Salvia

Salvia, Salvia Divinorum, also called Diviner's Sage, Sage of the Seers, Sally-D, Ska Pastora, and magic mint is a psychoactive plant in the Lamiaceae family (mint). The plant's use as a spiritual healer has been an everlasting tradition to the Mazatec shamans in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the plant grows natively. Today, salvia is being used around the world for its spiritual and hallucinogenic effects. Salvia Divinorum’s intense and short effects are gaining popularity. The plant has been banned in several countries, yet overall most countries have barely heard about the plant. Due to its rise in popularity, it is receiving legal attention. However, few studies have been done on salvia to conclude its negative consequences or medical uses. Studies have so far mostly been made by private researchers and a few universities.

Salvia

Effects of Salvia Divinorum

While some people would classify salvia divinorum as a dissociative and others would say it’s more of a psychedelic, most people can agree that the salvia divinorum experience is completely unique. Physically, one can get elevated blood pressure, sweatiness, uncontrollable laughter, heavy breathing, somnambulant behavior, and the feeling of immense gravity. However, what represents the physical experience of salvia divinorum can completely contradict the mental state. The onset is pretty quick, usually about 1 minute, and after that for a period of one to eight minutes one can experience out of body/near death experiences, form into an object, visit other dimensions, meet divine entities, see vivid colors or geometric patters, hear voices, and achieve flashbacks. After the intense part of the experience subsides, one feels an “afterglow” from salvia. As salvia wears off there is a feeling of a slight body high, possibly some confusion or disorientation, and elevated mood. If salvia is ingested sublingually, the effects are much mellower, but can last up to an hour rather than less than thirty minutes.

Dosage

One of the things that's unique about Salvia divinorum is its complete randomness when it comes to dosage for different people. The most experienced drug user could have a wild experience on only leaves while a person new to drugs might need a powerful extract just to get a feeling. However, whether one has a natural tolerance or not, is always best to start with salvia divinorum's weakest dose to make sure one doesn't get blown away on a terrifying experience. People usually start by smoking leaves. The dosages go as follows:

Smoked Salvia divinorum Leaf Dosages (Avg: 2.5mg salvinorin A per g)

Light: .25g Common: .5g Strong: .75-1.00g

Onset : 30-180 seconds Duration : 5-30 minutes Normal After Effects : 30-60 minutes

Erowid Onset : 30-180 seconds Duration : 5-30 minutes Normal After Effects : 30-60 minutes

This is a summary of the basic time schedule and experience strengths for plain leaf. If one would want to calculate how much of the active chemical salvinorin A was going into his/her system, he/she would just calculate based on the salvinorin A leaf average (2.5mg per gram). This can be very useful if wanting to use a higher power extract.

Producing Salvia divininorum extract

There is typically only one simple method of obtaining extract with mild variations. They all have the same concept: the leaves are usually bathed in a solvent to extract the salvinorins. The solvent is then evaporated and the resulting crude extract is washed until clean. The final product is then measured and re-infused onto leaves or dissolved into tincture. Other techniques of achieving pure salvinorin A can require more chemistry experience and expensive equipment. They are however unnecessary if being used for personal reasons.

Making non-standardized extract overview

• 1. Leaves are placed in a solvent that can dissolve salvinorin A such as acetone or isopropyl alcohol (acetone can dissolve much more and is a superior solvent) for a certain amount of time depending on purity wanted.
• 2. The solvent is then evaporated, leaving a crude extract.
• 3. The extract is then placed in a vial and is usually washed with a solvent that can dissolve plant material but not salvinorin A (naphtha).
• 4. After repeated washes, the extract is usually clean enough to re-infuse onto papers, it is then dried.
• 5. The extract is then redissolved into a fast evaporating solvent (like acetone) and then poured over an amount of leaves. The acetone evaporates leaving the extract onto the leaves.
• 6. The final product is a fortified leaf.

Extracts can be regulated by strength. For example, to make 1 gram of 5X strength fortified leaf, one would perform this extraction technique on 4 grams of leaf, and evaporate the crude extract onto 1 gram of leaf (the product is 5 times as strong). This is basically the only method of extracting a decent amount of salvinorin off of the leaves. Other methods such as knocking it off the leaves with a quick water wash produce an incredibly low yield (though much purer).

Legal status

Florida state legislators are considering a ban on salvia divinorum, considered to be the new marijuana. Salvia divinorum is a hallucinogenic herb that is inexpensive, easy to obtain and as powerful as LSD. Salvia divinorum, whose plant is native to Oaxaca, Mexico, is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk. Salvia is a natural herb that is showing up on local school campuses. It is smoked through a bong and the effects kick in immediately.According to a Clemson University fact sheet, there are 900 types of salvia.

STATES THAT HAVE RESTRICTED SALVIA AS OF DECEMBER 2007

• Delaware
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Missouri
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee

STATES THAT ARE CONSIDERING OR HAVE CONSIDERED BANNING SALVIA

• Alabama
• Alaska
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Nebraska
• New Jersey
• New York
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming