Shaun Puro’s friends sat him in a comfortable chair to prepare him for what was about to happen when he took the drug. “When it hit me I felt like I got punched in the face,” he said. And that was just the beginning.
The beginning of what, you ask? A hallucinogenic and frightful salvia trip.
Those looking to experiment with psychoactive drugs are turning to one supposedly so severe that one user told CBS 4 Denver, “It’s like taking acid and mushrooms and Ecstasy and slamming a 40, and huffing a nitrous balloon all at the same time.”
And, shockingly—it’s completely legal in 46 states.
Saliva divinorum, more affectionately known as “diviner’s sage” or “magic mint,” is a psychoactive member of the sage family. Native to the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, the blue-and-white flowering plant was often used by Mazatec shamans during their rituals due to its intense psychotropic effects. But since the mid-‘90s, it has been sold over the Internet, at head shops, and even in convenience stores across the nation.
The website Sage Wisdom, sagewisdom.org, sells a variety of different forms of the hallucinogen. Before entering the marketplace for purchases, however, there are lengthy terms of agreement listed on the website: “I am an adult over the age of 18,” and “I understand that salvia divinorum can profoundly alter perception and behavior; therefore, I will always work with it in a safe, secure, and private environment.” The website also stressed the need for a “sitter,” or a person who is sober in order to watch over the salvia user.
As advertised, this is some powerful stuff.
Almost all websites, either vendors of salvia or informational sites about the drug, give some kind of warning, or at least a tutorial about the plant for first-time users. Daniel J. Seibert, the leading ethnobotanist in salvia research and founder of Sage Wisdom, warned on the website that “the majority of people who have had a full-blown experience with salvinorin A are reluctant to ever do it again,” and that “there have been no toxicology studies of this compound on humans.” Experimenting with salvia is truly playing with fire if even the experts warn about its effects.
So why is this potentially harmful herb becoming a widespread recreational drug, especially across college campuses?
After trying to contact two local Buffalo vendors who sell salvia, they would not comment. One completely denied stocking the drug, although users revealed that they bought it at the shop. Another shop on Main Street, steps away from University at Buffalo, wouldn’t give any information. “We are trying to keep it on the down-low” was all that the shopkeeper would offer over the phone. Upon entering the store with some questions about the substance, however, he revealed that many UB students come to buy the drug.
Puro, a junior Biomedical Sciences major at UB, admits to dabbling in recreational drug use. He never heard about salvia, however, until he came to UB. One day a friend mentioned something about the drug and because they “were bored,” so they “decided to go on a trip,” said Puro.
They ventured out of the Ellicott dorms down to South Campus to get the salvia. After picking enough 10X (concentrated salvia, ten times the potency) for six to eight hits, Puro and his friend headed back to campus.
“First we just did a pinch,” said Puro. A pinch is the suggested amount of salvia to take at one time. A few minutes after smoking the “pinch,” Puro said he felt “heat moving from my feet to my collarbone, and I started sweating. It was like it overtakes you, I couldn’t stop laughing.” That is where the fun ended.
Looking for something more, Puro disregarded instructions to only take a little at a time and took a rather large “half of a bowl hit.”
“Did you ever see that movie The Mummy?” he asked. “Well, it felt like there were waves of bugs crawling through my skin. I was trying to dig them out, I made a hole in my jeans,” said Puro. What made the whole ordeal even more frightful is that during the trip, Puro said he forgot he had even taken a drug, and that his visions were his reality.
Stephanie Marcus, a senior Media Studies and Psychology major, agrees that the drug’s effects are “more intense than some [substances] that are legal,” but says she did not experience the same hallucinogenic effect that Puro did. “Everyone and everything around me just didn’t seem right,” said Marcus. Although she didn’t feel scared under the influence of salvia, she wonders why it is legal.
The false reality that can arise under the influence of salvia is what may have driven Brett Chidester, 17, of Wilmington, Delaware to commit suicide on January 23, 2006. Despite being a straight-A student and having a steady girlfriend, he took his life in his own backyard by dragging a charcoal grill into a tent. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to USA Today, his suicide note hinted that his fatal decision resulted from salvia’s influence. “How can I go on living after I learned the secrets of life? It took me 17 years, but I finally figured it out. I can’t tell you that here because that kind of information can cause chaos,” he wrote.
Although there haven’t been any other recorded salvia-related deaths, Brett Chidester’s suicide might be viewed as a warning sign to those thinking about taking the drug.
When asked whether he knew about the suicide related to salvia, Puro said he did. Regarding his own experience, he said, “Things are so bad [when hallucinating] that you just want to end it—don’t do it around anything dangerous. If there was a sharp object nearby, I might have hurt myself.”
Despite its harmful effect, salvia still remains legal. The Drug Enforcement Agency said that they have “not recommended that it be banned as a dangerous drug” in USA Today. Also, the DEA has been collecting information about the plant for years, in hopes to be able to measure its potential not only for abuse, but for medicinal purposes as well.
Until more is learned about salvia, experiences with taking it for recreational purposes range from too extreme and profound for people to handle to just a short mind-alteration. Puro described his experience as being a serious and intense feeling. “It’s like getting into a bad accident. You just feel fucked for life.” But for most users, the plant’s effects don’t seem overly risky. Marcus laughed and said, “I didn’t see munchkins running around or anything. I just did it and sat in my room for twenty minutes because everything was weird.”
Tara Sullivan is a senior English major and Editor in Chief of Generation.
