Premature Salvia Arrest in Ohio

Jacob Sullum | April 13, 2009

Last week Butler County, Ohio, Sheriff Rick Jones issued a press release bragging that one of his deputies had arrested a man for violating the state's new ban on possession of the psychedelic herb Salvia divinorum. But his pride was short-lived. Since the law did not take effect until the day after the arrest, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, the sheriff's department had to drop the charge. 

More on salvia here.

[via the Drug War Chronicle]

Comments

Latent Dyxlesia|4.13.09 @ 2:17PM|#

They've outlawed SALIVA?

Mister DNA|4.13.09 @ 2:17PM|#

If anything, the Butler County Sheriff's Department will say this only goes to show you how law enforcement needs a Time Machine to deal with scofflaws.

Elemenope|4.13.09 @ 2:21PM|#

Finally had an opportunity to try the stuff.

It's a curiosity, nothing more or less. Not something I'd do on even an intermittent basis. It's a once-a-year-for-the-novelty-of-it sort of thing.

And I can say the effort to outlaw it is, if anything, even more absurd than marijuana prohibition. At least marijuana feels good and is thus somewhat habit forming. This stuff, not at all.

phalkor|4.13.09 @ 2:23PM|#

How? Seroiously how do you get caught for Salvia? It looks like (and is closely related to) a kitchen herb fer chrissakes! Why would you have this sh*t in your car!?!? It's not fun! Salvia is a felony?!?!?! *Head Explodes*

Okay, now that I can get a grip on this, it seems pretty clear that as much as I blame the drug law enforcers the people breaking the drug laws are pretty stupid as well. Except for raids and other crazy bullsh*t tactics most people who choose to carry illegal substances only get caught by their own stupidity, general carelessness.

Still, wow, salvia, felony man.

ev|4.13.09 @ 2:26PM|#

Salvia is certainly interesting. The gravity-pull thing that it does really is a bit mind-blowing. My friend did it and he kept laughing and laughing---he got pulled down out of his chair and was cracking up for like 10 minutes.

"trapped in my own laughter" he called it.

ahhhh good times during rounds in the dorms.

we had a permanent duct tape seal around the door. you could hear the vacuum being created when you shut the door.

|4.13.09 @ 2:30PM|#

My third and last experience with Salvia was complete mind blowing lost-in-time-and-space terror. I was convinced that I would be rendered permanently psychotic by the stuff (the trip lasted 4 hours). I had mini-time loops replaying in my head, like I couldn't tell which direction was forward and backward in time. totally surreal, and frightening. never again.

|4.13.09 @ 2:31PM|#

My hallucinogen days are behind me, but a friend described salvia as a 7 minute trip that was interesting and pretty intense, but since it was quick, no big deal. LMNOP, would you say that's what it was like?

And no, I have not watched Sarah Connor yet--I didn't have TV or internet--but will do so tonight.

|4.13.09 @ 2:34PM|#

Epi, I have never heard of anyone having a long trip like mine. I am pretty sure it had something to do with an interaction with some other substances I was also on...

|4.13.09 @ 2:35PM|#

What else were you on? List plz

phalkor|4.13.09 @ 2:36PM|#

No epi it's more like mind blowing lost-in-time-and-space terror. Only the truly twisted find it enjoyable. You're right on the duration (only really really gone for 90seconds +-30) but how long does it take to shake you to your soul?

Regardless, irresponsible use of this potent botanical wonder has lead us to silly situations as above.

|4.13.09 @ 2:38PM|#

nothing that wasn't homemade

|4.13.09 @ 2:42PM|#

No epi it's more like mind blowing lost-in-time-and-space terror. Only the truly twisted find it enjoyable.

Well, my friend is kind of into that, so I'm not surprised he enjoyed it. He offered it to me but I wisely refused--I can no longer do hallucinogens. My acid days are long past.

nothing that wasn't homemade

This tells me nothing, Mr. Roboto. Some meth, maybe? Meth + hullucinogens = HORRIBLE; trust me, never do that, EVER. That was one of the worst experiences I've ever had, and I've seen some horrible things.

|4.13.09 @ 2:48PM|#

DMT earlier in the day, and some pot. I didn't think it would be a big deal... wow.

carl|4.13.09 @ 2:48PM|#

Club13 has all the latest info on Salvia Laws. Stock up before its to late!

http://www.club13.com

Elemenope|4.13.09 @ 2:51PM|#

LMNOP, would you say that's what it was like?


