General Question

lisaj89's avatar

Have you heard of the weed-like substance that's legal in many states?

Asked by lisaj89 (720points) May 30th, 2009

It’s called Salvia and is suposed to have effects similar to pot. Me and some friends were at the beach this weekend and came across some for sale. It was at a pretty reputable smoke shop, so a couple of my friends decided to buy a small bag. They were expecting crazy hallucinations (explained by the woman who sold it to us) and only ended up with a regular high. Have you ever tried it? Is it legal/illegal in your state?

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33 Answers

hug_of_war's avatar

Illegal here in Ohio, they passed legislation on it in January

chelseababyy's avatar

Absolutely I smoked it a few times, and you have to smoke a lot to see anything different than you’d normally see. The high doesn’t last that long, but it is pretty nice if you smoke a bunch of it. Here’s some info.

The SALVIA Experiential Rating Scale

Level – 1 “S” stands for SUBTLE effects. A feeling that “something” is happening, although it is difficulty to say just what. Relaxation and increased sensual appreciation may be noted. This mild level is useful for meditation and may facilitate sexual pleasure.

Level – 2 “A” stands for ALTERED perception. Colors and textures are more pronounced. Appreciation of music may be enhanced. Space may appear of greater or lesser depth than is usual. But visions do not occur at this level. Thinking becomes less logical, and more playful; short-term memory difficulties may be noted.

Level – 3 “L” stands for LIGHT visionary state. Closed-eye visuals (clear imagery with eyes closed: fractal patterns, vine-like and geometric patterns, visions of objects and designs). The imagery is often two dimensional. If open-eyed visual effects occur, these are usually vague and fleeting. At this level, phenomena similar to the hypnagogic phenomena that some people experience at sleep onset occur. At this level, visions are experienced as “eye candy” but are not confused with reality.

Level – 4 “V” stands for VIVID visionary state. Complex three-dimensional realistic appearing scenes occur. Sometimes voices may be heard. With eyes open, contact with consensual reality will not be entirely lost, but when you close your eyes you may forget about consensus reality and enter completely into a dreamlike scene. Shamanistic journeying to other lands—foreign or imaginary; encounters with beings (entities, spirits) or travels to other ages may occur. You may even live the life of another person. At this level you have entered the shaman’s world. Or if you prefer: you are in “dream time.” With eyes closed, you experience fantasies (dream like happenings with a story line to them). So long as your eyes are closed you may believe they are really occurring. This differs from the “eye candy” closed-eye imagery, of level 3.

Level – 5 “I” stands for IMMATERIAL existence. At this level one may no longer be aware of having a body. Consciousness remains and some thought processes are still lucid, but one becomes completely involved in inner experience and looses all contact with consensual reality. Individuality may be lost; one experiences merging with God/dess, mind, universal consciousness, or bizarre fusions with other objects—real or imagined (e.g. experiences such as merging with a wall or piece of furniture). At this level it is impossible to function in consensual reality, but unfortunately some people do not remain still but move around in this befuddled state. For this reason a sitter is essential to ensure the safety of someone voyaging to these deep levels. To the person experiencing this the phenomenon may be terrifying or exceedingly pleasant; but to an outside observer the individual may appear confused or disoriented.

Level 6 – “A” stands for AMNESIC effects. At this stage, either consciousness is lost, or at least one is unable to later recall what one had experienced. The individual may fall, or remain immobile or thrash around; somnambulistic behavior may occur. Injuries can be sustained without pain being felt; on awakening, the individual will have no recollection of what he/she did, experienced, or said in level 6. People cannot recall what they experience in this very deep trance state. This is not a desirable level, because nothing can latter be recalled of the experience.

ABoyNamedBoobs03's avatar

yeah for about 15 minutes you forget you exist… pretty intense body high too… not a fan. I don’t really like getting fucked up, just a little buzzed here and there is fine for me.

lisaj89's avatar

Great info, chelseababyy! That explains it then- I’m pretty sure they just bought level one (the cheapest).

chelseababyy's avatar

@lisaj89 Thanks :D Yeah, it all depends where you get it and how much you smoke, and what type it is!

asmonet's avatar

Salvia is in no way similar to pot, except for the fact that it can be smoked. The high is not similar, and lasts minutes – not hours. If your friends smoked it, and claimed they got a ‘regular high’ like weed. They lied.

