After the Jan. 8 Tucson shooting, when 22-year-old Jared Loughner killed eight and injured 13 while allegedly using salvia, many Boston University students and faculty members said they feel the drug is unsafe.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse website, salvia is a hallucinogenic herb found in Mexico and Central and South America. The drug is usually chewed or smoked, and its effects generally last less than 30 minutes.
Salvia’s effects include “psychedelic-like changes in visual perception, mood and body sensations, emotional swings, feelings of detachment, and importantly, a highly modified perception of external reality and the self, leading to a decreased ability to interact with one’s surroundings,” according to the NIDA website.
Elizabeth Douglas, coordinator of the alcohol and drug programs at Student Health Services, said she believes salvia should at least be regulated to prevent minors from possessing the drug.
“Any psychoactive substance has an addiction potential even if it does not cause physical withdrawal symptoms like alcohol and opiates do,” Douglas said. “Repeated and heavy use of drugs, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood while the brain is still developing, can cause changes in the brain.”
Douglas said a small number of BU students reported having used salvia, with most of them disliking the effects.
“Many people who use it report not liking it because the experience is too intense or frightening,” she said. “Also, users report a loss of control of their body and impaired coordination, which greatly increases their likelihood of being hurt or doing something dangerous.”
BU students who have tried salvia reported mixed feelings as to whether salvia is as dangerous as the media depicts it.
“Salvia is nothing like LSD,” said College of Engineering freshman Peter M., who admitted to trying the drug. “It lasted like five minutes. I felt really heavy and my facial muscles felt frozen in a smile, but I didn’t have any visual hallucination. I don’t care if it’s legal or illegal. I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.”
A College of Arts and Sciences freshman, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed with Peter. “It lasted for five to 10 minutes, and I didn’t have any hallucinations,” he said. “I just felt really heavy and it was hard to move. It’s definitely not as bad as pot or LSD. It’s not much different than tobacco. It just makes you feel weird for five minutes.”
However, another anonymous CAS freshman disagreed.
“It feels worse than pot, and the experience wasn’t really enjoyable,” he said. “But I don’t see why it should be illegal.”
Although the herb has been compared to marijuana and even LSD, it is legal in most areas of the United States.
While the Controlled Substances Act does not regulate salvia, many states have taken measures to regulate or even ban the drug, despite its low toxicity and potential for addiction.
Among the states where salvia is banned are Florida, Oklahoma and Louisiana. In Massachusetts and California, users must be 18 years of age or older to purchase the drug.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
