The substance looks innocuous - finely crushed into a powder that could just as easily be your mother's turmeric, save for the suspicious-looking baggie it comes in.
It's sold in various concentrations, the least of which might give you a tingle and the most of which would undoubtedly transport you to another realm within your mind.
It's legal; potentially dangerous, reportedly enlightening, "a trip."
Salvia divinorum - the new high, sold at your local corner store - is a distant relative of the sage mint plant that grows wild in the Sierra Mazatec region of Mexico.
"The drug's active ingredient is salvinorin A, chemically unique from and unrelated to any other psychedelic compound currently known," said botanist Richard Dufresne of North Carolina.
Dufresne, who received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry, now collects plants of all kinds and studies their physical and chemical properties.
"Salvia interests me, because of its psychotropic properties, but also because when it's trying its best to bloom it's really quite incredible," he said. Dufresne describes the flower as an "electric blue and violet - just brilliant."
Dufresne said salvia is, from time to time, chewed and absorbed through the mucous membranes in the mouth, but "the stomach's gastric juices neutralize the active ingredients." The most popular method of ingestion involves smoking a concentrated extract of the leaf.
On the Drag, Pipes Plus owner Kent Walker, who began carrying salvia two years ago, reports an average of 20 to 30 customers a week who come in for salvia.
"That's a pretty high number coming in asking for one specific thing," Walker said.
The drug's popularity has increased on campus as well.
"My visual field went jagged; everything felt like it had a harsh edge to it. Lost a little bit of muscle control, almost like being drunk," said former UT student Brad Bryant of his experience with salvia.
"I thought I'd fallen into reality from what I'd always thought was reality ... like my past life had been an illusion, and I was in some after-life," said another student, who asked not to be identified. "It was like I had eaten the fruit of knowledge - of good and evil."
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency accepts salvia as a leaf that was used by the Mazatec shamans for "ritual divination and healing." Dufresne said that it was used to induce a hallucinogenic state similar to a spiritual trance. Dufresne theorizes that because the substance is chemically different from other scheduled (illegal) drugs, it requires an investigation. He said that a scarcity of toxicological studies involving the plant extract has also prevented its regulation by the government.
"Its vibrant colors are kinesthetically conducive to meditation," Dufresne said.
While the plant itself is ancient, salvia extract is relatively new, manifesting itself in the U.S. in the early 1990s.
Extracts generally come in varying degrees of potency, each indicating how powerful the extract is relative to the untouched leaf. Products range from 5x - five times more concentrated than the unfortified leaf - to 20x or even 40x.
Daniel Siebert, ethnobotanist and author of "Divine Sage" - a book on salvia divinorum - was the first person to identify salvinorin A as the principal psychotropic ingredient in salvia. Siebert's resources on the plant warn that varying concentrations of extract pose a definite threat to uneducated users.
Siebert maintains that the lack of consistency in producing the extract causes users to underestimate the potency of the substance. One salvia dealer's 5x can be another's 20x. The dose is so small and insignificant-looking that users tend to take more than the safe amount. Also, the inability of users to measure out the proper dose - less than one-tenth of a gram - leads them to over-estimate the amount of salvia necessary to achieve their desired high.
Dufresne seconded his colleague. "My problem with the concentrates is the dosage. The people selling it don't know how much is in [each dose], the people buying it can't measure it out and don't know where it's from," he said. "And if you take too big of a dose, you're going to have a very negative trip."
As an ex-chemist, Dufresne is interested in the physiological effects of salvia.
"Different chemicals activate different receptors in the brain. The salvinorin A in salvia affects the kappa opioid receptors," Dufresne said.
Because the targeted kappa-opioid system is so obscure, the long-term effects of salvia have yet to be discovered. Its recent spike in popularity, however, is drawing the public eye and spurring further experimentation.
