A survey of 500 individuals who had used Salvia divinorum found that 92.6% typically smoked or vaporized the plant, with acute effects lasting about 14 minutes on average. Most participants (80.6%) said they would use it again, and 38.4% described the experience as unique. On at least one occasion, 25.8% reported persisting positive effects lasting 24 hours or more, often an increased sense of well-being, while 4.4% reported persisting negative effects, most commonly anxiety. These findings suggest that Salvia divinorum may produce subacute improvements in mood, which is unusual for a non-medically used drug.
Salvinorin A (SA), the psychoactive compound in the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum, was administered sublingually at doses up to 4 mg to eight experienced users in a placebo-controlled ascending-dose study. No dose produced significantly greater physiological or subjective effects than placebo, and the effects did not resemble those of smoked Salvia divinorum. SA was detectable in plasma and urine but mostly below the reliable quantification limit of 0.5 ng/mL. The results suggest that sublingual bioavailability of SA is low, indicating that higher doses, alternate formulations, or other routes of administration are needed to study its effects in humans.