Is Salvia a Miracle Drug?
"Salvia is a totally unique compound, unlike opioids and other hallucinogens," Mendelson says. "We've never seen anything like it before."
Even ten years ago, scientists had paid little attention to salvia. That changed when researchers isolated the active compound in salvia and discovered that it was an extremely powerful short-acting hallucinogen with no known side effects or addictive properties, Mendelson says.
In addition, salvia differs from other psychoactive substances in interacting with specific receptors in the brain that the other drugs don't affect. This unique physiological reaction makes salvia attractive to researchers.
Mendelson says that salvia research could lead to drugs that activate the specific brain receptors engaged by the substance, and block pain without risk of addiction. (Little is currently known about these particular receptors.) Salvia might even help unlock mysteries related to Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
"We have been watching with interest and concern the moving drumbeat toward regulations," says Dr. Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Griffiths says that criminalizing salvia could hurt research by forcing research labs to follow burdensome regulations similar to those associated with handling cocaine, heroin, and other controlled substances. "We would anticipate that if salvia were scheduled it would increase research costs and place undue red tape on the drug, and delay research," says Griffiths, who is applying for a research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of salvia on humans.
Other proposals by medical researchers seeking NIH funding would study salvia in connection with drug dependency, HIV, hepatitis B and C, and depression.
"Salvia is a totally unique compound, unlike opioids and other hallucinogens," Mendelson says. "We've never seen anything like it before."
Even ten years ago, scientists had paid little attention to salvia. That changed when researchers isolated the active compound in salvia and discovered that it was an extremely powerful short-acting hallucinogen with no known side effects or addictive properties, Mendelson says.
In addition, salvia differs from other psychoactive substances in interacting with specific receptors in the brain that the other drugs don't affect. This unique physiological reaction makes salvia attractive to researchers.
Mendelson says that salvia research could lead to drugs that activate the specific brain receptors engaged by the substance, and block pain without risk of addiction. (Little is currently known about these particular receptors.) Salvia might even help unlock mysteries related to Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
"We have been watching with interest and concern the moving drumbeat toward regulations," says Dr. Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Griffiths says that criminalizing salvia could hurt research by forcing research labs to follow burdensome regulations similar to those associated with handling cocaine, heroin, and other controlled substances. "We would anticipate that if salvia were scheduled it would increase research costs and place undue red tape on the drug, and delay research," says Griffiths, who is applying for a research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of salvia on humans.
Other proposals by medical researchers seeking NIH funding would study salvia in connection with drug dependency, HIV, hepatitis B and C, and depression.
