Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 2010
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Randy Shore
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Salvia

SALVIA 'THE MOST POTENT' NATURAL HALLUCINOGEN

Online video of Miley Cyrus smoking the plant in a bong has peaked 
interest in the legal psychoactive, which is sold locally

Health Canada is warning people to avoid using the Mexican herb 
Salvia divinorum until its effects are better understood.

Native to Oaxaca, Mexico, the plant known as Magic Mint or Seer's 
Sage has been used for centuries by Mazatec Indian shamans for 
medicinal purposes and to induce visions, but also has gained a 
foothold in Canada and United States as a recreational drug.

Salvia divinorum is not illegal in Canada, but the herb has been 
under study by the national health agency since at least 2006 to 
determine whether it should be regulated under the Controlled Drug 
and Substance Act.

But Health Canada warns that products containing Salvia divinorum or 
its extracts may violate the Food and Drugs Act, according to 
spokesman Stephane Shank. Natural health products must be reviewed by 
Health Canada and approved for sale; so far none has been approved.

Fortified Salvia is sold at head shops and some corner stores in a 
marijuana-like smokable form as well as in alcohol-based tinctures.

Salvia is not on the radar of local law enforcement as a dangerous 
drug, according to Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard of the RCMP's Greater 
Vancouver Drug Section.

"It really hasn't come to the attention of police here in the Lower 
Mainland," said Goddard, who attended a police workshop last month in 
Montreal that included a segment on Salvia. "I know back east in 
Toronto and Montreal they are talking about it and hearing from 
parents about kids using it. It's become a problem out there with 
more reports and incidents."

In its more potent forms, within a few seconds of smoking, Salvia 
induces intense debilitating hallucinations that may last from 15 to 
30 minutes, according to experienced users who responded to a blog 
post on The Sun's website ( vancouversun.com/randyshore).

"It's not even comparable to marijuana. I could not see, move, or 
speak. I thought I had died and gone to hell. I could not remember my 
name, what I looked like, what species I was. I felt nothing but 
fear," wrote a woman who identified herself as Betty C.

Interest in Salvia intensified late last week when a video leaked on 
the Internet showed pop star Miley Cyrus laughing and hallucinating 
after smoking the herb through a large plastic pipe. YouTube contains 
dozens of videos of teens who enter a state of total disorientation 
and panic after smoking Salvia divinorum.

"What the video will do is raise awareness of this drug and that may 
lead to more people experimenting with it and raise demand and 
profits for legitimate and illegitimate enterprises," said Robert 
Gordon, director of the Simon Fraser School of Criminology.

Media reports from the United States suggest that sales of the herb 
have tripled in some states since the Miley Cyrus video was released. 
Salvia is banned in 15 states, including Delaware where the herb was 
blamed in the 2006 suicide of 16-year-old Brett Chidester.

A 24-year-old man convicted of raping and killing a mother of five on 
Calgary's C-Train in 2008 claimed to have been drinking and smoking 
Salvia beforehand. The court ruled that Christopher Watcheston was 
not so intoxicated that he didn't know what he was doing.

A 2009 drug and alcohol use survey conducted by Health Canada found 
that 0.5 per cent of adults have tried the herb, but 7.3 per cent of 
youth aged 15 to 24 reported having used Salvia at least once. Only 
0.2 per cent of Canadians report having used it in the past year, 
compared with 10.6 per cent for marijuana.

The herb has a steady following in Vancouver where it has been sold 
openly for at least the last 10 years, according to Vancouver Seed 
Bank owner Rebecca Ambrose.

"A wide range of people are interested in its psychedelic effects and 
don't want to be out of it for a long time," she said. "It's not like 
mushrooms or LSD where you are in for an eight-hour journey. In its 
extract form, Salvia causes an intense hallucinogenic effect for 
about 15 minutes."

"It's not a party drug," she added.

The store sells Salvia in variety of forms and as fresh cuttings. 
Chewing fresh leaves or smoking Salvia in its non-fortified form 
produces a much milder intoxication.

American academic Daniel Seibert notes that the pharmacological 
properties of Salvia divinorum are unique and not similar to those of 
other known psychoactive drugs such as LSD and marijuana, with which 
it is most frequently compared.

He is widely credited with identifying salvinorin A, the psychoactive 
molecule in Salvia divinorum.

The plant has a low toxicity and appears to have no addictive 
properties, according to Seibert, who sells the herb in a variety of 
potent forms on his website.

A 2006 study by Iranian toxicologists at Mashad University of Medical 
Sciences called Salvia divinorum "the most potent naturally occurring 
hallucinogen thus far isolated."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom