Have you heard of Sally-D, Magic Mint or Diviner’s Sage? Maybe not. These are the alternative names for Salvia – Salvia Divinorum – which is a hallucinogenic similar to LSD and PCP. The effects of Salvia, while potent, last only an hour or so after taking the substance.
This short time span is, commentators claim, one of the main reasons that the drug is still so widely legal: only a handful of U.S. States have actually banned it. Until now. States like Florida are talking about – and indeed making moves towards – banning Salvia which is still widely available on the Internet.
The move to ban the substance is, claims Rick Doblin of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (what a great title!) an overreaction to a minor problem. Maybe so, but unfortunately for its fans Salvia is being lumped as the legal alternative to Marijuana, and politicians are starting to smell political points here.