How to appreciate white sage without taking, since yours may have been poached

Key takeaways

• Rangers at one San Bernardino County preserve estimated that thieves took over 20,000 pounds of white sage there in five years, and the plant grows wild in only one small region.
• The nonprofit United Plant Savers lists white sage as at-risk and advises using cultivated plants whenever possible.
• In 2009, three people died after a sweat lodge run by a non-Native self-help author near Sedona, Arizona, and a jury later convicted him of negligent homicide.
• In a survey of 10,836 ayahuasca drinkers, 2.3% needed medical attention afterward, and the brew can interact dangerously with some medicines.
• Selling something as Native American-made when it isn’t can bring an individual a fine of up to $250,000, and you can report fakes at 1-888-ART-FAKE.

Some poachers don’t bother with clippers. They have hooked a chain to two trucks and dragged it across open land, ripping out every white sage plant in its path¹. That account comes from Jan Timbrook, curator emeritus of ethnography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

At one preserve in San Bernardino County, California, rangers estimate that thieves hauled off over 20,000 pounds of the plant in five years¹. Native people returning to traditional gathering grounds have found whole hillsides stripped bare.

White sage smudge bundles are sold by big chain stores, online marketplaces, herb shops and yoga studios¹. High worldwide demand is what makes poaching pay, notes an article from the Legal Resource Center at California State University, Long Beach⁴. Many buyers mean well. They want to clear a room, mark a fresh start, or honor a tradition they admire.

That good intention is where this guide starts. Appreciation means learning from a culture with respect, credit and consent. Appropriation means taking something, often something sacred, without permission, while the people it came from bear the costs.

The line isn’t always sharp. But plants, ceremonies and products leave trails you can follow before you buy or join.

White sage grows wild in one small corner of the world

White sage (Salvia apiana) grows naturally only from San Luis Obispo County, California, to northern Baja California in Mexico¹. Development has already claimed close to half the land where it once grew. Drought, wildfire and climate change add pressure.

Poaching makes it worse. In 2018, police in Rancho Cucamonga, California, seized 400 pounds of illegally harvested white sage, High Country News reported². Poachers often cut plants before they mature, while careful harvesters wait until after the plant flowers.

The rules are clear on paper. In California, taking wild plants from roadsides or public land requires a permit, and those permits cover personal use only¹². Taking plants from private land requires the owner’s written permission. Susan Leopold, director of United Plant Savers, told High Country News that no commercial permits exist for selling wild white sage².

United Plant Savers, a nonprofit that tracks medicinal plants under pressure, lists white sage as at-risk³. For plants in that category, the group advises using cultivated plants when possible and keeping any wild harvest very limited, carefully monitored and within government rules.

The plant matters deeply to the region’s first peoples. The Kumeyaay and Cahuilla used white sage to treat fever, and the Chumash ate it². The Gabrielino-Tongva describe a relationship with the plant reaching back thousands of years². When a bundle is ripped from those hills, it is taken from people who still gather there.

Palo santo isn’t listed as endangered, but that isn’t the whole story

You may have heard that palo santo is endangered. But a review by the International Union for Conservation of Nature rated the tree Bursera graveolens as least concern, Ecuador’s El Comercio newspaper reported⁵. The paper’s online story carries no reliable date, though it links to a 2019 report, so the details may be several years old.

That rating has critics. Omar Vacas, a research professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, told the paper there is no updated study of the species’ status, no analysis of its genetic diversity, and no conservation plan aimed at overharvesting⁵. A subspecies that grows in the Galápagos Islands is considered threatened.

Ecuador’s forestry law bans exporting the wood itself but allows processed products⁵. The paper adds that palo santo products should come only from trees that died naturally. So “fallen wood only” describes the accepted standard. It is not something you can check from a label.

The honest summary: palo santo is not the clearest conservation emergency, but the science is thin. If you buy it, ask which country it came from, whether the seller can document dead-wood sourcing, and whether the community that harvests it is paid fairly.

When outsiders run sacred ceremonies, people can die

In October 2009, a self-help author named James Arthur Ray led a five-day “Spiritual Warrior” retreat just outside Sedona, Arizona⁶. The retreat included a sweat lodge ceremony⁷. Dozens of participants packed into a tent covered in plastic, and heated rocks kept coming in for roughly two hours, High Country News reported⁸.

Three people died: Kirby Brown, 38; James Shore, 40; and Liz Neuman, 49, who died after more than a week in the hospital⁶. The Associated Press counted 18 others injured, and a 2010 High Country News report counted 19 who fell ill⁶⁸. Survivors testified that Ray urged people to stay inside even as others became ill and fainted⁷.

