Salvia is most often smoked, but can also be ingested orally producing effects that last longer but have a slower onset. The main psychoactive ingredient of Salvia Divinorum is salvinorin-A, which can be extracted from the leaves of the Salvia plant to form various strengths of extracts (5X, 6X, 10X, etc). Salvinorin-A is also sold in various types of liquids; in this case, the liquid is held under the tongue for 15-30 minutes, slowly entering the bloodstream through absorbtion in the mouth. Be careful when using pure extract and liquids, as they are much more potent than a normal salvia leaf and hold larger amounts of salvinorin-A.

Legal info.

U.S. FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS

LEGAL STATUS Legal

SCHEDULE Unscheduled

Salvia Divinorum is unscheduled and legal to possess. The federal analog act generally requires that, in order to qualify as an analog, a substance must be chemically similar to a substance which is federally scheduled. Salvia Divinorum is chemically quite different from other scheduled substances and as a plant is quite unlikely to be targetted by this act.

However, the more it is packaged and marketed as a drug (for example a 10x extract hyped as 'the new ecstasy') the more likely it is to fall into the realm of the analog act.

Salvia divinorum is a soft-leaved green plant, native to Southern Mexico, which contains a powerful psychoactive chemical known as Salvinorin. S. divinorum has been used traditionally in Mexico for healing and divination and has became popular in the underground psychedelic culture around the world starting in the early 1990's. S. divinorum is also known as "la pastora" / "the shepherdess", "the leaves of the shepherdess", "diviner's mint" or "diviner's sage", and in context simply as "salvia". There are many species and varieties within the genus 'Salvia' and plants commonly found in garden stores are almost certainly not S. divinorum unless specifically labelled as such.

Strong effects can be difficult to attain from smoking dried leaf, but extracts and potency-bred leaves can cause dramatic, sometimes frightening, and completely enfolding entheogenic mind-states. Salvia divinorum is traditionally used by chewing pairs of leaves. Modern use includes both smoking and chewing the leaves. When the leaves are chewed, the quid and bitter juice are held in the mouth to increase absorption.

Salvia naturally grows in the central plateau of Mexico. It has been used for religious purposes throughout its history there and is related to the common garden plant “Salvia Splendens”. No-one knows how it works of how to classify it. It is a mystery. It is also the most powerful drug any of us have tried (& one of my friends has had almost all street drugs bar crack). It has massive potential for self-exploration, but is not really pleasurable or frightening. It is more like a religious experience. So I’m told. Unfortunately I don’t seem to get much from it. Two close friends A & C have had some truly amazing experiences which can only be described as waking dreams. They have enriched their lives & both treat Salvia with respect & awe. It is not a party drug & will not work in that environment. It works best in the dark, alone in silence, though close friends can be involved & its best they are so as to help you not hurt yourself. I say that because Salvia takes you into a totally different world. This is not an exaggeration, one is literally teleported to another time & place within ones mind. Users typically lie down on duvets & pillows & though no-one I have smoked it with has gotten up, everyone has lain down, sometimes feeling forced by an invisible hand to do so. When laid down some trippers have rolled around or flailed about and cried out. All experiences have been extremely good bar one. this bad experience went like this.

My friend R wanted to try but was afraid of some of the negative reports he had read. One person he read about forget everything about who he was & where he was for the duration of the trip. To prevent this, R wrote down his name & kept it next to him as he smoked. Shortly after he was looking confused & blowing into the bong. We laughed & shouted telling him he was doing it wrong. He looked confused & afraid. C was a little frantic because at the time we had little, it was expensive (we weren’t growing our own then) & one had to smoke it quickly or a mental resistance quickly built up stopping any experience dead. R was desperate to leave & asked where the bathroom was. Though he should have known we pointed him in the direction, not suspecting that he had no idea who he was, who he was with or where he was until he got into the bathroom, into the light & away from us. During his amnesia he was terribly afraid & thought he was being experimented on.

Other than this, all other trips have been fantastic. R maybe an exception because at the time he was a more nervous person, especially in the company of powerful plants like Salvia. Both A & C have experienced childhood flashbacks, surreal landscapes, dream like mutations of their bodies into objects & amalgams of objects. C has seen the substance that creates & maintains the universe & was once transported back to her grandmothers garden as it looked when she was a child. This looked & felt totally real & she could sense with all of her faculties, however she was also aware of two presences (myself & A) & talked animatedly to us & wept in awe. Each time A & C have been invited into these experiences by strange objects, characters or animals (a mounty, a zebra, a goalposts or multicoloured ribbons). sometimes their experience has fallen short of complete immersion but resulted in strange distortions of reality. On this occasions there was dim candle or lamp light & music playing & some conversation. On one occasion C felt that reality was being crushed to a point & was annoyed that R & I were talking & didn’t notice until she was virtually lying on the floor.

In short, these are powerful experiences & extremely valuable. For the spiritually inclined they are mystical in experience. I myself have barely touched upon any of this. Even smoking powdered leaves that have been soaked in Salvia juice (making the compound ten times the strength) little has happened - but salvia in not a trpyt, so it cannot be my hard-headedness. It is possible I am not using my lungs to their full capacity & not getting enough smoke quick enough before tolerance sets in. The only other explanation is some sort of psychological resistance. My experiences are much less intense or interesting & range from mild euphoria to some vague sense of my spine being (not unpleasantly) twisted as I was forced to lay down & a (vague) feeling that the top of my head was lifting off at that point. The smell & taste of Salvia is very pleasant (more so than other smoking herbs) & is good to mix with other things for mild euphoria. However, if we mix none of us have ever be totally immersed.

I am currently training myself with breathing exercises & attempting to psychologically “meet” the Salvia half way. Though I do not believe it has an metaphysical qualities, it does seem to work on ones imaginative capacities.

Salvia is certainly worth more exploration, probably a life-times worth, for the beauty & insight is can provide.