Yeah, pretty much. It's brief, intense, and has a very...odd aftereffect.

For me, there wasn't much in the way of generative visual hallucinations, but there was strong visual distortion (which was cool), combined with the 'odd gravity' thing, which I found mildly unpleasant. Moving around on the stuff is a really difficult task, probably on the same level of difficulty as trying to move around on a strong DXM trip. I tried it lying down, to minimize getting stuck in an uncomfortable position.

Immediately afterward (~ t + 10 mins), I had a profound feeling of akathesic dysphoria (which happens, apparently, to about half of the people that take it), and contributes strongly to that half never wanting to take it again. In contrast, my fiancee tried it at the same time, and did not experience the dysphoria.

After that wore off (~ t + 15 mins), I felt a prolonged feeling of contentment that lasted about three or four hours. I would compare that feeling to the general feeling that SSRIs tend to generate, but without the listlessness. In point of contrast, this stage my fiancee did not experience.

It is my suspicion (after reading up a little) that the subjective mood aftereffects and the body dysphoria are both effected strongly by variances between people in the distribution of K-opioid receptors. Not much is known about the kappa system (not many known ligands, not many known therapeutic uses for those ligands). It might be analogous to subjective difference in memory change among users of marijuana being related to the relative density of CB1 receptors in the hippocampus (some people can study better on weed, some people become completely useless on the stuff).

|4.13.09 @ 2:52PM|#

DMT earlier in the day, and some pot. I didn't think it would be a big deal... wow.

Uhh...if you double down (or triple, as pot is a mild hallucinogenic) on your trip, don't be surprised when it kicks your ass.

Elemenope|4.13.09 @ 2:54PM|#

domo, might have been the pot. THC is thought to be a weak partial K-opioid agonist. Could have caused problems.

BakedPenguin|4.13.09 @ 2:56PM|#

...strong DXM trip...

Is that the stuff they put in cough syrup now?

|4.13.09 @ 2:58PM|#

Epi,

yeah - lesson learned, believe me.

|4.13.09 @ 3:02PM|#

my research indicated that DMT was out of your system very quickly - the pot was some asskicker stuff - but in any case, I no longer mix.

|4.13.09 @ 3:03PM|#

I had a profound feeling of akathesic dysphoria (which happens, apparently, to about half of the people that take it), and contributes strongly to that half never wanting to take it again.

I will stay the hell away from it, then. Akathisia is hell on earth.

|4.13.09 @ 3:05PM|#

Akathisia

Had to look that one up - but yeah, that's pretty much the ticket. terrible.

Elemenope|4.13.09 @ 3:13PM|#

Is that the stuff they put in cough syrup now?

They have for quite a while now, yes, as a cough suppressant. The Hydrochloride salt of Dextromethorphan. Some people can't take cough syrup with DXM because they are especially sensitive to it (because they are lacking a specific set of enzymes that break it down efficiently), causing them to trip balls over a regular therapeutic dose. Most people need to take significantly more to get the dissociative-hallucinogenic effects. It is...unpleasant, to drink that much cough syrup.

|4.13.09 @ 3:17PM|#

LMNOP - where did you learn all this stuff?

|4.13.09 @ 3:18PM|#

I wonder if you could alcohol extract Salvia and control the dosage and absorption rate. Maybe get the contentment with out the machine-elves-eating-your-brain aspect.

|4.13.09 @ 3:22PM|#

alcohol extract Salvia

I read somewhere that this is how enhanced leaf is made. buy a Sohxlet device...

phalkor|4.13.09 @ 3:24PM|#

to domo

the internet allows the curious psychonaut to use their curiousity the key that unlocks staggering arrays of information on recreational pharmokinetics

i refuse to believe that lmnop is actually a secret experimental lab rat.

Spoonman|4.13.09 @ 3:31PM|#

TRIP REPORT THREAD!

I've done it three times.

