TRIPPIN' WITH SALLY D

Before State Lawmakers Try to Ban Salvia Divinorum I Decided to Try
the Potent, Legal Psychedelic Myself

There are a lot of ways to get high. The world is filled with too
many drugs to count. Both legal and illegal, daily existence offers
us uppers, downers, pain relievers, and mind expanders at every turn.
Everything from energy drinks to coffee, to cigarettes, to aspirin,
to prescription antidepressants, to crack cocaine is available if we so desire.

Salvia divinorum fits in there somewhere. In a world full of drugs of
every kind, Salvia divinorum (usually just referred to as Salvia or
Sally D) is like few others. Legal in Washington and 42 other states,
the leafy drug from the inconspicuous mint family packs a
hallucinogenic punch that rivals any on the illegal market - from LSD
to mushrooms. It can be found in varying strengths at a number of
local head shops and is readily available for sale on the Internet.

I first heard about Salvia five years ago from a friend in a now
defunct Tacoma band. The drug's legal status made me dismiss it. Any
drug that's legal can't be very powerful I figured. I didn't give
Salvia much thought.

A few years later I heard about Salvia again, this time on one of
those pathetic, fear mongering "news" shows like Dateline. It warned
of the dangerous effects of Salvia, portrayed the herb as the next
marijuana (God forbid), and urged parents and lawmakers to protect
the children from the Salvia scourge. It even suggested Salvia should
be blamed for the 2006 suicide of a 17-year-old from Delaware whose
parents say their son smoked the drug four months before killing
himself. Their arguments helped make Delaware one of the seven states
in which Salvia is illegal. Once again, I didn't give Salvia much
thought, mainly because I don't give anything I see on shows like
Dateline much thought.

About a month ago, though, Salvia finally got my attention. I had
always assumed the legal drug had limited exposure and existed only
on the fringes of culture - not making its way into the minds or
lives of mainstream America. I assumed only drug aficionados knew of
Salvia, and that it just wasn't a very big deal. If it was a big
deal, after all, it would be illegal.

That changed when my very mainstream buddies started talking about
Salvia. One of them had found the herb in a smoke shop in Puyallup
and bought a plastic vial of the sage on a whim. He'd heard about
Salvia somewhere, he thought, and had 20 bucks to blow on it. The man
behind the counter warned my friend as he took his money not to smoke
it while driving.

My mainstream friend returned home, filled a pipe with the black
flecks of leaf he'd just invested in, took one hit, and within 30
seconds went headfirst into one of the most powerful drug experiences
of his life. Suddenly, he later recounted to me, he was rowing a
boat, and it felt as though a huge rotating saw blade had entered his
body and sliced him diagonally from head to foot. It wasn't painful
like you'd expect, he said, but his body was filled with momentum and
the feeling of rotation. Uncontrollable nonsense began to pour from
his mouth. He sat in this state for two to five minutes. Then it was over.

This is Salvia, I was told.

Like any good child of the Internet, my friend quickly Googled the
substance he'd smoked. What he found was a growing collection of
YouTube videos documenting Salvia trips from suburbs all across the
country. Eyes roll back in heads. Limbs flail. Stares become blank
and giggles permeate. The proof that Salvia has reached the
mainstream is available for all to see through the magic of YouTube.

Now, finally, Salvia had caught my attention. If friends of mine from
Puyallup - with mainstream lives and mainstream existences - were
smoking this stuff, Salvia had to have reached popular culture. If
16-year-old kids from across the country were drooling and flailing
for all to see on YouTube because of Salvia, it had to be more than a
novelty high. I vowed to find out for myself what the deal was with
this increasingly popular (albeit strange) legal hallucinogen.

What It Is and Where It Comes From

Like most drugs of the nature, there's a long history of using Salvia
to reach higher states of awareness and induce visionary experiences.
Salvia divinorum is native to Mexico, usually associated with the
city of Oaxaca. It's said that shamans have long used the sage in
spiritual healing rituals. The leaves of the Salvia divinorum plant
can be chewed, made into teas or smoked to achieve your desired level
of state of mind.

This much information can be easily found online. A search of Salvia
divinorum leads you in the right direction and also toward a boatload
of Web sites where the drug is for sale.

Answering exactly what Salvia is, on a chemical level, and exactly
what it does inside your brain is far more difficult. The Internet is
full of two types of resources on this front. There are the
long-haired, spacey-eyed amateur botanists - epitomized by the
Internet king of Salvia, Daniel Siebert - who rave about the
mind-opening and the spiritual healing and also probably sell the
stuff for $125/ounce on their Web site (in Siebert's case, see
www.sagewisdom.org); then there are the real scientists doing real
research. The scientists are typically studying Salvia for medical
purposes and, as it turns out, aren't all that interested in talking
to alternative press newspapers about smoking the stuff to get high.
The scientists usually just point toward research they've published
and expect that to do the talking.

The exact component that makes Salvia divinorum psychoactive is known
as Salvinorin A. While research on the drug is still in infantile
stages, especially compared to well-known hallucinogens, it was
discovered in 2002 that Salvinorin A is a kappa opioid receptor
agonist - or in layman's terms a substance that binds and tickles
k-opioid receptors in your brain, causing hallucinations, intense
body highs and all the other crazy s* you can find on YouTube. Most
studies of Salvia and Salvinorin A center on the agent's potential
for medicinal use - specifically for pain relief and
treatment-resistant depression.

"With respect to its effects, the available evidence suggests it is
nonaddictive and nontoxic," says Karl R. Hanes, a Ph.D. from
Australia who has studied Salvia and supports the drug.

"This is also the experience of Native American peoples who have used
(Salvia divinorum) for over a hundred years."

However, even supporters such as Hanes admit research on Salvia is in
its very early stages.

Brain imaging studies on anesthetized primates by researchers such as
Jacob Hooker of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York have
shown that Salvinorin A floods the brain within 40 seconds of
administration, a rate 10 times faster than cocaine, and is
essentially gone within 15 minutes. It's picture proof of the rapid,
intense, hallucinogenic and short-lived high that those who have used
the drug recreationally report.

"It's quite unique," says Hooker of Salvinorin A. "We're just now
beginning to understand it. We didn't even know what it targeted in
the brain until 2002.

"It acts really quickly, especially when smoked," Hooker continues.
"Hallucinations usually onset within 30 to 40 seconds. Within 5 to 10
minutes, largely, the effects are gone. It enters and exits the brain
that quickly."

While Hooker wouldn't comment about whether he thought the drug was
"safe" or not, he did elaborate on where inside the brain Salvinorin
A does its magic. Studies have shown the drug targets the cerebellum,
resulting in motor function and control impairment, and also the
visual cortex of the brain, resulting in the wild hallucinations.
Hooker was quick to note that much more research is needed in order
to truly understand Salvia.

"It's too early to weigh for sure exactly what it does to the brain,"
says Hooker. "We're just scratching the surface."

Finding Salvia

Salvinorin A is not your mother's garden plant found at Lowe's or
local garden shops. Salvia is illegal in seven states and several
countries, but in Washington the hallucinogen is still as legal as
Granny Smith apples. While this could change in coming years as the
list of states that have banned the drug is bound to increase as
sensational, fear-based journalism and alarming videos on YouTube
become more prevalent, for now the hallucinogenic sage seems safe in
our state. As part of this story, I contacted a number of local
lawmakers and public officials to gauge their knowledge of Salvia and
find out whether there's been talk of restricting or outlawing the
drug. No one I contacted had heard of the drug.

"If there's any activity going on about this drug, I don't know about
it," says Representative Steve Kirby of Washington's 27th Legislative District.

"If we wanted to criminalize its use, it would probably go through
the Public Safety Committee. I'm on that committee."

