Alternative smoke to marijuana...Yhuba Gold?

I smoke weed about twice a year, but my friends smoke alot and often have a copy of High Times laying around. In the back, there are advertisements for “legal” smoking products that supposedly have effects similar to that of marijuana.

Some names I dug up include:

Yhuba Gold
Yerba Yenna Lesca
Salvia

Has anyone out there tried these or have friends that have?

Um. Be really, really careful with salvia divinorum.

We’ve discussed this here before. All of those products are just legal herbs that do little else than give you a headache, if that. Smoke enough corn husks and you’ll get dizzy. I have tried a few of these and they’re all shit.
The absolute weakest, worst pot you’ve ever smoked will do 1000 times more than this garbage ever will.

Salvia, as in Salvia Divinorum, is slightly different than the rest. It is a member of the mint family, and if smoked in ample amount in a proper way it can put you in a dream like state for about 10 minutes. Most of the people who I know have tried this stuff said it scared the hell out of them, was not an enjoyable “high” at all, and was definately not a party drug.
None of these products contain any THC. Stick to real weed.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Salvia. Sounds interesting but scary. Don’t try this at home, kids. Nor by yourself. Nor with amateurs. And so forth.

Some friends of mine spiked a joint with salvia once and gave it to one of the group. He smoked it all up and just stared blankly for a long time after that, seemed to weird him out a bit.

I bought some for my friend once, but when I was about to board the plane from Holland I suddernly wondered if this stuff was legal where I was going, so I had to drop it. I’d like to check it out sometimes though.

— G. Raven

Being as close to a salvia expert as anyone on the board (at least I’d imagine), I’d like to throw in my $.02. Whatever anyone else might say, salvia is really, really interesting and fun if it’s used in a responsible manner. It can be ingested either via smoking (the extract, sold via the web, is the easiest to smoke), or by making a “quid” that is held between cheek and gum. I reccomend smoking. (However, if you are using breakable smoking implements, make sure someone is ready to remove the parephenalia after yer done… trust me on this one.) Most everything else is covered in the Erowid site, which is a fantastic resource for everything you’ve ever needed to know about anything. However, one final reccomendation- try it while on hallucenogenic substances (but not for the first time, for Cripe’s sakes). It lasts about 45 minutes to an hour, and induces the most incredible open-eye visuals I’ve ever seen, ever. It’s even more fun than nitrous… heh, heh.
M.

BTW: If you want to blow your mind, dig up the chemical information about salvia- it’s the only drug that isn’t an alkaloid. Craaazy.