September 25, 2007 – 10:52 am Posted Under: health
With new warnings from doctors we urge parents to learn as much as they can about Salvia. News reports today said that Salvia use is on the increase among teens and is easy to obtain because not everyone knows the full effect of the drug normally thought of as just a harmless herb. Salvia is an herb though, but it is a herb that produces a hallucinogenic affect on the user.
Salvia divinorum is a sage plant relative which has been shown to induce an altered state of mind when smoked or ingested. The plant is found in isolated, shaded and moist plots in Oaxaca, Mexico. It grows to well over a meter in height, has large green leaves, hollow square stems with occasional white and purple flowers. It is thought to be a cultigen. Its primary psychoactive constituent is a diterpenoid known as salvinorin A - a potent κ-Opioid receptor agonist. Salvinorin A is unique in that it is the only naturally occurring substance known to induce a visionary state this way. Salvia divinorum can be chewed or smoked to produce experiences ranging from uncontrollable laughter to much more intense and profoundly altered states.
The duration is much shorter than for some other more well known psychedelics; - the effects of smoked Salvia typically lasting for only a few minutes. The most commonly reported after-effects include an increased feeling of insight and improved mood, and a sense of calmness and increased sense of connection with nature, though much less often it may also cause dysphoria (unpleasant or uncomfortable mood). Salvia divinorum was not “generally” understood to be toxic or addictive, but recent developments have put it in the same category as heroin and LSD. Parent petition the state of Deleware to pass Brett’s Law after their son purchased salvia over the internet and committed suicide.
According to court documents, the parents of a Salesianum School senior who killed himself last year have sued the companies that sold him salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb that he said in his suicide note and other writings had convinced him that life was pointless.
Gary Nitsche, attorney for Dennis Chidester, of Newark, and Kathy Chidester, of Wilmington, filed the wrongful death lawsuit, on their behalf, in Delaware Superior Court on Thursday, August 2.
The lawsuit has been filed against F. Pratt, a resident of British Columbia, Canada, Herbalife International and Ethnosupply, of British Columbia and Herbalife Stores and Herbalife & Essence, businesses in Culver City, California.
In the suit Dennis Chidester and Kathy Chidester claim that the distributors knew salvia could be dangerous and failed to warn the Chidesters’ son, Brett Chidester, 17-year-old, when he purchased a package of salvia over the Internet in August 2005. Many Internet sites market salvia divinorum as a legal high and do not restrict sales to minors.
Brett Chidester smoked the herb several times over the next several months. He killed himself in January 2006 by lighting a charcoal grill inside a tent pitched in his father’s garage.
The Delaware Medical Examiner’s Office ruled he died of carbon monoxide poisoning, then added “Salvia Divinorum use” as a contributing factor.
Dennis Chidester and Kathy Chidester who are divorced seek unspecified damages for pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses, and lost future earnings, as well as punitive damages.
The General Assembly of Delaware passed “Brett’s Law,” in April, 2006 and thus, banned Salvia Divinorum, putting it in the same category as heroin and LSD. Two other states in the nation already outlawed it.
