by Melissa Smith | Co-editor in Chief
Senior Sergio Calderon glances at the floor, pondering on the stories he has heard about acquaintances taking the legal drug, Salvia, and even gets uncomfortable at the thought.
“I heard that it would make you see things and stuff, but it made [someone I know] kind of sick. Whenever people do stuff like that, it just makes them sick and freak out,” he explains.
Salvia is a legal synthetic drug, which can be bought from specialty stores. Although, just because it’s legal does not necessarily mean it won’t harm the human body.
“What salvia can do: I know it’s very similar to ‘pot’, marijuana…” biology teacher Oscar Velasquez explains, then proceeds, “It has similar effects, but can be a lot more damaging especially to the neurons and nerve cells brain cells. I’ve heard in some cases depending on the individual it can cause seizures as well as other effects of the physiology of the human body.”
Senior Raquel Kimm states that even though you can have an interesting out of body experience, it is never worth the risks.
“Drugs like that just make you make bad decisions. Socially or even physically you can endanger yourself.”
Since it’s passed through the government, it becomes over processed with all sorts of unhealthy chemicals, which aren’t even mentioned on the drug facts.
“It is just kind of a majority of things that are legal that they put in stores, they put a lot of chemicals in them and it’s not good for you at all. It’s just whenever you read what they have on the packaging [the contents], it just shows what it doesn’t have and stuff, [not what is actually in it],” Calerdon said. “It doesn’t even show what it has in it or anything.”
Calderon presumes it to be true that the only reason people take it is because of the easy access, which leads to deathly results.
“Actually for a lot of people it kills them because they do it, like, everyday since it’s right there. It’s so easy to get it and it’s not good for you at all in my opinion,” he said.
With death being the worst, there are other side effects that accompany the usage of salvia.
“You never know how it’s going to react, and what makes it hard is that every person’s body responds differently to a drug. It might seem safe for one student or one body, but it might react totally different to someone else’s body,” Velasquez said.
Kimm encourages students to stay away from all drugs-even if they’re legal.
“Just because you can buy it anywhere doesn’t mean it’s not bad for you. Just steer clear from [salvia],” Kimm said, with Velasquez concluding,”If they’re not supposed to take them, just not to.”
