Salvia Divinorum - After-effects - Therapeutic Potential

Therapeutic Potential

Aside from individual reports of self-medicated use in the treatment of depression, research suggests that Salvia divinorum, in line with the studied effects of other κ-opioid agonists, may have further therapeutic potential.

Thomas Prisinzano, assistant professor of medicinal and natural products chemistry at the University of Iowa, has suggested that salvia may help treat cocaine addiction:

You can give a rat free access to cocaine, give them free access to Salvinorin A, and they stop taking cocaine. —Masis 2007-02-28 (US Media)

Professor Bryan L. Roth, director of the National Institute on Mental Health's Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, has said:

We think that drugs derived from the active ingredient could be useful for a range of diseases: Alzheimer's, depression, schizophrenia, chronic pain and even AIDS or HIV. —Viren 2007-08-23 (US Media)

Clinical pharmacologist John Mendelsohn has also said:

There may be some derivatives that could be made that would actually be active against cancer and HIV At the present time, there are a lot of therapeutic targets that have many people excited.

An ABC news story which reported on this went on to suggest "the excitement could vanish overnight if the federal government criminalized the sale or possession of salvia, as the Drug Enforcement Agency is considering doing right now." A proposed Schedule I classification would mean (among other things) that there's no "currently accepted medical use" as far as the United States government is concerned. Scientists worry that such legislation would restrict further work. Mendelsohn said scheduling salvia could scare away a great deal of research and development into salvia's therapeutic promise.