table,” says Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. In his 1994 paper, Siebert listed commonly reported themes of salvia experiences, including “becoming objects,” “visions of various two-dimensional surfaces,” “revisiting places from the past,” “loss of the body and/or identity,” “various sensations of motion,” “uncontrollable hysterical laughter,” and “overlapping realities.”
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Search for “salvia” on YouTube, and you’ll find hundreds of videos of teenagers and young adults staring into space, laughing hysterically, falling over, crawling on the floor, and speaking in tongues while their friends alternately giggle and reassure them that it will all be over soon. These videos, widely credited with helping to popularize salvia, do not make it seem very appealing.
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Siebert, who thinks thrill-seeking salvia smokers do not understand what the plant is all about, recently told the German magazine Hanfblatt, “Salvia is not an escapist drug. Quite the contrary: It is a philosopher’s tool.” He says, “It produces a very internal state where you go into yourself. You’re more aware of your subconscious feelings, and often you gain insight into problems in your life that you’re trying to tackle.” Last year he told Newsweek, “I realized I wanted to marry my wife as a result of the salvia experience.”
Now, fifteen states have assigned criminal charges to those in possession and further bans could impede new research into drugs for addiction and mental illness. Not really shocking at all.
