Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Copyright: 2007 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.madison.com/wsj/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506 HERB IS AS POTENT AS LSD A member of the sage family, Salvia divinorum is a cousin of the popular flowering salvia found in many American gardens. Salvia divinorum is native to dark, damp, shady areas in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it has been used for centuries by Mazatec Indians during mystical rituals, and to treat headaches and diarrhea. It was first described in 1939 in a report on Mazatec shamans, and wasn't identified as a psychoactive drug until the 1990s. But, unlike its benign cousins, Salvia divinorum contains a powerful hallucinogenic called salvinorin A, which is described as being as potent as LSD, and "essentially the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogenic drug," according to Dr. Bryan Roth, a biochemist and neuroscientist who directs the National Institute of Mental Health's Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. Roth says research on salvinorin A has shown it to be unique among naturally occurring drugs that are abused because it homes in on a single receptor site in the brain, the same place in the brain that responds to morphine and opioids. So far, most studies of Salvia's effect on the brain have been done using rodents, and nobody knows whether the research can be duplicated in humans. Other medical, biochemical and pharmacological scientists have printed research that suggests Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A might eventually lead to treating diseases such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's. Experienced hallucinogen users describe its effects as being very different than any other hallucinogen they'd taken. Scientists call it a "spacio-temporal dislocation" that takes users to what seems to them to be a different time and place. Many first-time users describe it as intense, disturbing or frightening, but usually without a stimulating or euphoric effect. Motor control is lowered, and users don't enjoy socializing. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek