Benzos Antidote For Benzo OD - Sage Tea (Thujone) GABA Antagonist

[muie]

Although thujone is toxic, the highest concentration of all plants is not Wormwood but actually Sage (salvia officinalis) . Thujone is a GABAa receptor antagonist, meaning it acts on GABA receptors the same way naloxone works on opiate receptors, resulting in a blocking action.

Toxic as is, it cannot be that toxic since there is a rather large population that drinks the Sage tea on occasions for its medicinal properties.

I've had it in tea and in my experience it acts as a stimulant, in that antagonizes GABA receptors but I didn't notice any psychedelic effects even when taken in combination with alcohol, though only a few trials not exceeding 4-5.

 

[Oakstone]

Huh. From everything I've seen, it's insoluble in water (and gets destroyed at a fairly low temperature as well, I think). So maybe it's something else in the sage? (Or perhaps just placebo.)

 

[Hodor]

I doubt sage tea contains enough Thujone to produce anything above a threshold effect, and even that would probably require you to chug obscene amounts.

And calling it an "Antidote for benzo ODs" is pretty irresponsible IMO. Even if there was enough Thujone in sage tea to produce significant GABA-antagonistic effects, it would likely still do more harm than good because GABA antagonists need to be carefully titrated while monitoring the patient's vital signs. This ain't Narcan where you can just administer several doses in a short time because the worst that could happen would be precipitated withdrawal - overshoot the optimum dose of a GABA antagonist, and the patient is going to suffer a potentially life-threatening seizure.