# Should salvia be legal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 18, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959 "2003-02-18T21:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/1 "2003-02-18T21:04:16Z")
A buddy of mine came back from a trip with a substance called salvia that he bought in a California head shop. His impression, and everything I have researched, indicate that this is fully legal everywhere but Austrailia. According to my friend, 2 hits in a water pipe takes you to cartoonland. I had never heard of this drug before. But it strikes me as odd that a hallucinogenic such as this could be sold legally, while pot is considered a schedule 1 narcotic. Anyone familiar with salvia - either its use or its legal status? [http://sagewisdom.org/faq.html](http://sagewisdom.org/faq.html) My friend bought his openly, and websites claim that it can even be cultivated easily and legally - tho extraction of the active compound is apparently tricky. What is the process by which a substance/practice is made illegal? For example, huffing household products is illegal where I live. And a salvia google results in hundreds of hits. So I would assume the DEA is familiar with it. What is your opinion - should hallucinogenic substances such as this be illegal? (Wasn’t sure which forum to post this in.) ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/2 "2003-02-18T21:33:04Z")
If it’s a derivitive of the flower of the same name, you can buy the seeds pretty much anywhere flower seeds are sold, including Wal-Mart. StG ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/3 "2003-02-18T21:36:17Z")
Simply, no. They ought not be illegal. Your body, your choice. nobody else has the right to tell you what you can and can not ingest. Having said that, any harm is on your own head. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/4 "2003-02-19T01:35:04Z")
Got a ton of it growing in my garden, Dins. Doubt if you’d get buzzed smoking the cultivar I’ve got (don’t know, never tried, probably just give you a ditchweed type headache). Its a relative of sage. Grows usually purple spikey flower things on top of a sagey looking leaf. Grows like a weed, too, I have to divide mine every year. Its in gardens all over the midwest. [http://www.burpee.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=227&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=salvia](http://www.burpee.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=227&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=salvia) Might be possible to stamp it out, but you’d have to dig up all these grandmother’s flower beds - bad scene. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/5 "2003-02-19T01:50:53Z")
Salvia is a common garden flower. From what I’ve read the type that gets you high is a relatively rare mutant that doesn’t normally reproduce but vegetatively, i.e. by cuttings. It shouldn’t be illegal anymore than any other medicinal/poisonous herb should be illegal. But, you can bet if lots of people start having a good time with it & grow their own & money isn’t going to the government-drug trade, it’ll be made illegal pronto. Get your cuttings now! ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/6 "2003-02-19T02:21:53Z")
Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who read that and wondered for a second why people thought that _saliva_ was illegal. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![B.Pants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@B.Pants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Pants)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/7 "2003-02-19T02:48:03Z")
**Dinsdale,** I am pretty familiar with [salvia](http://www.erowid.org/plants/salvia/salvia_law.shtml), and it is possibly illegal for human consumption in California under the California Analog Act. What your friend most likely had was some form of extract applied to salvia leaves. Reactions vary greatly among different people. Some have an intense reaction, complete with hallucinations and strange sensations, but only for 10 minutes or so. Others have no reaction. Most people fall somewhere in between, hallucinating the first time, but only experiencing the strange sensations subsequent times. And sometimes purple Snoods come out of nowhere and zip reality together. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/8 "2003-02-19T03:32:51Z")
I believe salvia divinorum is a different species from the kind growing in flower gardens. I believe it should be legal, but I think anything a person wants to do to themselves should be legal, whether it’s drinking gasoline, comitting suicide, or mutilating your face in an attempt to look like a white woman. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/9 "2003-02-19T04:05:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by B.Pants \* > \*\*And sometimes purple Snoods come out of nowhere and zip reality together. Or something. \*\* Thanks. I needed that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/10 "2003-02-19T04:34:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monica \* > \*\*Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who read that and wondered for a second why people thought that _saliva_ was illegal. :smack: \*\* I’m with ya (though sometimes, it _should_ be!). ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/11 "2003-02-19T04:36:05Z")
I don’t know anything about salvia, but this sounds kind of like opium poppies. It’s legal to buy opium poppy seeds in America (though they’re not the poppies in the Burpee catalog). It’s legal to grow opium poppies. It’s just not legal to process them into opiates ( or, and this gets weird, it can become illegal to grow opium poppies if it can be proved you **know** they can be processed into opium). Althought disseminating information on processing opium poppies is not illegal, either. Unless you’re also selling them. I guess. Whatever. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the plant (including the varient that gets you high) is legal. Whether processing it is, or if they haven’t got around to passing specific laws yet, I don’t know. Either way, there could still be web sites. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Calculus_of_Logic)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/12 "2003-02-19T04:54:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\* > > 1. What is the process by which a substance/practice is made illegal? For example, huffing household products is illegal where I live. And a salvia google results in hundreds of hits. So I would assume the DEA is familiar with it. > 2. What is your opinion - should hallucinogenic substances such as this be illegal? > > (Wasn’t sure which forum to post this in.) \*\* 1. probably when politicians find out about it and have the time to pass a law against it. 2. Nope. Most drugs shouldn’t be illegal, it distracts law enforcement from pursuing real crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/13 "2003-02-19T13:54:43Z")
**B.Pants** - yes, what my friend bought was leaves treated with the extract. The process is described in the link I provided. Which also explains how it cannot be manufactured at home. Related to, but clearly not the same as, those _red hot sallies_ that look so nice interspersed with _dusty miller_ in your garden. I was impressed over the fact that this particular guy is not exactly a stranger to mood altering substances, and that he was so stricken by the effect of salvia d., made me think it must be pretty powerful stuff. And just seems so wacky that something like that could be legal, whil pot is demonized. ---
**Author:** ![B.Pants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@B.Pants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Pants)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-salvia-be-legal/155959/14 "2003-02-19T15:46:25Z")
Yes, **Dinsdale** , salvia is definitely some powerful stuff. When I first encountered it, all I knew is that it was some stuff some guy had bought online. I figured it was some of that “legal bud” herb stuff that you can buy in smokeshops, and was not prepared for any sort of psychedelic experience. The next 10-15 minutes of my life were not anything like what I expected. Not only is it nothing like “legal bud” or pot, it’s nothing like any other hallucinogenic I’ve ever met. It’s a singular sensation, and I’m not surprised that your otherwise experienced friend was floored by it. Personally, I believe it should remain legal, but I also don’t believe in the concept of “controlled substances”. I have a serious problem with the idea that the government can tell me, an adult, what I can or cannot do with my body. Just my $.04