Archive for May, 2009

I find Salvia exciting, interesting and fascinating. It is also really exciting. I don’t just mean these things from the point of view of someone who uses Salvia on a regular basis (I do, but that’s not really relevant) but someone that is genuinely interested in Salvia, its effects on our minds and bodies, and its potential in the future for assisting scientific discovery.

Salvia has been around for many years and has always been used by the Mazatec Mexican shamans as a way to help them get in touch with their spiritual side (naturally there was no talk of banning Salvia until it became popular with the press over the last couple of years). Despite its apparent longevity, scientists know very little about the drug, the way it effects our brains, or its lasting effects.

There is an interest in Salvia because some scientists and medical researchers believe that its study could provide the keys to a much bigger problem: Alzheimer’s disease.

Banning Salvia is something that is seriously being considered and, in some States, this threat has been carried out. Worryingly, if Federal government continues this trend the idea of using Salvia for the common good will be long gone. And all because of the sad and pathetic attitude of the US Government.

I love to smoke Salvia. I do not try and hide this fact from anyone because I am not embarrassed by it. I am not afraid of the legal repercussions because I am completely within the law. I do not fear the medical problems relating to Salvia because there have been none proved or observed. In short, I am a Salvia smoker and proud of it.

It will come as no surprise, then, that I am absolutely thrilled to hear of the potential good that might come out of some pioneering Salvia research. This research has identified that Salvia might just be able to help researchers pinpoint exactly what happens in the brain when it is affected by a degenerative mental illness like Alzheimer’s.

It goes without saying that I am pleased for those that this development could help. I am also really pleased that this revelation might just sway the opinion of those people who think Salvia to be the devil’s own hallucinogen of choice.

To ban Salvia is to take away another of our civil liberties. Pure and simple. To do this simply because it provides an easy political target seems unfair. It also sets a worrying precedent that doesn’t stop anywhere sensible.

Scientists love to throw in the odd ‘fun’ experiment every now and again. It helps to keep us as commentators on our feet and presumably it is a little bit of light hearted entertainment in what can, potentially, be a difficult and tedious task. Okay, I’m making excuses for the fact that they like to be silly sometimes.

A recent scientific test trying to discover just how Salvia affected its users falls neatly into this pigeon hole of ’silly’ experiments. The respondents to a questionnaire were asked to describe how they felt just after going into a Salvia trip. The results were astounding.

Nearly half of the people interviewed said that they felt increased connection with the Universe. I can completely understand how people might say that, but is this a scientific term? Is that metric or imperial ‘increased connection’?

Next were the questions that will definitely change on a trip-by-trip basis: do you have more or less concentration; do you feel more confused or more alert?

I don’t have a problem at all with people feeling these things, but this kind of effect changes every trip. Ask the same respondents about their feelings next trip, perhaps in a new room with new people and smoking a different amount of Salvia, and I guarantee you will have a totally new set of results.

Scientists are quite literally crazy. Some of them, but not all, you understand. They’ve all got a very special mindset which chases problems just for the intellectual thrill. Many of history’s greatest discoveries though have come from what have apparently been purely intellectual pursuits from the start.

Salvia is a perfect example of what would appear to be an intellectual challenge without any real world applications. Scientists have known about Salvia for decades — perhaps longer — but they have never really studied it or its effect on the brain until very recently.

This research started in earnest a few years ago once talk of banning Salvia came to light — nothing like a catastrophe to focus the mind, is there? — and researchers are now wishing they had started much earlier.

There have been a few very, very exciting discoveries linked with Salvia. One is that research into the way the brain works under the influence of Salvia might just help us to understand how it works under the influence of Alzheimer’s. In this wonderfully interesting case there is no potential for Salvia to be the direct saviour, but it could assist the real saviours — the doctors — in finding a real cure to what is a real problem.

I studied sciences when I was at University and I know just how frustrating collecting accurate data can be. It is no surprise to me that scientists sometimes break from their schedule to attempt to make light of a serious topic. It appears that this is what a group of scientists were all about when they penned the report which I have in front of me. The report tells me, no joking, that nearly 50% of the test subjects answered that they had experienced an increased feeling of connection to the Universe.

Serious study? Perhaps not.

But study of any kind into Salvia and its effects — serious or otherwise — is under jeopardy. If the government decides to carry out its threat and ban Salvia entirely then research like this will be over for ever. This would be the end of the promising researching aiming towards a more effective treatment for degenerative psychological diseases. It would cut the investigation of this prime area of research down in its prime.

This is just another attempt at removing the civil liberties for which we fought so hard; it is the thin end of a thick wedge that promises to rob us of our freedom.

I am a kind person and one that really does enjoy the thought of someone benefiting from something that I have done. I heard the news that research into the effects of Salvia on the human mind is being linked with a potentially useful way to approach the problem of curing Alzheimer’s, and frankly I am over the moon. Obviously I don’t feel any direct responsibility for this change, but I do feel like I have contributed in some way in bringing this wonderful drug to the attention of the politicians and the media.

Salvia, of course, has been around for hundreds of years. The Mazatec Mexicans used it to more easily reach their spiritual side; they chewed the leaves and their trance hit them slowly and for a long time. There was no talk of banning Salvia when this was still the majority of Salvia’s user base.
Of course now the media have caught hold of some misleading information about Salvia, and the politicians decide that it is time for a ban. Because politicians are hankering for a ban, the media become more interested. It is a vicious circle that will only end when our civil liberties have been taken from us completely.

Salvia gives pleasure to the life of many. Not only does it provide them with an interesting way to escape the drudgery of life for just a few minutes, but also it gives like minded people a chance to get together and do something totally legal and totally fun.

And now, predictably, the government wants to ban it completely.

This is terrible news for anyone who wants to find out more about Salvia and its effects (and by ‘find out more…’ I am not intending to use a metaphor for ‘get stoned more’); that some of these people are hard-working scientists is bad enough. That these same scientists and researchers may be on the brink of finding some information that is going to help them in the battle against Alzheimer’s is just plain upsetting.

In medical and scientific terms Salvia is a ‘new’ drug. In terms of its potential and scientific interest scientists are just scratching the surface. There are plenty of willing volunteers to fill up their labs with (shout ‘free Salvia’ in any University campus and you might even get mobbed), and there are plenty of people interested in whatever results they might come up with.

To force them to give up now is to deny the country the knowledge it so badly needs.

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