My interview concerning Salvia

Recently a Matt Lindberg, a reporter for the University Daily Kansan interviewed me for his story on Salvia. He was clearly interested in getting all the facts and not just putting out another bullshit falsified story. Here is the interview and how I answered if anyone is interested:

Heres the link to the article: http://www.kansan.com/stories/2007/dec/06/Salvia/

1) your connection to salvia?
I first heard about Salvia divinorum almost 4 years ago, when it was
still mostly out of the public's view. I did a little reading about it
on Erowid.org and decided to give it a try with some friends. It was
definitely surprising and a bit overwhelming when it hit me. My
perception was radically different in a matter of seconds...and then it
was over, in a matter of minutes. After that experience I was completely
fastinated by the plant. I read everything I could find on it and joined
various Internet forums to talk about this amazing plant. Eventually I
was inspired to design a web site, SalviaSource.org, which is focused on
spreading knowledge about how to cultivate and use Salvia responsibly
and effectively. All the content is user-based, so similarly to
Wikipedia, anyone can add information and share their experiences with
Salvia.

2) What is your own personal experience with salvia? Do you use it, research it? etc. If you have used it, how often and what are the side effects like?
I use Salvia very sparingly, maybe once every 2-3 months. It's
not the kind of substance that you desire to use often. Mostly the
experience itself is uncomfortable and often qutie scary and unsettling.
I mostly use it to gain personal insights or explore consciousness. I
find it more interesting to talk about the experience rather than to
actually do it. When I do use it I usually stick with lower doses, which
produces a somewhat relaxed, almost meditative effect. The after effects
can be enjoyable however, most of my experiences are followed by 2 or 3
days of a greater sense of peace and interconnectedness with the world,
although its definitely a subtle effect.
Recently I got involved in doing biochemical research on Salvia
divinorum at the University of Arizona. I work in a lab that does
research on secondary metabolites in plants, which are chemicals
produced for things like defense and not for growth purposes. Salvinorin
A, the active compound in Salvia divinorum, is an example of a secondary
metabolite. We are working on investigating how the plant produces
salvinorin A and also what genes might be responsible for the
biosynthetic process the plant uses. Eventually this research could help
to synthesize salvinorin A or a related chemical to use in therapeutics
while also improving our understanding of the biochemical processes of
plants.

3) Should salvia be legal? why or why not?
I am a strong supporter of keeping Salvia divinorum legal. Like many
scientists, I believe Salvia has huge potential in therapeutics.
Illegalizing it would severely inhibit, if not cease, important
research. Salvinorin A is a highly selective kappa-opioid receptor
agonist, which is means it acts on a single receptor in our brain, and
in therapeutics these are the types of chemicals that end up being most
useful. One scientist, Bryan L. Roth, director of the National Institute
on Mental Health's Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, says "[Salvia
divinorum's] active ingredient could be useful for a range of diseases:
Alzheimer's, depression, schizophrenia, chronic pain and even AIDS or
HIV." Another scientist named Thomas Prisinzano, from the University of
Iowa, believes there is potential for treating cocaine and
methamphetamine addiction and is currently conducting trials on rats.
Apart from the tremendous medicinal potential, Salvia poses very little
risk for abuse. Even a high dose will typically only last about 5-15
minutes. Most people I know and have read about take Salvia once and
that's more than enough. People usually find the effects terrorifying
and have no desire to repeat the experience. I myself find that I have
less and less desire to do it the more I use it. Also there was a study
done that found it to be essentially non-toxic, so an overdose would be
extremely unlikely if not impossible.

4) Do you think salvia should get the blame for the Delaware student suicide?
I highly doubt Salvia divinorum had anything to do with Brett's
suicide. I think Salvia was an easy target for his parents to blame for
their child's suicide. At some level it's concieveable because your
child's suicide would be such an insane thing to deal with, but I think
it was irresponsible on their part to point the finger at Salvia with
virtually no evidence to back it up. I find it ironic that many
scientists and pharmaceutical companies see Salvia divinorum as
something that could potentially lead to a novel treatment for depression.

5) I've come across students who have used salvia who say it's harder and much worst than harder drugs they have tried? Do you think salvia can be compared to harder drugs like LSD or is it fabricated in the media?
For the most part this is a fabrication, but it does have some basis.
Salvia is "hard" in the way that after you take a strong dose you are
temporarily transported into what people have percieved as alternate
universes and sometimes people experience becoming inanimate objects.
However, unlike other drugs like LSD and mushrooms, Salvia only lasts
5-15 minutes while LSD can last a whole day, so there is much less
chance for someone to do something to hurt themselves or anyone else. I
completely refute the statement that Salvia is much "worse" than hard
drugs. The people who tend to use it tend to be those who are
responsible. Those are irresponsible typically try it once and get
scared away from it because they try to use it as a "party drug" and
Salvia just is not. Also, there is no evidence that it is in any way
addictive or habit-forming, in fact there is actually some evidence that
it produces an anti-addictive effect, which is why it is currently being
researched as a treatment for cocaine addiction.

6) Are you familar with history of salvia? If so, could you give me some background information on it, because I would love to have a source talking about it rather than my research found in books.
I know a little history. Salvia divinorum is a rare perennial herb
from the Sierra Mazatec region of Mexico. The Mazatec Indians have been
using the herb for healing and exploring consciousness throughout their
history. Typically it was ingested in a ceremonial manner orally by
either chewing leaves or making a tincture-type mixture of leaf juices.
A botanist named Leander J. Valdés III was one of the first to bring
back live samples of Salvia divinorum and it has only been available in
the US since the mid 1990's.

7) Are you aware of any medical advances using salvia? If so, what are they? (I've heard of some, but I just wanted to see if another person knew of any others)
I kind of covered some of the research that is going on with it with
question 4. Anyway, research is still in its infancy with Salvia, but it
is exploding. I have read a number of papers about it, but most are
quite dry and wouldn't make an interesting article. Most of the papers
identify compounds in the plant and manipulate their chemical structures
and test these chemical analoges on human brain receptors. There are a
number of scientists doing research that could lead to novel treatments
for depression, Alzheimer's, and even HIV/AIDS, but there haven't been
any real breakthroughs yet; these things will take time.

8) Saliva is legal in Kansas, but there are other states (like Missouri for example) where it is illegal. Why do you think legislation from different states had declared it illegal?
Well if you look at the states that have banned the plant most seem
to have been done on a political whim. To some politicians anything that
makes you "trip out" is dangerous and must be outlawed. Paul Ray of Utah
is a good example of a this kind of politician. He saw a news story that
declared Salvia as a dangerous herb (of course with little to nothing to
back the claim up) and the /next day/ he proposed legislation to ban it.
However, some states have politicians that see how a ban might adversely
affect important research. For example in Maine instead of an outright
ban they decided to only make it illegal for minors. To me if it is
banned, a ban for minors makes the most sense because kids are those
most likely to abuse it.

He said the article will probably come out in February so I will be sure to post a link to it then.