In 2011, a jury acquitted Ray of manslaughter but convicted him on three counts of negligent homicide⁶⁷. A judge sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered more than $57,000 in restitution⁷. He was released in July 2013⁶.

Ray is not Native American⁸. Traditional sweat lodges usually hold around eight people, who enter and leave several times during a ceremony, according to High Country News.

In January 2010, Albert Hale, an Arizona state senator who once served as president of the Navajo Nation, said the Sedona ceremony did not follow traditional practice⁸. He filed a bill to regulate Native rituals held off tribal lands. Outsiders had already taken Native land, water and language, he argued, and were now taking a way of life.

The lesson reaches beyond one case. A ceremony’s safeguards are part of the knowledge: who may lead it, how many people take part, how long it lasts, and when people step out. Copy the outward form without those safeguards, and the risks rise.

Ayahuasca retreats have common side effects and one dangerous interaction

Ayahuasca is a brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, usually combined with leaves of a plant that contains DMT, a powerful psychedelic compound⁹. The vine contains MAO inhibitors, chemicals that slow the body’s breakdown of DMT so it takes effect. Residues have been found at archaeological sites about 1,000 years old.

Today, ceremonies are led by Indigenous healers in the Amazon, by Brazilian ayahuasca churches, and by Western facilitators⁹. Some facilitators trained with traditional healers. Others imitate what they have seen.

In 2022, researchers published the Global Ayahuasca Survey in PLOS Global Public Health, covering 10,836 people from more than 50 countries⁹. Nearly 70% reported short-term physical effects, mostly vomiting, and 2.3% needed medical attention afterward. About 4.1% reported fainting and 1.3% reported seizures.

More than half, about 56%, reported mental health struggles in the weeks or months after⁹. Most of those people, roughly 88%, saw the struggles as part of personal growth, while about 12% sought professional help.

Some people faced higher risk. Physical problems were more common in people with health conditions, people who started later in life, heavy users, people with a past substance use disorder, and people who drank in unsupervised settings⁹. People with anxiety disorders reported more mental health struggles. Ceremonies in religious settings were linked to fewer mental health problems.

The most serious warning involves medicines. Because the vine contains MAO inhibitors, mixing ayahuasca with drugs that act on serotonin, a brain chemical, can raise the risk of serotonin syndrome, a dangerous overload⁹. Ask your prescriber whether any of your medicines fall into that group before you consider a ceremony. Never stop a prescribed drug on a facilitator’s advice.

Keep the survey’s limits in mind. People chose to answer it online, so it may not capture everyone’s experience. The authors also cite U.S. poison center data showing 538 calls from 2005 to 2015, including three deaths in which it was unclear what people had taken⁹.

What the evidence says about practices that crossed cultures

Here is how several claims rate on our four-level evidence scale. Spiritual meaning is not on this list, because a trial can’t measure it. Physical safety and health effects can be measured.

Claim	Evidence level	What the record shows
Yoga brings slight relief from low-back pain	Strong evidence	A large body of research shows a small benefit12
Yoga treats diagnosed anxiety disorders	Promising but early	Helps anxiety symptoms in general, but little evidence so far for people with these disorders12
Serious physical problems after ayahuasca are uncommon	Promising but early	One large but self-selected survey; 2.3% needed medical care9
Ayahuasca is safe to mix with serotonin-affecting drugs	Evidence says no, or unsafe	MAO inhibitors raise serotonin syndrome risk9
Crowded, long, extreme-heat sweat ceremonies are safe if you push through	Evidence says no, or unsafe	Three deaths and at least 18 others hurt or sickened at Sedona68

Four questions that separate appreciation from appropriation

Most appropriation questions come down to four things: who made it, who benefits, whether it was given or taken, and whether it is sacred or closed. Closed practices are ones a community keeps for its members or for people it invites and trains. Use this table before you buy a product or sign up for a ceremony.

Before you buy or join, ask	A good sign	A red flag
Who made it, or who leads it?	A named Native artist, tribe, community business or recognized leader	Vague words like “tribal,” “Native-inspired” or “shamanic” with no names
Who benefits?	The seller can explain how money reaches the community	No one can say where the product came from
Was it given or taken?	Grown on a farm, or gathered with permission	Wild-harvested from public land, or “trained” by videos
Is it sacred or closed?	The community invites outside guests	A sacred ceremony sold as a package to anyone who pays
Is it safe?	Screening for health conditions and medicines, and freedom to step out	Pressure to stay through distress, and no emergency plan

Federal law helps with the first question. Congress passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act in 1990 to stop false advertising¹⁰. It makes it illegal to market art or craft in a way that falsely suggests a Native American, a tribe, or a Native arts group made it. Selling “Navajo jewelry” made by someone who isn’t Navajo, for example, breaks the law.

