Scientists say hallucinogenic drug, apparently tried by Miley Cyrus, may have medical uses
Thousands of young adults have been showing up in Internet videos in recent years demonstrating the intense effects of salvia, a hallucinogenic drug used for centuries by Mexican shamans for spiritual healing. And in a video released Friday, pop star Miley Cyrus appears to be the latest.
While lawmakers in Maryland and other states have responded by banning or restricting the drug, Johns Hopkins researchers say the first scientific study on humans seems to show the brief mind alteration is not harmful — and salvia may eventually lead to new medicines.
"All kinds of decisions are being made about this drug, but it's so new on scene we have very little information about it," said Matthew W. Johnson, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study published online this month. "I'm interested in what it can tell us about the brain."
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Johnson is not recommending anyone use the drug, but he said there is a unique makeup to salvinorin A. That's the active ingredient in Salvia divinorum, an herb in the mint family often used in gardens. Tweaking the molecules eventually could lead to new treatments for addiction, pain and brain disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Other researchers have had the same idea about salvia, but until now studies have focused on animals. Johnson and his team lined up four healthy, drug-experienced people for a scientifically controlled experiment.
Subjects reclined in a chair in a supervised lab while they smoked the drug in increasing concentrations over 20 sessions for the study, which was published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. They rated the strength on a scale from 1 to 10.
The study, while small and in a tightly controlled environment, appeared to show that the drug could be surprisingly intense and disorienting — some rated the strength a 10. But the effects lasted only about 20 minutes and didn't cause blood pressure or heart rates to rise, and there was no apparent brain toxicity. Salvia also didn't appear addictive.
Johnson said salvia is unique because it targets the kappa opioid receptors in the brain, different from those targeted by addictive hallucinogens and opiates used to control pain, such as morphine and codeine.
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Thousands of young adults have been showing up in Internet videos in recent years demonstrating the intense effects of salvia, a hallucinogenic drug used for centuries by Mexican shamans for spiritual healing. And in a video released Friday, pop star Miley Cyrus appears to be the latest.
While lawmakers in Maryland and other states have responded by banning or restricting the drug, Johns Hopkins researchers say the first scientific study on humans seems to show the brief mind alteration is not harmful — and salvia may eventually lead to new medicines.
"All kinds of decisions are being made about this drug, but it's so new on scene we have very little information about it," said Matthew W. Johnson, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study published online this month. "I'm interested in what it can tell us about the brain."
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Johnson is not recommending anyone use the drug, but he said there is a unique makeup to salvinorin A. That's the active ingredient in Salvia divinorum, an herb in the mint family often used in gardens. Tweaking the molecules eventually could lead to new treatments for addiction, pain and brain disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Other researchers have had the same idea about salvia, but until now studies have focused on animals. Johnson and his team lined up four healthy, drug-experienced people for a scientifically controlled experiment.
Subjects reclined in a chair in a supervised lab while they smoked the drug in increasing concentrations over 20 sessions for the study, which was published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. They rated the strength on a scale from 1 to 10.
The study, while small and in a tightly controlled environment, appeared to show that the drug could be surprisingly intense and disorienting — some rated the strength a 10. But the effects lasted only about 20 minutes and didn't cause blood pressure or heart rates to rise, and there was no apparent brain toxicity. Salvia also didn't appear addictive.
Johnson said salvia is unique because it targets the kappa opioid receptors in the brain, different from those targeted by addictive hallucinogens and opiates used to control pain, such as morphine and codeine.
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