Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum, the sage of the diviners, is a plant in the mint family known for its short-lived psychoactive effects when its leaves, or extracts made from them, are smoked, chewed or drunk as a tea. The leaves contain the potent compound salvinorin A. Its native habitat is the cloud forest of the isolated Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it grows in shady, moist places. It grows to over a metre, with hollow square stems and white flowers with violet calyxes. Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of the plant to bring on visions during spiritual healing sessions. In their rituals they use only freshly harvested leaves, crushing 20 to 80 or more for a drink or chewing a large number, and they see the plant as an incarnation of the Virgin Mary. In smaller amounts it is used as a diuretic and for diarrhoea, anaemia, headaches and rheumatism. It is legal in some countries, but over half of US states have criminalised it.