I have tried it, as well as almost everyone I know.
I seem to be one of the few that get almost nothing out of it. The first time, the walls in my rooms seemed to be breathing with me, for some reason I found it comforting. After it was over it occurred to me that breathing walls are actually quite terrifying. Then I laughed about it and moved on.

Since then, I’ve tried it six more times. With zero effect.

It quite often has absolutely no effect on the user, even with the most potent Salvia available.

bonus's avatar

@lisaj89 I love how you use the phrase “pretty reputable smoke shop” as if that weren’t a contradiction of terms.

Randy's avatar

My first try was with 10X. I felt NOTHING. Determined, I bought it again and again trying to get an effective high. After several attempts, I finally achieved, what @chelseababyy described as, level 3. I saw patterns similar to what you would see in a kaleidoscope on a batch of 30X I bought at a head shop about 45 minutes from my home town. It was cool, but nowhere near worth the trouble and money I went through to find a batch that worked.

EDIT: And it’s NOTHING like pot. I’m not a fan of pot, but if salvia was more, for lack of a better word, reliable, I would do it more often. Comparing weed and salvia is like comparing apples and oranges.

gailcalled's avatar

Put “salvia” in the Fluther search box and you will get ten hits on page one, alons.

Ria777's avatar

@lisaj89, don’t go to Fluther to ask this kind of question. (by “this kind of question” I mean something relatively esoteric.) Google it or go to Wikipedia. you will find dozens of informative pages.

I do feel bothered that you just had a look and decided to get high on it, rather than taking it seriously (and I mean “take it seriously” in both senses of the word). idiots taking salvia and uploading the results to Youtube have gotten negative publicity which has led to bans, ruining it for the rest of us.

Ria777's avatar

I went back to make my original response less harsh and then found I could not edit it. I may have assumed too much about you.

if you have a question about psychedelics, you can almost always get the information you look for by going to erowid.org or failing that by Googling +legality, +Salvia, +states or some other focussed Google search.

bonus's avatar

@Ria777 You really have no place dictating what kind of questions are asked on here. Please put a little more thought into using etiquette next time.

Ria777's avatar

I did not dictate. I made a suggestion.

bonus's avatar

@Ria777 A “suggestion” is not a command. Maybe it is the way you worded it that rubs me the wrong way. Nothing personal, I suppose.

asmonet's avatar

@Ria777: “don’t go to Fluther to ask this kind of question”

That’s a command, darling.

lisaj89's avatar

Ria777, who said I got high on anything? I was only a spectator. Also, not that I need to explain myself to you, or anybody else for that matter, but the reason I went to Fluther is to hear personal experiences from normal people, not only dumb kids who decide to post their videos on the internet. I have watched the Youtube videos since, but before this weekend I had never heard of the substance. Excuse me for not being up to date on the latest drug craze!

gailcalled's avatar

The first fluther page of many for the salvia question: Here

El_Cadejo's avatar

Salvia divinorum is absolutely nothing like marijuana.

i cant smoke salvia without having at least a level 5, even if its only 5x salvia.

bonus's avatar

Just remembered. There are a number of videos on YouTube showing people getting high on Salvia. Personally, I don’t think it seems like an appealing high. I have tried a lot of highs but that one seems a little like PCP or huffing paint. Don’t really care for the extreme disorientation with any drug and it only lasts for what seems like seconds. Seems like you’d wind up wanting to suck on the pipe all day like a crackhead. No thanks.

I am sure someone will get upset that I have said this but, please, don’t. It’s just my personal opinion.

El_Cadejo's avatar

@bonus “Seems like you’d wind up wanting to suck on the pipe all day like a crackhead” you couldnt be more wrong. If youve ever done salvia youd quickly realize its a once in a blue moon type of thing.

bonus's avatar

@uberbatman I disagree. I mean, at the time you have it, if you have little self-control, you would be sucking on it like a crackpipe. Of course, it is not something you would become addicted to like crack but that fiending even for a short period of time would be disturbing to me. I was once at a very wild party camping out at Joshua Tree and the hosts had a tank of nitrous there. They handed me a balloon full of it and told me to inhale and I did and my voice got deep and things were briefly kind of digital and headrushy, I guess. I didn’t get it. As I was trying to sleep these others were out there all night, hitting the nitrous repeatedly. Like a crackpipe. I just think the fleeting highs lead to that kind of behavior. I have seen it with people who like to huff or snort too.

