HERB IS AS POTENT AS LSD

A member of the sage family, Salvia divinorum is a cousin of the
popular flowering salvia found in many American gardens.

Salvia divinorum is native to dark, damp, shady areas in Oaxaca,
Mexico, where it has been used for centuries by Mazatec Indians during
mystical rituals, and to treat headaches and diarrhea.

It was first described in 1939 in a report on Mazatec shamans, and
wasn't identified as a psychoactive drug until the 1990s.

But, unlike its benign cousins, Salvia divinorum contains a powerful
hallucinogenic called salvinorin A, which is described as being as
potent as LSD, and "essentially the most potent naturally occurring
hallucinogenic drug," according to Dr. Bryan Roth, a biochemist and
neuroscientist who directs the National Institute of Mental Health's
Psychoactive Drug Screening Program.

Roth says research on salvinorin A has shown it to be unique among
naturally occurring drugs that are abused because it homes in on a
single receptor site in the brain, the same place in the brain that
responds to morphine and opioids.

So far, most studies of Salvia's effect on the brain have been done
using rodents, and nobody knows whether the research can be duplicated
in humans.

Other medical, biochemical and pharmacological scientists have printed
research that suggests Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A might
eventually lead to treating diseases such as schizophrenia or
Alzheimer's.

Experienced hallucinogen users describe its effects as being very
different than any other hallucinogen they'd taken.

Scientists call it a "spacio-temporal dislocation" that takes users to
what seems to them to be a different time and place. Many first-time
users describe it as intense, disturbing or frightening, but usually
without a stimulating or euphoric effect. Motor control is lowered,
and users don't enjoy socializing.