The list of public officials and lawmakers who hadn't heard of Salvia
also included several other members of the Washington State House of
Representatives and members of the drug and vice unit for the Pierce
County prosecuting attorney.

But I had heard of Salvia. My next move was finding the drug.

It took me a couple of hours. I toured Tacoma head shops on a Sunday
afternoon in pursuit. Not completely sure what I was looking for, my
eyes darted between bongs and glass pipes in search of the legal
hallucinogen. After a few stops, I found what I was looking for at a
smoke shop at 47th and Oakes.

Next to some electronic scales and detox potions, a small assortment
sat in the corner of a glass display case - four or five different
varieties all from the same company, Special Salvia LTD.

Playing dumb, I asked the man behind the counter what it was.

"It's incense," he said, showing on his face that he knew it was more.

"I thought you could smoke it," I said.

"Some people . " the man trailed off.

I examined one of the packages, marked "Salvia 20x Organic Extract,"
and read the back aloud: "Part of spiritual ceremonies and
traditional healing; it has become a powerful tool for soul searching
and exploration of consciousness."

"That doesn't sound like incense," I said. "I think people smoke this
stuff to get high."

"Some people," the man said. "I just sell it as incense."

I laid down nearly 30 dollars after tax and walked out with a gram of
Salvia extract, purportedly 20 times the strength of regular Salvia
leaves. In a Pavlovian moment, I thought about places to hide the
little plastic vial on the ride home. Then I came to my senses. There
was nothing illegal about what I was doing.

Smoking Salvia

The stuff smells like ass. If it's incense, it's not very pleasing.
While there are several varieties to choose from, the Salvia I bought
came in the form of tiny black flakes. After struggling to get the
lid off of the vial without spilling the contents, I carefully poured
a dime-sized portion into a pipe, put a flame to the black pile of
hallucinogenic crumbs, and inhaled - admittedly timid from what I'd
seen on YouTube.

I remember exhaling and looking at my watch to time how long it took
for the drug to take hold. Fifteen seconds in I was distracted by the
pulsing feeling growing inside my body - heaviest in my thighs but
quickly spreading. As the pulsing intensified, the gravitational pull
of the earth seemed to be shifting, eventually pulling every molecule
in my body down and to the right - a sort of Salvia slant. Objects
blurred, and only light and dark seemed distinct. I tried to form a
thought but couldn't. I tried to form a sentence but only laughed.
Warmth washed over me, and I felt all alone, outside my body, with
only the stare of my dog to remind me of reality.

This intense and legal high lasted two minutes. Within three minutes
I could talk again, and by five minutes I was making sense. Ten
minutes after smoking Salvia I felt exactly the way I did going in -
not even hung over. I've done my fair share of hallucinogenic drugs -
and even saw Phish once - and Salvia was as powerful as anything I've
ingested. That's not said for the sake of the story or to blow things
out of proportion; I say it because it's true. If it weren't for the
briefness of the high, Salvia would no doubt be in the same class as
LSD and mushrooms. Salvia gets you f*ed up. There's no doubt about
it. While, personally, I didn't find the high enjoyable and my mind
doesn't feel expanded, different users may experience different outcomes.

Should you try Salvia?

Probably not. Unless you're a shaman schooled in the ways of ancient
sage wisdom or searching for spiritual healing - and believe
mind-bending drugs are a way to reach such goals - the hype
surrounding Salvia is probably just smoke.

If you're intrigued by a two-minute trip down Really-F*ed-Up Lane,
then perhaps you could give Salvia a whirl. While more research is
needed to determine whether the drug is safe (and, of course, most
intelligent people would argue ingesting anything that makes your
eyes roll back in your head and stupid s* spew from your mouth is
inherently not safe), Salvia is legal and available for sale in Washington.

At least now the next time you hear someone talking about the
crazy-ass legal hallucinogen known as Salvia you'll know what they're
talking about.