Plants are power tools,not toys for tittering about,part four

I've posted many times in the past about the shamanic, restorative or insightful uses of psychoactive plants and fungi (see part three).

Today, there's a story in The New York Times about Salvia divinorum and how its widespread, YouTubed use is jeopardizing the potential use of the plant as a treatment for depression or addiction.

A similarly confounding situation has occurred with ibogaine, a compound from the plant iboga plant, which has received attention as a treatment for opiate addiction (see "Ibogaine Studies and Research Projects").

Anyhow:


Salvia divinorum, 2007
US Botanic Garden,
Washington DC

"Until a decade ago, the use of salvia was largely limited to those seeking revelation under the tutelage of Mazatec shamans in its native Oaxaca, Mexico. Today, this mind-altering member of the mint family is broadly available for lawful sale online and in head shops across the United States.

"Though older Americans typically have never heard of salvia, the psychoactive sage has become something of a phenomenon among this country’s thrill-seeking youth. More than 5,000 YouTube videos — equal parts “Jackass” and “Up in Smoke” — document their journeys into rubber-legged incoherence. Some of the videos have been viewed half a million times.

"Yet these very images that have helped popularize salvia may also hasten its demise and undermine the promising research into its possible medical uses.

"Pharmacologists who believe salvia could open new frontiers for the treatment of addiction, depression and pain fear that its criminalization would make it burdensome to obtain and store the plant, and difficult to gain government permission for tests on human subjects. In state after state, however, including here in Texas, the YouTube videos have become Exhibit A in legislative efforts to regulate salvia. This year, Florida made possession or sale a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. California took a gentler approach by making it a misdemeanor to sell or distribute to minors...

"Though research is young and little is known about long-term effects, there are no studies suggesting that salvia is addictive or its users prone to overdose or abuse. Indeed, a salvia experience can be so intense, and at times so unsettling, that many try it just once, and even devotees use it sparingly.

"Reports of salvia-related emergency room admissions are virtually nonexistent, likely because its effects typically vanish in just a few minutes.

"With little data at its disposal, the Drug Enforcement Administration has spent more than a decade studying whether to add salvia to its list of controlled substances, as is the case in several European and Asian countries. In the meantime, 13 states and several local governments have banned or otherwise regulated the plant and its chemically enhanced extracts."

Speaking of YouTube videos about Salvia, here's Kathleen Harrison, former wife of author and psychonaut Terence McKenna, speaking about the traditional relationship with this plant. Two important points she makes: the Mazatecs treat the plant with high respect (no laughing while under its influence) and they don't smoke the leaves, which, it could be said, would offend the spirit of the plant.