Triggering (Substances): Salvia Divinorum (mexican tripping weed) Addictive potential

[knexi]

Hi there
Recently I Brought some Salvia so I could try it out.

I found in very low doses it almost seems quite addictive and I think i had an urge to try it again for no reason.

But then in higher dosages it wasn't addictive at all.

Salvia Divinorum has no almost zero addictive potential according to all the research i have carried out.

Has anyone else found anything unusual or similar to this?

[Guile]

Depends on how it interacts with your chemistry. For example, one highly toxic chemical, when administered in extremely low doses, and at low temperatures, allowed scientists to essentially stop all signs of a heart beat in lab rats for nearly six hours, then upon raising their body temperature, they "came back to life" with no ill effects. Stuff can work funny depending on dosage.

[knexi]

wow amazing. yea that may be the case. Thanks for the reply

Usually salvia divinorum is never taken in very low doses so no effects have been discussed.

[david2357]

But I have not tried it.

You must remember: an urge to try it again is NOT the same as addiction. Addiction is basically the feeling that : if you were forced to never have the drug again, your entire world would crumble. Its an obsession. addiction is not in the repetition of a drug, but instead its when you cant stop even when its ruining your life. You cannot become addicted to salvia in the true sense of addiction.

It sounds to me like the lower doses gave you a feeling of "wow, i want to do this again, to see if this leads to any greater experience and psychedelic learning; lets see where this takes me" ; while higher doses may be more like " ok, i have experienced this; that was a bit too much experience for one sitting".


The neurobiological basis for addiction is thought to be stimulation of dopamine receptors in the reward pathways of the brain. Heroin is addictive because its main metabolite, morphine, stimulates u-opioid receptors in the brain (the same receptor that beta endorphin binds to ) , which increases dopamine release in the pleasure centers of the brain.

Cocaine does this by binding to dopamine transporters (which are proteins on the pre-synaptic neuron (the neuron that sends the message to the next nerve) that remove dopamine from the synapse. By binding to the transporters (which act like a dopamine vacuum cleaner) , they can no longer remove dopamine from the synapse (like a clogged vaccum cleaner).

Meth does the same thing as cocaine , only more powerful. It binds to the transporters too, but instead of clogging the transporters like cocaine does, meth reverses the transporters and forces a surge of dopamine to be released into the synapses. It converts the transporters from being a dopamine vacuumer, to a dopamine pump that forces more dopamine to be released.



Now salvia is unlikely to be addictive. Why? Salvinorin A stimulates K-opioid receptors. Now the word opioid makes one think of heroin, but not so fast: the effects of heroin are from stimulation of the u-opioid receptor, while the effects of salvia are mediated by the k-opioid receptor ( a completely different receptor). unlike the u-opioid receptor, k-opioid receptor activation actually DECREASES reward system response to various drugs. Which is one reason why ibogaine (which also stimulate k-opioid receptors) has anti-addictive effects. In fact, K-opioid receptor activation can even cause dysphoria (a bad feeling) when stimulated , which is why you don't feel the urge to do it again when you take a large dose. While in a smaller dose , your feeling of "this is interesting" makes you not feel the dysphoria , and hence, want to do it again. But that isn't true addiction, but instead its more akin to that feeling of wanting to do something that you found exciting again.

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