According to a 2004 study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, commonly expressed reasons for salvia use are curiosity, the exploration of altered consciousness, meditation, the pursuit of personal growth and the attainment of spiritual or mystical knowledge.
The inebriation caused by salvia is reportedly different from that of any other substance. This is expected, as salvia works differently from cannabis or other serotonergic hallucinogens like LSD.
The study found that the high derived from salvia lasts an average of five to seven minutes at its peak. Upon ingestion, the drug's effects are felt almost instantly, and a few minutes later, users report coming back to consciousness.
Various lingering effects from the high include increased insight, improved mood, calmness, strange thoughts, dizziness, sweatiness and increased self-confidence.
In rare instances, users have experienced extended bouts of anxiety following intoxication.
Within the five-minute zenith, it seems that every user's experience has been fairly unique, with only a few common threads on each level of potency.
"It isn't for everyone," Walker, owner of Pipes Plus said.
"For five minutes I couldn't move," said Pipes Plus employee Savannah Slayton. "My mind didn't feel like anything was wrong, but I was paralyzed. Nobody had told me what would happen."
Students have reported a varying level of effects. "I didn't know I was on the drug, I just felt really comfortable, and I was laughing. My friend was surrounded by a layer of yellow fives," said a freshman who asked not to be named. "Then it really hit me. I thought I was in this sandy area, and I encountered a darker area of sand that I thought was Velcro. I was stuck in this Velcro."
Other users report a host of other experiences.
"My friend, when he does it, his arms go limp and he drools on himself a little bit," said hotel management junior Elsa Shaughnessy. "He's laughing so hard, he sounds like a donkey, and afterwards, it's so funny to hear him talk about what was going on. He's like 'the walls were forming a pyramid and closing in on me!'"
And while some find the drug frightening and unpleasant, results from the UC -Berkeley study show that 75 percent of first-time salvia users would try it again.
Shaughnessy herself reported a common reverse tolerance to the drug upon her first use.
"There was no effect the first time," she said. "The second time, I took half a hit and started laughing so hard, I blew the rest of it out of the pipe. Everything was runny and looked like water colors. I was seeing things that weren't there."
According to Dufresne, the scientific community is concerned that recreational use of salvia will cause it to be banned and thus preclude further research of its properties.
"I don't sell it myself," Dufresne said. "I think 'recreational drug use' is slightly oxymoronic."
The DEA apparently agrees. The Office of Diversion Control places salvia under "Drugs and Chemicals of Concern," claiming that it has no approved medical use in the United States. Salvia is also considered "illicit" when "chewed or smoked to induce illusions and hallucinations."
It is strictly illegal only in Delaware, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma and other states have pending legislation on control of the substance.
"From what I understand, it's illegal for recreational use, but can be grown ornamentally in certain states," Dufresne said.
When asked why Texas had opted to keep salvia legal thus far, Houston Diversion Control agent Ray D'Allessio said, "that's a good question. I can't speak for the state legislature or explain why a drug is or isn't controlled."
"Salvia's use seems to be most prevalent on liberal college campuses, though," he added.
Bryant, however, is one of many young adults whose first experience with salvia wasn't in college.
"I had a cup of coffee in my hand when I smoked it, and my friends didn't tell me to put it down. I spilled it. I remember being very agitated that I couldn't make it stop, and I just had to wait," Bryant said. "It's a state of mind people have never been put in before, so it can definitely make some people uncomfortable."
As salvia continues to rise in popularity among young adults, the protocol of its use becomes increasingly vital to its influence. Users claim that having trusted and sober friends "sit" for them has shielded them from danger for the few minutes that consciousness is lost.
"Serious problems occur when there's nobody to sit for you," Dufresne said. "You need someone to make sure you don't walk into traffic, stare at the sun, trip over furniture and break a leg."
"Not being able to see what's actually happening and seeing things that aren't there makes me feel a little too insane," Shaughnessy said. "But some of my friends love it. It's different for everybody, really."
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