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From Salvia can be chewed, smoked and brewed, causing hallucinations Published: Monday, April 20, 2009; KRISTEN HACKNEY-REDMAN,  First appeared on lubbockonline.com 7:04 p.m. Sunday.

George Comiskey, associate director for Texas Tech's Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery.. said he has spoken with former LSD users who've tried salvia. "It kind of spooked them," he said. "A lot of people are having bad trips on it." He said they have described a salvia trip as being similar to a bad LSD trip.

Not everyone has a bad trip.  Chris Calderon-Rogers, 22 and a senior biology major at Texas Tech, has used salvia several times. He said his hallucinations last about 10 minutes.  "It starts as a visual thing," he said of his experiences with salvia. "Your vision gets somewhat blurry. Color swirls together. If you close your eyes, you get colors and flashes of light."… He said people should be comfortable with their surroundings to use salvia.

"It's the not really knowing what's happening and loss of control that causes a bad trip," Calderon-Rogers said.

Jarrett Kirk, 20, from Floydada said he has used salvia five times and has not had a bad trip on it.  Kirk, a senior Tech student majoring in chemistry, said when he used salvia, he became sweaty, couldn't feel the things surrounding him, such as the chair he was sitting in, and laughed at nothing…... Objects appeared to blend together, and music sounded different and more technical.