How has the drug Salvia, a potent hallucinogenic, remained completely legal in Canada?
August 9, 2005 - vueweekly.com
"That's $42.80 with tax," said the girl behind the counter.
"Um, do you take Amex?" I asked.
"Of course," she said, smiling as she took my credit card.
As far as consumer transactions go, this exchange probably doesn't sound all that unusual. And it isn't, really, except for the fact that most drug dealers tend not to accept credit cards-or charge GST, for that matter. I had purchased one gram of an extremely potent hallucinogen that's been compared to LSD, but neither Two Guys With Pipes-the store on Jasper Avenue where I made the purchase-nor I had committed a crime.
I now had in my possession a gram of Salvia, a completely unregulated hallucinogen that is entirely legal to possess, distribute and consume in every country except Australia. If I ingest it I will likely lose consciousness, have intense and possibly frightening hallucinations and almost certainly be at least partially unable to control my actions, but there is no law that prevents me from driving while under this substance's influence, nor is there anything more persuasive than morality preventing me from providing this substance to a minor. In a country where possession of any amount of marijuana is still theoretically a criminal offense, this all may seem a bit hypocritical, but such is the curious conundrum of this centuries-old but barely understood intoxicant that is becoming increasingly popular in Edmonton.
"For the first year or so it wasn't all that popular, but it's started to really pick up in the last six months," says Colin Rogucki, whose Old Strathcona head shop Shell Shocked has been selling the drug for nearly two years. When a distributor of the drug originally approached Rogucki, he was skeptical of the apparent legality of selling Salvia, but after checking with a lawyer he believes he is legally in the clear.
"We sell it with an information handout, we don't sell it to anyone under the age of 18, and we don't really advertise it anyway," explains Rogucki, emphasizing that he takes such measures purely out of a sense of personal responsibility. "It doesn't affect my liability either way, but we want people to do it safely and responsibly."
The pamphlet that the store hands out with its Salvia features a half-page of warnings such as "do not drive or operate any type of machinery while under the influence of Salvia" and "a virtual loss of consciousness similar to the effects described in the movie "The Matrix" is a common experience." There are also a myriad number of websites devoted to providing information about Salvia, most of which also helpfully provide links to online distributors of the drug. But in spite of this apparent glut of information about the substance, there is still a pronounced dearth of scientific information regarding Salvia.
"Most of what we know about salvia is anecdotal," says the University of Alberta's Stefan Little, a graduate student who teaches an undergraduate botany class on drug plants. According to Little, the term "Salvia" refers to the plant Salvia divinorum, a close relative of mint that has been used for centuries by the Mazatec people of Mexico to induce spiritual visions. The active chemical in the plant, Salvinorum-A, is a neoclerodanediterpenoid, meaning that it is completely unlike other psychoactive chemicals such as LSD or psilocybin, which scientists only began to understand in the last decade.
"It wasn't until the mid-'90s that scientists even managed to isolate what chemical in salvia was responsible for the hallucinogenic effect," Little explains. "The active chemical that makes salvia hallucinogenic is a terpenoid that binds to the brain's kappa opioid receptor, which is a receptor to which few other substances bind." Little, who hasn't used Salvia, is careful to be even-handed with his assessment, stressing that more information is needed about the substance to truly ascertain whether or not Salvia is dangerous or benign. "I haven't seen any information suggesting salvia is addictive, and as far as I know it's not really toxic in any way, but there's very little scientific knowledge about it. I would like to see a lot more research on its effects and chemistry."
Edmonton drug advocate Benjamin Currie shares some of Little's reservations. Currie owns True North Hemp on Whyte Avenue and has chosen not to sell Salvia in his shop. "I've not noticed any harm to myself from taking salvia, and I haven't heard of any harm being caused by it, but it's definitely something to be respected," he explains, noting the ignorance most recreational drug users have about Salvia. "The majority of people who come in looking for it don't even know what they're asking for; they call it "sylvia" or "saliva." They've never seen it, they've never tried it before, but they want to drop 40 bucks on a bunch of it for a party."
For Currie, Salvia, while not dangerous, is probably too intense of an experience for the casual young marijuana users who are most interested in trying it. "We just felt it wasn't appropriate for us to profit from selling something to people who didn't understand what they were getting into," he says.
Even though his shop does sell Salvia, Rogucki shares many of Currie's concerns. "It shouldn't really be sold like we're selling anyways, because it's something some people shouldn't be doing," he admits. "This is something that is dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands."
Rogucki wouldn't even mind seeing some regulation of the sale of Salvia-not allowing minors to purchase it for example-although he worries about Salvia becoming completely illegal in Canada in near future, and his concerns are not without merit. In addition to Australia's outright ban, Finland and Denmark have made it illegal to import Salvia, and while the drug remains legal in the United States, there are currently several bills being considered by state congresses, although the small town of St. Peter's, Missouri remains the only place in North America to have successfully passed a law prohibiting the sale of Salvia to minors.
Part of the reason Salvia has been so difficult to regulate is its unique chemistry. "I lot of substances are made illegal quite easily because they are similar in structure to something that has already been established as a controlled substance," explains Little. "But the chemical in salvia that causes the hallucinogenic effect is completely distinctive-it doesn't work like LSD or psilocybin or heroin, for example-so legislators and law enforcement have a harder time classifying Salvia."
Little believes that Salvia will eventually become a controlled substance, but likely for political more so than scientific reasons. "Most drug laws aren't based at all on scientific information. Social stigma or political expediency tend to be responsible for most drug policy," he explains. "I suspect that it won't take long for a couple of idiots to have a really bad experience or get hit by a car or fall off of a balcony on this stuff. The publicity from that kind of thing would get Salvia criminalized fairly quickly."
Rogucki agrees with Little's assessment, using other recently criminalized substances as examples. "Ketamine has only been illegal for about 10 years, and ecstasy was totally legal 20 years ago," he notes. "It's like any other drug-once it starts showing up at clubs or starts being blamed for accidents it will become illegal fairly quickly."
In this way, for all its mystery and uniqueness, Salvia is just like every other intoxicant known to man. "It doesn't matter of it's booze or pot or anything," says Rogucki. "There will always someone who does too much and doesn't take any responsibility for their stupidity, and then it becomes impossible for responsible people to enjoy it."
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