DOSE:		smoked	Salvia divinorum
		buccal	Salvia divinorum	(tincture)

BODY WEIGHT:

282 lb

Salvia, Why Can't I Quit You?... Seriously

Salvia divinorum is probably the least fun drug I've ever tried multiple times, for inexplicable reasons. By 2018, most people know Salvia is no one's idea of a party, yet I smoked a bit of unenhanced leaf a few months back from a 4 oz bag of the stuff I've had since 2015 or something. I think this is literally a lifetime supply of Salvia, since it's not something you bust out for nightly sessions. Shit man, if I smoke 5 bowls in a year it's been a busy one. Understand, I really do NOT enjoy this drug and don't know anyone who does or can fathom why I have such a big bag of it or why I'd want it to begin with. There's no easy answer, it's possibly that 4oz's was the minimum amount the ethnobotany site would ship out, which would be the truth, but why is it there at all, you see? Its like the Monkey's Paw from the old Poe story, no good ever comes from it, but I can't just throw the accursed thing away. There is still a mystery resonating from that giant bag of pure madness that lurks in my lock box. Why? What could someone possibly do with such a huge sack of dried and shredded Salvia leaf?

The first time I tried this awful drug that has put some spell on me was 2008 (at age 25) when my local headshop started selling enhanced leaf anywhere from 5x to 40x. I loved high powered drugs in my youth, so I shelled out for the 40x, ran home and got ready to smoke this stuff I'd heard was something like LSD, which I'd been in love with since I was younger than I care to admit. I'd tried mushrooms as well, morning glory tea, and had the misfortune to take 2C-E long before my head was ready for something like that. I was well on my way to becoming the drug snob I am now, so I figured Salvia deserved a day in court. It being legal threw me a bit and I was suspicious of the dank looking leaves I was putting in my old tobacco pipe (the term "legal high" was still some ways off) but I trusted the people who said it works as advertised, after all, they'd turned me onto Morning Glory Seed tea, which I also had a little trouble accepting as legit until I tried it.

So I began toking on the nasty tasting, blackish leaves. For a few minutes nothing, then something awfully weird started happening. I finished the bowl and proceeded to have one of the most bizarre trips I've ever had. The trees looked like a frozen YouTube video, and the shadows were...how can I put this? Pac Man Mouthing? Oh fuck that makes no sense, but neither does Salvia.

I finished that gram and for a long time thought I'd found something so weird I actually wanted no further doings with Salvia... then I got some more a few years later. I discovered online ethnobotany sites and went a little nuts, ordering amongst other things some Salvia divinorum in a tincture. This stuff was weird, it had to be taken buccally and the instructions said to leave it in for at least 20 minutes and to spit/swallow as little as possible. So I'm like Dizzy Gillespie with this gullet full of green saliva that I finally spat a little after the 15 minute mark. This was a terribly inefficient method of taking Salvia, the effect was barely noticeable, but did last a fair bit longer than smoking the leaf. A higher dose might've been interesting, but as it was my mouth was leaking from the sides trying to keep in what I took, never mind take more. The Salvia was suspended in grain alcohol too, makes you salivate all the more. I gave the tincture away to a friend who got largely the same result. He asked if I wanted it back, I told him to just throw it out. That's all the Salvia I'm gonna need in this lifetime, I says.

But wait, the spell is not lifted.

I was buying up ethnobotanicals like mad a few years back, Yohimbe, Yopo, Kava Kava, Amanita Muscaria, a couple others that I don't have much of an impression of like Wild Dagga, which didn't do anything as far as I can tell. Some were great like San Pedro, some were okay like Kratom, some were total shit like Blue Lotus...and wouldn't you know it, I got a big ol' bag of Salvia somewhere along the way.

This is unenhanced, natural leaf, and of the different ways I've taken Salvia, in its natural state seems to be the best. Its actually kind of charming in a way--it's still Salvia mind you, in the same way a snake is a snake no matter how many times it's been picked up and babied. I am not a fan of this stuff (I don't know if it has 'fans' per se), but I don't seem able to escape its strange lure either. The natural shit has at least a minimal amount of Cthulhu-esqe terror to it.

Exp Year: 2008 - 2018	ExpID: 112723
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 35
Published: Jan 20, 2023	Views: 280
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Unknown Context (20), Retrospective / Summary (11)