Salvia Legal Status - Where is Salvia Legal and Which States have Banned Salvia

Main Article: Legal status of Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is legal in most countries and, within the United States, legal in the majority of States. However, some politicians have called for its prohibition. Most of these proposals have not made it into law, with motions having failed, stalled or otherwise died, for example in the United Kingdom, at national level in the United States, and at more local level within States such as Alaska, Illinois, Oregon and Wyoming. Some recent bills are still at the proposal stage.

A reason for Salvia's mostly favorable legal status so far is that there has been little evidence to suggest that its use is problematic. Salvia divinorum is understood to be nontoxic and nonaddictive. Despite this, countries such as Australia (the first country to ban it) and a few American states have created anti-Salvia laws. Some politicians have argued that Salvia effects are "LSD-Like" and that this alone is sufficient grounds for prohibition. Many Salvia media stories also headline with comparisons to LSD. However, while LSD and Salvia's active constituent salvinorin A may have comparative potencies, in the sense that both can produce their effects with low dosage amounts, they are otherwise quite different. LSD is a synthesized drug not found in nature whereas salvinorin occurs naturally in plant form. The two substances are not chemically similar or related. They are ingested in different ways. They produce different effects, which manifest themselves over different timescales. The effects of Salvia when smoked typically last for only a few minutes as compared to LSD, whose effects can persist for 8-10 hours. Media story references typically do not report this significant difference in timescale and in particular do not mention Salvia's much shorter duration of effect.

Some arguments against Salvia made by politicians have been of a preventative or imitative nature. Senator Randy Christmann (R) stated - "we need to stop this before it gets to be a huge problem not after it gets to be a huge problem" and Assemblyman Jack Conners (D) argued -"Salvia divinorum use may not be a runway epidemic, but it certainly is a phenomenon that warrants attention. We should take preventive steps now to prevent wholesale problems later on…" In October 2005 MP John Mann raised an ultimately unsuccessful Early Day Motion calling for Salvia divinorum to be banned in the UK, saying - "The Australians have clearly found a problem with it. There's obviously a risk in people taking it."

Opponents of such prohibitive measures argue that this is due to an inherent prejudice and a particular cultural bias rather than an actual balance of evidence, pointing out inconsistencies in attitudes toward other more toxic and addictive drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. While not objecting to some form of legal control, in particular with regard to the sale to minors or sale of enhanced high-strength extracts, most Salvia proponents otherwise argue against more prohibitive measures. Some countries and States such as Missouri have imposed the strictest Schedule I or equivalent classification against Salvia divinorum even in its natural and untreated form.

Those advocating consideration of Salvia divinorum’s potential for beneficial use in a modern context argue that more could be learned from Mazatec culture, where Salvia is not really associated with notions of drug taking at all and it is rather considered as a spiritual sacrament. In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen. Other entheogenic plants with continuing traditions principally of spiritual use include peyote (and other psychoactive cacti), iboga, virola, ayahuasca (an admixture of plants containing DMT + MAOI), and various types of psychoactive fungi. US legislation specifically allows two of these to be used in a spiritual context. The Native American Church is allowed to use peyote and Uniao do Vegetal (or UDV) is permitted ayahuasca.Although not consistently granted (varying from state to state), the principal grounds for such concessions are constitutional, with further grounds following from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

There have not been any publicized prosecutions recorded under any Salvia laws. Legislation may prove difficult to police. The plant has a nondescript appearance; the leaves are not distinctive and it does not have a distinctive odor like other illicit plants such as cannabis. Salvia divinorum looks like and can be grown as an ordinary houseplant without the need of special equipment such as hydroponics or high-power lights.