Salvia may be the next teen high

By Mike Ford, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Monday, April 21, 2008 (4 months, 1 week ago)
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In widespread fashion, teens use social networking sites for everything from posting blogs to bullying their peers. They also use the Internet to spread information on what household chemicals, prescription drugs and plants can get them high.
Videos abound on YouTube of teens smoking a hallucinogenic plant once used in divination rituals in Mexico. It’s legal and common enough that it may even be in grandma’s garden.
Salvia Divinorum provides a 5 to 10 minute hallucinogenic “trip” after it’s smoked in a “bong.” Though some think it’s safe, its toxicity and addictiveness are still being researched. It has not been encountered by local guidance counselors or police agencies.
Amanda Conn Starner of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services says she hasn’t seen Salvia activity in northwest Ohio but her department is aware of it, as is the Ohio General Assembly.
“We’re not seeing it popping up in northwest Ohio and we haven’t tracked it in terms of drug trends but we are aware of it. We know it’s being circulated through the Internet and that’s how kids are finding out about it,” she said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lists salvia as a drug of concern and states are beginning to line up with laws against it. Ohio may join the growing list.
Fourth District Representative Matt Huffman (R-Lima) says the Ohio House passed a bill this week that will list salvia as a controlled substance, making it illegal to sell or be prescribed. He hopes this will help curtail the drug’s future popularity.
“It’s going to be a problem eventually and if it isn’t illegal, it will be easy to buy,” he said.
The bill must be passed by the Ohio Senate, which will begin its summer break in May. Huffman says it will reconvene in November, which is when the bill will more likely pass due to current energy and economic stimulus debates. Huffman also says it takes 90 days for new laws to take effect, keeping salvia legal until next year.
Phil Atkins of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board in Lima says rural teens have to be more hidden about drug abuse because tight-knit communities watch them more closely. He says teens still steal prescription meds and “huff” household aerosol cleaners. However, adolescents have to get high from something else if medicine cabinets and utility closets are locked with a deadbolt and mom wears the key around her neck.
“It’s about access. We find that in rural communities, you have to take what you can get. If you’re determined to get high, you will use substances that are readily available to you. Inhalants are huge in rural communities and in those smaller settings, people tend to watch more closely so they have to be more ‘underground’ about it,” he said.
Though salvia is legal at the federal level, eight states have banned it and the number of other states considering similar measures is growing. It’s also illegal in Australia, Italy and Belgium.

5 Reader Responses to “Salvia may be the next teen high”

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  1. #1 — Added 4 months, 1 week ago

    [Attn: Moderator: Can I edit my original post?]

    Great! More drug-war paranoia! Congratulations, Ohio, your state government is next in a long line of self-righteous prohibitionists who put governmental control of YOUR cognitive experiences above all common sense and reason.

    Despite what they’re telling you, Salvia is not physically dangerous, with very little potential for addiction or abuse. It’s more useful for spiritual experiences than it is for ‘getting high’.

    Let me ask you: if huffing is such a problem in rural communities, why outlaw Salvia? Why not outlaw…gasoline? Or spray paint? How ’bout we arrest *parents* whose children steal prescription meds from their medicine cabinets?

    Most places won’t sell you Salvia unless you’re 18, by the way…it’s a self-regulating industry at the moment; make it illegal and you’ll lose that, too. It’ll be easier to get than beer!

    Have fun, Ohio, with your new, draconian drug law!

    Posted on April 21, 2008 at 3:42 pm by JDMF

  2. #2 — Added 4 months, 1 week ago

    My God! Another one to add to the 100s already on the list of “Controlled Substances”. Apparently there is no ‘feel good’ substance too benign to escape the wrath of modern day prohibitionists. (Exceptions of course for beer, wine, hard liquor, tobacco, caffeine…..) It may be comforting to believe we have drug warriors. But they do nothing to reduce drug abuse. If you want to do that, send your tax dollars to the social services, not to the drug war. Making a drug illegal drives off only the casual users, who are no problem anyhow. Abusers are going to get their drug whether legal or not.

    Now I gotta go check my liquor cabinet. I wanna feel good tonite after work.

    Posted on April 22, 2008 at 5:50 am by JohnC in Florida

  3. #3 — Added 4 months, 1 week ago

    Nice one-sided article. By the way, people in your area are surely going to be looking for it now. Way to go!

    Salvia is a non-problem and has never been known to cause death or health problems. It is for adults and should stay legal for consenting adults to use when they see fit.

    Why not learn more about salvia and it’s promising future for medicines instead of demonizing it and making sure its potential is never realized?

    Now why is alcohol and tobacco not receive the same negative attention?

    Posted on April 22, 2008 at 6:02 pm by Concerned Citizen

  4. #4 — Added 4 months ago

    i think that people need to learn about this drug because it is getting around to alot of young teens through the internet sight youtube i was at my moms to get my sister up for school and she thought that the people who were high were funny and that she would have fun doing it… i hope that people learn about this drug and fast so there can be a stop to all this madness.

    Posted on April 25, 2008 at 4:08 pm by val

  5. #5 — Added 1 month, 3 weeks ago

    Mike, You should look into the transporting of Cocaine into the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency and write an article about that if you want to “Combat Dangerous Substances”…Your article has shown that you have no real knowledge of Salvia other than what you’ve been told. Typical of a small town newspaper to write about what they hear and not what they know.

    Posted on July 6, 2008 at 1:59 am by Kyle