El_Cadejo's avatar

Ive done salvia before, quite a few times actually. It takes to much out of your and doesnt have a very pleasurable effect. Its overly intense. No one wants that constantly. Not like weed where your just stoned and happy. Nitrous is different, it gives a pleasurable buzz for a couple seconds but isnt overly intense like salvia.

bonus's avatar

So, you smoke it once and quit? During a session? Then, I stand corrected (I figured I would).

Why do it if it is not pleasurable?

Ria777's avatar

@bonus, why don’t you actually read about the effects of salvia before holding forth upon it. you can learn pretty much nothing from a video of someone taking it. I have already said in this thread that you can get better information elsewhere than here. that advice goes quadruple for almost anything you can find on Youtube.

bonus's avatar

@Ria777 I am not sure what is up with your attitude but this is the 2nd time I am calling you on it. I am not “holding forth upon it” (whatever exactly that is intended to mean). If you read my comments more closely, I am having a dialogue about it and I had a specific point to make. @uberbatman I believe, has set me straight and I have acknowledged that. You cannot negate that it is a short fleeting high. I was making an observation that I didn’t think that would be pleasurable to me. This really has nothing to do with you. So, please, please, please do not get defensive. It is just drug talk here. Sanctimony within such a context becomes asinine.

El_Cadejo's avatar

@bonus its hard to explain to someone who’s never done it. You will see some interesting things, and it will take you on a journey, its just the side effects are crap and far outweigh the experience itself. It also has a tendency to get dark. Its an interesting place to go if your in the right mood though. Its also not a social drug like alcohol or marijuana so that also takes away a lot of the allure to it. You really dont want to be around anyone doing this as it will probably send the trip in a bad direction. Its best to be done with just you and a sitter.

bonus's avatar

@uberbatman Thanks. That makes sense, actually. I have experienced that feeling with other drugs. Also, moments later, the exact opposite. Don’t get me wrong, I would probably try it if the opportunity came up…

El_Cadejo's avatar

@bonus i get what your saying. I was kind of like that when i first discovered salvia, but after the first couple times it starts to take its toll on you and you realize this really isnt something you want to be doing all the time.

Yea, im not super fond of it, but id definitely try it. Its an interesting experience to say the least lol. Who knows, you may be lucky and be one of the people that just finds everything insanely funny on salvia. :P

Randy's avatar

@bonus There are also other factors that would deter one from wanting to constantly smoking salvia. In my case it’s just not worth it because when I smoke it, there is less than a 50/50 chance that anything will happen. That can make the experience pricy and so it becomes more of a “when I have money to burn and nothing better to do” type activity. Also, as a psychedelic, salvia can become so intense that it can take you completely out of your actual environment. For example, I witnessed my friend think something was chasing him and he literally ran from it, falling and tripping over all the furniture in the room. With extremely addictive drugs like crack or meth, the user can still function (not always well, but you get the idea) in society while feeling their high.

bonus's avatar

I was not suggesting one would want to smoke it all the time. I was suggesting that one might huff on a bag in a crackhead like manner because of the short high. You know, the whole chasing the dragon, nothing is ever enough syndrome.

I am no longer suggesting any such thing as you all have persuaded me that it is too intense to do that way.

Randy's avatar

@bonus Ah… I see now. I see where I should have used context clues to figure that out as well. My mistake. But yes, it’s a rare substance were, after using, your more than happy to pass it along to a friend or save for next time.

El_Cadejo's avatar

@Randy exactly. Every time i do salvia i completely leave this world. I see nothing and hear nothing of reality. Not something you want to do all the time lol.

@bonus as with any other psychedelic you really have to be in the right mind set to do them or your going to have a horrible experience. Knowing that, most people wont just smoke salvia all the time. Its a once in a blue moon type of thing like i said above.

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