Archive for January, 2009

Salvia is a psychoactive herb. What exactly does that mean? Let’s take a look.

A psychoactive drug (also known as a psychotropic substance) is one that effects the central nervous system in our bodies. It alters – hopefully temporarily – the way that our brains work, meaning there are noticeable changes in mood, behaviour, conciousness an perception. It is this psychoactive element that gives us the ‘other world’ perception when we try Salvia: our brains actually think that we are somewhere else!

Psychoactive drugs are used for many purposes, including ritual and spiritual cases (as is the case with Salvia for the Mazatec shamans), medical purposes or just plain simple recreational purposes. Naturally this is the main category that Salvia falls into today.

Psychoactive ingredients fall into one of a few different categories or classes. These are: Stimulants, Hallucinogens (of which dissociatives like Salvia fall into), Hypnotics, Analgesics and Inhalants. There are drugs for every occasion and whether you want to feel up or down, drunk or alert, there will be some psychoactive substance that meets the requirement.

Psychoactive drugs work by meddling with your brain; every drug has a different reaction with one or more parts of the brain. The drugs may increase or retard the synthesis of one or more neurotransmitters.

Hallucinogens are quite often used for religious purposes. This is not a new thing, and some reports suggest that hallucinogenic drugs have been used in ceremonies for around 5700 years. The reasons for this use are fairly obvious: because the brain is confused and disorientated it could easily be said that it is on another plane. If this other plane happens to be one plane closer to the God or other spiritual being that you are trying to reach (and why shouldn’t it be one step closer?) then naturally this is a desirable state to be in.

Police Lieutenant Jerry Davis – formerly of Yucaipa police department – is being hailed as a hero in Yucaipa, CA, as being instrumental in the passing of a law regarding the sale of a certain brand of Salvia to young children. The law came into effect on Jan 1, 2009.

The push by Davis to ban the substance from his streets started in 2006 after he became acutely aware that Salvia was being sold – quite legally, back then – in smoke shops, outdoor venues and on many sites online. He decided to start gathering information at a deeper level and asked his teenage children whether they had heard of Salvia. To his dismay, they most definitely had; to add to his worries his children told him that many of their peers used the substance regularly.

Something, Lie tenant Jerry Davis decided, needed to be done. And he was just the man to do it.

Davis’ next plan of action was to start doing extensive research into Salvia. Although very few states in the US had (and to this day, have) banned the drug and despite the fact that only one country has imposed a blanked ban, Davis came to the remarkable conclusion that Salvia was unsafe. This conclusion is made even more remarkable since Davis seems to have answered a question that seems to have defeated the world’s best scientists for many years now.

Fast forward almost three years and establishments cannot now sell Salvia to minors. The penalties for such a sale could include jail time and/or a fine or $1000. As draconian as these penalties sound for what is – all the evidence suggests – a safe drug, they are nowhere near as harsh as those imposed in other states. So perhaps Jerry Davis did do the right thing after all! Hurrah for the former Police Lieutenant!

A brave man stood up for his right to own and sell Salvia recently, in a test case in Kansas, Missouri courts. The man – Hassan R. Ullah, 30 – pleaded guilty to selling Salvia from his shop in the city.

The odd thing about this case – well, one of the odd things – is that Ullah displayed the Salvia in clearly labelled bags in his shop. He paid sales tax on the packages that he saw. When a uniformed drugs officer asked Ullah if he sold Salvia, the shop keeper replied in the affirmative and handed the officer a bag. Ullah then went on to plead guilty in front of a judge; he faces up to 15 years in prison for the ‘offence’, and the court will decide his fate on February 25, 2009.

The charge againstUllah is one of delivery of a controlled substance.

In yet another interesting twist in this case, a Buchanan County Judge Weldon Judah actually refused to accept the guilty plea because, he reasoned, Ullah did not know that the drug was illegal when he handed it to the strike force officer and he didn’t knowingly sell it. This didn’t wash and the prosecution pushed for the guilty plea to be accepted. Eventually it was.

Salvia is legal across most of the US but it is illegal in Kansas and Missouri (the laws passing in 2008 and 2005 respectively). While there was no attempt to make the change in the law a ’stealth’ one, it is not widely known. Many people don’t understand Salvia and even more people do not understand the consequences of possessing and supplying the naturally occuring drug. There is some confusion about what it is and why it is banned even for those who passed the laws. Expecting occasional shopkeepers like Ullah to know is a little optimistic, to say the least.

I’ve had a couple of interesting emails lately telling me that the user didn’t find a Salvia trip particularly relaxing, and that other users were having a really hard time relaxing while they were under the effects of Salvia. Well, this doesn’t really surprise me, to be honest, since Salvia isn’t really ever going to give a relaxing trip.

A Salvia trip is introspective, confusing, disorientating, mind boggling, and it sends you on a little bit of a mind workout. While all this is happening it is difficult to see how a trip is going to be relaxing.

I don’t use Salvia to relax myself, but instead to help me see into another – more interesting – world. This other world is unlike anything I am able to recreate while I am not under the influence of Salvia. In fact it is so different that I am unable to even think like I do when I’m under the influence. This is what Salvia is great for: giving you a new perspective on an old idea.

There are other drugs that calm you down generally, and if they are talking before Salvia it may have a calming effect. This seems to defeat the object of the Salvia experience, though. Having said that, if it helps you to enjoy Salvia more then I say go for it!

If you’re looking for a relaxing drug then perhaps Salvia isn’t what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for something that will open the doors of your mind, then it certainly is the right thing to be looking for: a session of mental gymnastics like you’ve never before experienced. Salvia is an interesting drug, that’s for sure. And tripping out on Salvia makes for some very interesting times and some very interesting experiences. Treat it with respect and it will show you a good time.