First time - didn't get much of a hit, just mild visual hallucinations, so people said "you didn't get shit, take another". Started coming back pounding the floor with my fist, yelling incoherently - felt like I was trying to talk around a baseball-sized cloud in my mouth. Gradually the "it's ok, you're with friends, calm down" became coherent to me, but I felt as if the world were made out of layers (kind of a Legoland effect) and that the layers which made me up were being taken away, absorbed into the couch that I managed to pick myself up and sit down on, etc. I gradually managed to calm myself down.

Second time I didn't get much, just had a mild layered feeling and some visual flashes.

Third time I saw my surroundings as buildings, again the layered feeling, which lasted awhile, even after I stood up and got a drink of water.

Meh. If you're into drugs, nothing wrong with trying it, but yeah, for the love of God don't mix. That shit is intense.

Taktix®|4.13.09 @ 3:33PM|#

Do Ohio cops pull people over for having NO2 cartridges too? Cause when I saw friends do it, it looked much like an intense whip-it.

(I would have done it myself, but they ran out and splitting it up doesn't work apparently)

phalkor|4.13.09 @ 3:34PM|#

I suppose there are no self-incriminating guidelines to using H&R. SWIM does not recommend Salvia unless you wish to explore the limits of sanity and perception.

Elemenope|4.13.09 @ 3:36PM|#

LMNOP - where did you learn all this stuff?

Accident of circumstance combined with curiosity. Three factors, really:

1. The mechanics of the brain and neurology in general have always been fascinating to me.

2. I tend to learn all I can about something as risky and profound as altering my mind with drugs before actually doing it, so I tend to know a great deal about substances I have tried or intend to try.

3. A large proportion of my friends in college were pharmacy students (the college I attended had a well-renowned Pharmacy doctorate program), and so I always had a ready resource to clarify things when I had questions.

i refuse to believe that lmnop is actually a secret experimental lab rat.

I appreciate that, phalkor. :) And you're right; there are many high-quality resources readily available on the subject. It did help to have some experts around for guidance, though.

|4.13.09 @ 3:37PM|#

Ah, nitrous... I had a friend in high school who worked at a Dairy Queen. He'd fill up balloons from the whipped cream machine and give them to us from the drive-thru window. He once came to a party with a garbage bag full of it. Oof.

|4.13.09 @ 3:48PM|#

Ah phalkor, many SWIY's helped me along the way. I doubt I will ever have a detailed enough understanding of the receptors, and brain chemistry to converse with medical people.

|4.13.09 @ 3:51PM|#

I spent two years at Johns Hopkins in the pre-med track, which helps with one's organic chemistry bona fides. But really, a little research online is all you need to know everything you need to know about various drugs.

He'd fill up balloons from the whipped cream machine and give them to us from the drive-thru window.

That's way better than the friend I had who would give us free food from the McDonald's he worked at.

Paul|4.13.09 @ 3:53PM|#

Dumbasses...

BRIAN|4.13.09 @ 3:53PM|#

How much is this new law going to cost tax payers to enforce?
If you live outside Ohio & are looking for great Salvia Divinorum,
I would recommend Club13.com
They offer flavored salvia in 7 different extracts strengths.

|4.13.09 @ 3:57PM|#

According to BRAIN's site, you can extract it into alcohol, but you have administer it sublingually.

|4.13.09 @ 4:01PM|#

Pardon my transient dyslexia, BRIAN.

Also, on a scale of 1-10, I put huffing Freon at about -13.

Greg N.|4.13.09 @ 4:10PM|#

Thank goodness we're banning more drugs.

dhex|4.13.09 @ 4:28PM|#

"It is...unpleasant, to drink that much cough syrup."

which is why god invented pharma grade dxm. :)

banning salvia is weird, but so is putting video of people taking it up on youtube. weirdness all around.

|4.14.09 @ 9:41AM|#

i am in agreement with Al Grand, the http://www.salviasociety.org owner who says salvia should be banned to minors. But let adults make their choice and scientists do their research.

|4.24.09 @ 8:03PM|#

Did salvia twice. The first time i thought I went permanently insane. The second time was a fit of laughter with the gravity thing someone else earlier mentioned, and was a much less terrifying experience. I also used much less of it the second time, knowing how it would be. I can almost describe it as like going into warp-speed while losing your mind. It's definitely strange, and short. Not something to do often. Also *totally* fucked up my coordination for about 10 minutes. I get panic attacks, so its definitely not the drug for me.