Slow Panic? The Regulation of Salvia Divinorum in Canada, 1991-2019

ABSTRACT

Smoking a potent concentration of salvia divinorum (hereafter salvia) has the capacity to dissolve one’s ego and sense of self. Due to the catatonic state a strong dose of salvia produces, the substance has been considered alarming by claims-makers including politicians, media officials, police, and citizen groups. This paper examines news media accounts of salvia use in Canada and salvia’s regulation by the Canadian federal government. Providing a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles spanning 1991–2019 regarding claims made about salvia, we draw from literature on moral panics and drugs to conceptualize the police and political response to salvia in Canada. We trace the shifting claims made by an array of claims-makers, showing how the focus changed from curiosity to claims about risk. The banning of salvia in Canada displays the hallmarks of a moral panic, though in this case the claims-making about the harm and risk of salvia went on for years before the substance was made illegal. We apply the notions of slow panic and panic policy to salvia regulation in Canada and reflect on the implications for literatures regarding drug panics and the new psychedelic renaissance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Griffin et al. (2008) note there were more issues related to the suicide than salvia, yet the cause of death was revised by the medical examiner to include salvia and salvia was the focus for media sources.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeff Yaremko

Jeff Yaremko has his BA in International Development Studies and has been interested in Freedom of Information issues, media perceptions, justice, and policy outcomes. With an interdisciplinary interest, he is now studying in the MSc in Environmental Sustainability program at the University of Ottawa.

Kevin Walby

Kevin Walby is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg. He is co-author of Police Funding, Dark Money, and the Greedy Institution (Routledge, 2022). He is co-editor of Disarm, Defund, Dismantle: Police Abolition in Canada (BTL Press, 2022) and Changing of the Guards: Private Influences, Privatization, and Criminal Justice in Canada (UBC Press, 2022). He is the Director of the Centre for Access to Information and Justice (CAIJ). He is co-editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons.