One in Ten British Students Admit to Taking Salvia

November 15, 2012

November 15, 2012 One in Ten British Students Admit to Taking Salvia

According to a recent British survey, Salvia divinorum has been tried by almost one in ten university students.

The University Drug Culture Survey, which was carried out by student research company The Beans Group, looked into the prevalence of both illegal and legal drug use among university students.
One in four students at UK universities had tried legal highs, and of these respondents 39 per cent admitted to having tried salvia. Salvia is currently unscheduled in the UK.

According to Google Trends, Salvia is becoming increasingly less popular, possibly due to the rise of other (synthetic) legal highs over the past years.

Adam Harvey, a fourth year biology student at the University of Edinburgh, told The Student, “Salvia’s very easy to get a hold of, most of the dodgy shops with bongs in the windows sell it, in a variety of strengths.”

Speaking about his own experiences with the drug, he continued, “I’d read a bit about it and I was pretty sure the risks of one-off use couldn’t be too high considering its legality. His experience:

“Roughly ten seconds after inhaling I passed out and the hallucinations began. I was convinced I was a tree, with thousands of people crawling around inside me, which was extremely itchy and uncomfortable. As I slowly came back round and realised where I was, a euphoric sense of relief washed over me and – wiping the dribble from my chin – I started giggling uncontrollably. I only really felt normal again a good hour afterwards. Not the best.”