Salvia divinorum Timeline

[Teotzlcoatl]

Time Immemorable- Salvia divinorum likely has a long history of human usage in entheogenic and shamanic ceremonies in Central America, but how far back its history goes is unknown. Robert Gordon Wasson has theorized that Salvia divinorum may be the psychoactive known to the Aztec as "Pipiltzintzintli", if this is true then the human usage of Salvia divinorum is likely 1000s of years old.

1938 A.D.- Jean B. Johnson reports learning of a Mazatec tea made from the beaten leaves of a "hierba Maria", and used for divination. This is the oldest verifiable recorded use of Salvia divinorum known, while many theories and speculations exist, the human usage Salvia divinorum has never been proven to be more than 100 years old.
  
1945 A.D.- Blas Pablo Reko reports a "magic plant" called “hoja de adivinación” (leaf of prophecy), used by Cuicatecs and Mazatecs to produce visions. It was probably Salvia divinorum.

1952 A.D.- Roberto Weitlaner reports a "yerba de María" in Oaxaca. It is said to be used by curanderos.
  
1957 A.D.   - Mexican botanist A. Gómez Pompa collects specimens of a hallucinogenic Salvia plant he describes as "Xka Pastora". His specimens cannot be identified at the species level.
 
1960 A.D.- R. Gordon Wasson collects samples of S. divinorum, but they are inadequate for botanical identification.

July, 12, 1961 A.D.- Wasson ingests Salvia divinorum, and experiences effects.

June, 1962 A.D.- Sterling Bunnel brings the first live Salvia divinorum plants to the United States from Huautla de Jiménez. Cuttings from this sample are widely-propagated and are commonly available to this day sold erroneously as the "Wasson and Hofmann" strain.

October, 9, 1962 A.D.- Wasson and Anita Hofmann, wife of Albert Hofmann, ingest juice of Salvia divinorum in a ceremony conducted by curandera Maria Sabina.

December, 1962 A.D.- Wasson and Hofmann collect flowering samples for identification. Carl Epling and colleagues identify it as a novel species and give it the name "Salvia divinorum".  

1963 A.D.- Wasson tentatively proposes Salvia divinorum as a candidate for the unidentified Aztec plant sacrament "pipiltzintzinli". If correct, this widely-contested hypothesis would imply a long history of cultivation and use, yet this remains unconfirmed.

1975 A.D.- Ott and Diaz contemporaneously observe persons smoking dried Salvia divinorum leaves in Mexico City. There is no known report of Salvia divinorum being smoked prior to this time, and it appears to be a novel use of the plant.

1982 A.D.- Ortega et al. publish a paper describing their isolation of a novel compound from Salvin divinorum, which they call Salvinorin.
 
1984 A.D.- Valdes et al. identify two Salvia divinorum derivatives which they call divinorin A and B. Divinorin A is found to be identical to the Ortega's salvinorin, so the compounds are re-named salvinorin A and B.

1994 A.D.- Siebert sponsors investigation into several possible mechanisms of action for salvinorin A, but finds no evidence that it interacts with any of a few dozen common neurotransmitters and peptides. Several possibilities are eliminated, but its mechanisms of action remain unknown.

Late 1990s A.D.- Salvia becomes available commercially online and its public visibility dramatically increases.
  
2002 A.D.- Roth et al. report that salvinorin A is a highly-selective kappa-opioid agonist, solving the long time mystery of its site of action.

August, 2005 A.D.- Louisiana becomes the first state in the U.S.A. to ban human consumption of Salvia divinorum, several other states follow.

December, 2009 A.D.- North Carolina passes progressive legislature banning Salvia divinorum for recreational consumption but exempting scientific research and ornamental cultivation from restriction.

Early 2010s A.D.- Many nations world wide have made Salvia divinorum illegal or restricted it in some way including about half the states in the U.S.A. as well as Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and many other nations.

201? A.D.- What will be the next big thing to happen to Salvia divinorum? HELP ME FINISH THIS TIME-LINE AND HELP KEEP SALVIA DIVINORUM LEGAL!!!

[Teotzlcoatl]

I wonder what the future of Salvia divinorum holds..

[Shadow21]

I wonder what the future of Salvia divinorum holds..

Every state will probably make it illegal.

[solar]

thats interesting how those guys saw people smoking it in mexico city, because it seems like the mazatecs did tea/quid generally. I wonder if other people in the area smoked it, or where that method originated.

I think that if we can make it seem like salvia divinorum is one of those "mildly poisonous but easy to grow house plants," it'll stay legal, because people will just lump it into the category of actually mildly poisonous and easy to grow house plants, and people will just have one or two in their house for ornamental purposes. this would make people who suggest banning it seem rediculous, because that'd be like wanting to ban angel's trumpets or something. also, people would be pissed cause they have this harmless little plant, just chillin in their house, and suddenly it turns them into a criminal. I mean, who would be pissed if people started getting locked up for having cute little ferns, or coleuses or something. so yeah, pretty much we should all give away as many plants as possible, so that it gets the reputation of a house plant, not a hallucinogen thats going to make your kids go crazy.

[Teotzlcoatl]

Mexicans only began smoking Salvia divinorum recently, after the trend begin in America first.

Salvia divinorum was never smoke traditionally.

[solar]

didn't salvia only get popular in the US in the 90s? according to your timeline, people were smoking it in mexico city in 1975.
and plus, what evidence is there that it hadn't been smoked traditionally? people have been smoking various plants for thousands of years, why wouldn't they do it with salvia divinorum?

[Teotzlcoatl]

I'm fairly sure that the Mexicans learned the practice of smoking Salvia divinorum outside of a traditional context, although I don't know the details.

I believe it is different sets of people who are using Salvia divinorum traditionally and the Mexicans who are smoking Salvia divinorum as a kind of cannabis or tobacco substitute.