The law counts as “Indian” a member of a federally or officially state-recognized tribe, or an artisan a tribe has certified¹⁰. A first violation can bring an individual a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both. Businesses can face fines of up to $1 million.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board, part of the Interior Department, suggests buying from reputable dealers and asking for written verification that a piece is authentic Native work¹¹. At powwows and fairs, check the event’s vendor rules first.

Yoga raises a gentler version of the same question. NCCIH notes that yoga is rooted in Indian philosophy and began as a spiritual practice¹². American classes mostly teach postures, breathing and meditation, while classical yoga includes more.

Practicing yoga isn’t the problem. Learning its fuller context, and crediting it, is the respectful part.

What to do instead: grow it, ask, and buy direct

You don’t have to give up rituals that matter to you. You can change where they come from.

• Grow your own plants. The California Native Plant Society recommends avoiding wild-harvested sage and growing native plants instead⁴. Many people also use herbs from their own gardens, such as garden sage, rosemary or lavender, in rituals of their own.
• Buy cultivated, and ask for proof. If you buy white sage, ask the seller to name the farm³.
• Buy direct from Native artists and businesses. Ask for written verification of who made the item¹¹.
• Learn the history of the land where you live. The plant society suggests this as part of caring for native plants⁴. Efforts such as the “Saging the World” campaign, started by Chumash educator Rose Ramirez and Deborah Small, a professor emerita at California State University San Marcos, also teach the plant’s story⁴.
• Wait for an invitation to sacred ceremonies. Whether outsiders may take part is the community’s decision, not a buyer’s.

For many natural-health readers, these steps fit values you already hold. You care about plants, land and the wisdom of older traditions. A bundle torn from a shrinking wild population isn’t pure or clean, whatever the label says. And respecting a tradition includes respecting a community’s right to say no.

How to report a problem or get help

• Fake Native-made goods: Contact the Indian Arts and Crafts Board at 1-888-ART-FAKE (1-888-278-3253), by email at iacb@ios.doi.gov, or online, where you may report anonymously¹¹. Tell the seller first if you can.
• Poaching: Note the location, time and any vehicle description, and contact the land manager or local police.
• Heat emergencies: If someone in a sweat ceremony becomes confused, faints or stops responding, get them out into cooler air and call 911.
• After ayahuasca: Call 911 for a seizure, fainting or chest pain. For a possible drug interaction, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

Appreciation and appropriation can look alike from the outside. The difference shows up in the details: who made the product, who gets paid, whether a plant was grown or stripped from a hillside, and whether a ceremony was shared or sold.

You don’t need to give up practices that bring you meaning. Grow your own herbs, buy from the people whose traditions you admire, wait to be invited, and treat sacred ceremonies, and the safeguards built into them, with the care the people who kept them alive deserve.

Keep exploring: safe wellness spaces, traditional knowledge, cultural approaches to well-being and protecting vulnerable members.

Related reading

• An ancient recipe led to a Nobel prize, and new treaties ask who benefits
• What “sustainably sourced” has to prove, and what it doesn’t
• How miracle-cure scams borrow the language you trust
• What meditation groups can do, and what they can stir up

Sources

1. Timbrook J. “White Sage in Danger.” Santa Barbara Independent, January 21, 2022. independent.com
2. Stagner TD. “Sage advice.” High Country News, October 1, 2020. hcn.org
3. United Plant Savers. “Species At-Risk List.” United Plant Savers, updated August 2026. unitedplantsavers.org
4. Peedikayil H. “Ecological Damage on White Sage.” California State University, Long Beach, Legal Resource Center, April 28, 2022. csulb.edu
5. Noroña K, Alarcón I. “El palo santo es sobreexplotado en el Ecuador.” El Comercio (Ecuador), undated online (links to a 2019 report), accessed October 2026. elcomercio.com
6. Sandoval G. “Self-help author James Arthur Ray, whose seminar led to tragedy and death, dies at 67.” Associated Press, January 6, 2025. news4jax.com
7. KNAU Arizona Public Radio. “James Arthur Ray Sentenced.” KNAU, November 18, 2011. knau.org
8. High Country News. “Tribal push to regulate Native ceremonies.” High Country News, January 21, 2010. hcn.org
9. Bouso JC, Andión Ó, Sarris JJ, et al. “Adverse effects of ayahuasca: Results from the Global Ayahuasca Survey.” PLOS Global Public Health, 2022. journals.plos.org
10. U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board. “The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.” DOI, updated October 2022. doi.gov
11. U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board. “Know the Law: The Indian Arts and Crafts Act.” DOI, August 2019. doi.gov
12. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. “Yoga: What You Need To Know.” NIH, updated August 2023. nccih.nih.gov