The trees once talked to senior Graham Watson. Watching the sunrise in Christy Woods one morning, Watson learned the secret to life while he was sitting among the shrubs, smoking the hallucinogen Salvia divinorum.
Welcome to the trip of the next generation. It can be bought, it can be sold, and it is completely legal - making salvia an up-and-coming hallucinogen of choice in popular culture. Salvia is not as popular as marijuana or peyote, but its reputation is growing.
Originally used to enhance a meditative state during religious rituals, experimenters now use the drug for recreational purposes rather than as a ritual enhancer. Although users and sellers claim the drug is harmless, salvia is following in the footsteps of its predecessors and slowly making its way into the mainstream, sparking legal initiatives to restrict it or make it illegal.
The Mazatecs, an indigenous people in Oaxaca, Mexico, traditionally used the plant to find enlightenment during meditation. According to Sagewisdom.org, a Web site regarded as the most comprehensive reference for information about the drug, the Mazatec healers chew on leaves of the plant, hallucinate and travel into the spiritual world. The healers search for the underlying cause of patients' troubles and the proper remedies for their problems.
Rod Crossland, owner of Wish Bone Gifts, Inc., said he smoked the drug for the hallucinogenic feeling. He started selling the product in his store in 2003. The drug is not for parties like some illegal drugs, he said.
"It's an introspective psychedelic drug," Crossland said. "I really don't see it becoming a party drug."
Watson said the hallucinogenic feeling lasts between five and 10 minutes. People he had seen use the drug could barely speak, much less perform any sustainable actions, he said.
The trips are best taken when in isolation, Watson said.
"It's good to have a sitter to make sure you don't burn yourself or knock stuff over," he said.
Crossland said the short tripping time does not leave room for date rape or other crimes.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration Web site, the drug causes incoordination, dizziness and slurred speech as part of the short-term physical effects.
The DEA is studying Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A, the active hallucinogen present in salvia, to decide whether the drug is considered a risk to public safety, according to its Web site.
Neither the DEA nor Sagewisdom.org cited any long-term harmful effects on the body from salvinorin A.
However, governments around the world, and in the United States, are wary of the new drug, afraid of the harmful side effects that have come with hallucinogens in the past.
In June 2002, Australia became the first country to ban the sale or use of salvia and salvinorin A. Since then, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Brazil have either prohibited or restricted the drug's use.
The trend is moving through the United States. In 2002, Sen. Joe Baca, D-Calif., introduced a bill to the United States Senate that would control the substance, but it did not pass, and he said he would not reintroduce the bill. So far, Missouri and Louisiana are the only states to prohibit the use of salvia.
Most recently, the Illinois legislature saw a bill that would control the drug. Sen. John J. Millner introduced Senate Bill 2589 in January, and the bill is pending in the rules committee.
"It's becoming mainstream," Millner said. "When you purchase it, you don't know what you're getting."
Millner, who was a police officer for 30 years before becoming a legislator, said he learned about the drug from a deputy sheriff's son.
"The after effects are sometimes worse than the trip," he said.
The bill would add Salvia divinorum to the controlled substance list in Illinois, essentially making it illegal to sell or possess the hallucinogen, Millner said. The bill probably won't come out of committee during this session, he said.
Another bill in New York threatens to fine vendors $500 for selling salvia.
Jeff Luciano, owner and founder of NAP & Associates, a New York company that distributes salvia to more than 150 stores in the United States, said legislators describe the drug as the new marijuana and a date rape substance.
"There isn't a clear understanding in the government's eyes of what it's for," he said. "It's not like any illegal substance."
The company encourages its sellers to monitor who they sell salvia to, emphasizing that the proper use of Salvia divinorum is for a meditation aid, Luciano said.
Dustin Cantrell, instructor of anthropology at Ball State University, cited several reasons people use psychoactive drugs such as salvia, the most common being recreation.
Cantrell said most hallucinogens start off in the religious world.
"There is a fundamental principal that this world is at best limited and sometimes full of distractions or illusions," he said. "And operating behind this world is the spiritual world ... sometimes psychedelic drugs help people reach that other world."
The drugs usually mean more to the outsiders, or the people who use it for recreational purposes, than the people who use it for religious and meditative reasons, he said. Outsiders view the whole point of using it as a rebellion against society and rules, Cantrell said.
"Intoxication is not rebellion," he said. "If you're using it to get high, you're missing the point."
Although Crossland and Watson said the drug is not fit for parties, legislators are worried about its contribution to the drug problem in the United States.
Cantrell, who worked with drug-addicted teenagers in a clinic before joining Ball State, said the country's drug problem was a complicated issue. However, he said the federal government's war on drugs itself contributed to the problem.
The government uses scare tactics in its messages about marijuana and other "harmless drugs," Cantrell said. Teenagers try the drugs and see no harmful effects, he said. They feel lied to and question other things they've been told not to do, he said.
When used traditionally, most drugs are harmless, Cantrell said.
"Often it gets taken over by popular culture," he said. The newcomers abuse the drug, leading governments to see only negative effects of it.
"I think the laws are aimed at irresponsible use," he said.
But, when used responsibly, salvia could be beneficial. Watson said the drug could rejuvenate and revive a person during a moment of intense stress.
"If you have a spare 10 minutes, you can trip, and it will really feel like you just took a week-long vacation," he said.
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