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poppydog_gw

Salvia as a drug teenagers want. I'm not making this up.

poppydog
17 years ago

I am posting this in multiple forums, so please forgive if you have already seen. As I was driving into my subdivision in the Naperville/Aurora, Il area I noticed and said out loud, "Oh look, they planted Salvia." My 17 year old daughter literally jumped up in her seat and said: "There's Salvia here? Where? Do you know how much money that is worth?" So I said, "Uh...yeah, we have 8 Salvia plants in our front yard. What's the deal?" She said that Salvia is the new drug in demand. It apparantly gives some kind of supreme, but very short high (like 5 mins.) and everyone is looking for it. Knowing how common Salvia is, I showed her that our local nursery has about 20 varieties of annual and 15 varieties of perennial available, including the latin names. She looked at all of the latin names and said, "No, they're looking for a genus that starts with a D." Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Comments (5)

  • glassmouse
    17 years ago

    Salvia divinorum. (The "divinorum" part must come from "divine" since it's apparently used for shaman and meditation rituals. So "divine" in the sense of both "deity" and "to tell or receive insight, like divining the future.") Wow, teenagers will look to anything for "fun," won't they? Glad my teenage years are (long) behind me. Although it's not like I was in the cool, "in-the-know" crowd as a teenager-- :)

    Next they'll be getting into the morning glory seeds--

    http://www.totse.com/en/drugs/psychedelics/morngly.html
    http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/salvia3.htm (Another "smokin' salvia!" link)

    PlantScout lists zero vendors selling this plant (even the nurseries that carry obscure things), so my guess is that it's either not something easily obtainable, or some kind of wildflower form that's not decorative and therefore not readily available/desirable to the home gardener and only available if you trek out somewhere and know what you're looking for. Kind of like how everyone in my day was looking for "mushrooms," but no one really knew or would have recognized the mushroom they were actually looking for. I'm sure a lot of innocent fungi was consumed in the name of partying.

    Maybe I'm mean, but I have this mental image of a bunch of teens sitting around huffing on Pineapple Sage or Salvia Caradonna, all fake dreamy-eyed and mumbling, "Man, I'm sooooo wasted!" In any case, I wouldn't worry too much. As I said, it doesn't sound like it's readily available, and in most cases, wildcrafted "drugs" (like wild-harvested marijuana) don't usually have a high enough concentration of anything to really get one high--You have to specifically cultivate something to get high levels of hallucinogen, and I'm convinced that most of the time, the placebo/we're soooo naughty! effect is what's at play. And teens have been known to smoke/ingest anything (oregano, ritalin, cough syrup, etc.) for kicks, so I wouldn't worry too much about this salvia--plenty around the house for them to get into, as well. (I myself have a vivid memory of being at a friend's house on a snow day and getting into her parents' liquor cabinet to make myself a tequila 'n root beer. Tequile and root beer! Just the memory makes me ill...)

    Here is a link that might be useful: How to Obtain Effects from Smoked Salvia Divinorum

  • username_5
    17 years ago

    There are vendors online who sell the leaves of salvia divornum. It is to get high with. The salvia in your yard doesn't qualify.

    Wouldn't surprise me if all of the sudden your plants 'disappear' though leaving only teenager sized footprints behind ;-)

    Maybe go leave a 6 pack of cheap beer amongst your plants to see if you can't get those vermin to take leave your plants alone ;-)

    Alternately I understand broadcasting Milli Vanilli may work as a sonic deterent.

  • joandaugh
    17 years ago

    My teenager did the same double-take last year. We looked it up to make sure it wasn't the kind I had in my yard (so none of his friends would dig it up). Not that they would anyway; most of them have a little common sense. But it's funny that you mentioned the morning glory seeds because there was an article in the Chicago Tribune about MG seeds & teens a little over a week ago--a column from the Washington Post actually, and it's still on the website at www.chicagotribune.com if you search for "morning glory."

  • SandL
    17 years ago

    Why do teenagers do stupid things? As a teenager myself I would never think of doing alcohol or drugs because I saw what it did to other members of my family. Who (I surmised) would want to live that way?
    Now, of course, I have a 16 year old step-daughter who is getting out of control. We've just discovered that she has been sneaking out of the house to smoke cigarettes (something we don't allow at our house due to allergies). Last week we discovered that she and one of her friends stole an IPOD and camera from a girl at church. Oh yeah, and the kicker was calling 911 TWICE! on Easter Sunday to say there was a shooting at our church. Fun fun!

    I'm going to be so glad when the teenage years are over!

    H

  • username_5
    17 years ago

    LOL, they are so much fun until they hit the teens, aren't they!

    I can't wait to see how mine embarrass me.