Salvia is a popular landscaping plant familiar to gardeners throughout the US and around. This common plant, also known as sage, is a member of the mint family. However, there is a less well-known type of salvia, called Salvia divinorum that has been used for many years by shamans in Mexico to help during religious healing ceremonies.
Salvia divinorum grows in the Sierra Mazateca, an isolated mountainous region of the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is found in the cloud forest of the mountain range. The flower can grow up to over three feet tall. The plant’s leaves grow to between four and twelve inches long. Salvia divinorum rarely flowers, but when it does, the petals are white with a violet cup attaching them to the stem. The plant usually flowers during the cool periods between September and May.
Salvia divinorum was introduced to the outside world and classified after the 1930s
The Salvia divinorum plant was introduced to the outside world in 1939 by American anthropologist Jean Bassett Johnson, who was studying Mazatec shamanism at that time. Botanists have had difficulty classifying the plant. They were unable to determine whether it is a hybrid or a cultigen, that is, a man-made plant. For many years after the plant was identified, botanists were unable to study specimens because the Mazatec shamans refused to divulge the locations in which the plant grew. Finally, in the 1960s, botanists were able to study specimens, but the plant’s origin and history are still uncertain today.
Several states have classified Salvia divinorum as a Schedule I substance
Ethnobotanist Daniel Siebert was instrumental in attempting to prevent the classification of the medicinal herb by Congress as a Schedule I drug of the Controlled Substances Act. However, in
the past five years, several states have taken steps to classify Salvia divinorum as a Schedule I substance or a dangerous drug. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin have all passed laws classifying the herb as a Schedule I substance. Several other states are considering similar legislation.
States that haven’t classified the plant as a Schedule I substance still have enacted laws prohibiting its distribution to minors. These states include California, Maine and Minnesota. Other states have considered the matter in their legislatures, but have not enacted laws concerning the use of Salvia divinorum. |
