Peyote buttons contain the psychedelic compound mescaline, as well as at least 28 other alkaloids, including the following. Mescaline is found in the highest concentrations, this being the main psychoactive alkaloid in the plant. The mescaline content of dried buttons is percent.
Most of the other alkaloids in the peyote cactus are not psychoactive but some have some mild psychoactive effects, such as pellotine the second most abundant compound in the plant. Pellotine can have some sedative and hypnotic effects, decreasing your desire to move and making you feel drowsy.
This could be due to the presence of several other alkaloids. Peyote buttons have a long history of use. Two archaeological specimens of dried peyote buttons have been discovered in Shumla Cave No. The researchers who chemically analyzed these buttons found that they have a mescaline concentration of 2 percent.
No other alkaloids were detected. Here it should be underscored how close 2 percent is to the mescaline content of dried peyote buttons today. Also, many people take dried peyote buttons today that will have a mescaline concentration of around 2 percent.
The fact that 5,year-old peyote buttons still had this level of concentration goes to show just how stable mescaline is.
The absence of other alkaloids, meanwhile, indicates that some of the other compounds in the plant are more unstable. The identification of mescaline strengthens the evidence that native North Americans recognized the psychotropic properties of peyote as long as years ago.
We also have evidence of peyote use amongst the Aztec people. Spanish missionaries who visited Mexico in the s observed the indigenous people there engaging in peyote rituals. However, these missionaries viewed the effects of peyote in a negative light.
Native users of peyote were persecuted as a result. Religious opposition to peyote use from the Spanish missionaries eventually led to such use being prohibited throughout Mexico in Western scientists obtained — and experimented with — peyote buttons at the end of the 19th century , including Weir Mitchell and Havelock Ellis.
Both documented their visually impressive experiences. This religion combines traditional Native American beliefs and Christianity, with peyote featuring as its religious sacrament. However, these guidelines should not be used as straightforward recommendations, because as said before: people can respond very differently to the same dosage.
This is the suggested dosage of fresh peyote:. How much Peyote cactus do I need for a trip? A chemical sister of Lucy is Karl Eschenbach : Visions and Dreams classic art Mescaline could also help reduce suicidal thoughts , according to researchers at the University of Alabama.
Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the researchers found that people who have used a psychedelic drug at least once in their life show lower rates of suicidal thinking.
A study also found that lifetime mescaline or peyote use was significantly linked to a lower rate of agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder where subjects perceive their surrounding environment to be threatening. Legality 07 Surprisingly—and rather promisingly for such a powerful psychedelic—the legality of peyote is often ambiguous.
It also specifically decriminalizes or rather deprioritizes for law enforcement their cultivation and distribution. Again, however, religious use is permitted. In Canada, although extracted mescaline is illegal, fresh not dried peyote and other mescaline-containing cacti are specifically exempt from scheduling. The situation is much the same in the UK even after the Psychoactive Substances Act and elsewhere in Europe, where it tends to be legal to grow peyote but not to prepare it for use.
In Australia, the legality of peyote varies by state. At the same time, peyote is an endangered species. With that in mind, partaking in a peyote ceremony or—especially—using it outside of a ceremonial context requires some ethical considerations to ensure cultural appropriation and destruction are kept in check.
Add to the mix the rampant and ongoing issues of unsustainable harvesting practices, the black market, and the prohibition of peyote cultivation, and what you get is a rapidly declining population lacking the ability to replenish. This shortage of peyote endangers native traditions that have been in practice for generations.
In fact, recent efforts to decriminalize plant medicines at the local level have been denounced by the Native American Church , which argues that loosening these laws sends the message to non-native people that peyote is legal, further threatening its habitat and the sacrament surrounding it.
Regardless of decriminalization, the renewed interest in plant medicines more generally has created a demand—and market—for peyote ceremonies that take place outside of the context and long history of indigenous traditions.
This, of course, further erodes and endangers the cultures that peyote is native to. But these often provide only the appearance of authenticity compared to their familiar religious and spiritual practices. Traditional uses are diverse and are not limited to ritual. The Tarahumara, for example, have used it for long-distance endurance foot races and as a topical treatment for wounds, burns, and painful joints.
The first non-natives to encounter peyote use in the Americas were probably Catholic missionaries and conquistadors during the 16th century. During the conquest of the New World, peyote was near-universally condemned by Europeans who associated its use with devil-worship, cannibalism, and witchcraft, and attempted to stamp it out. One persistent peyote user, an Acaxee from Mexico, is said to have had his eyes gouged out as punishment and his stomach sliced open in the shape of a crucifix, leaving dogs to eat his insides.
Suppression of the use of peyote continued throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries too—particularly after Native Americans had been forcibly displaced to reservations. Of course, it was also a means of coping spiritually with the subordination and loss of their culture.
During this process, the traditional peyote ceremony was overlaid with Christian elements to help safeguard the new religion as a legitimate form of Christian worship. By , despite sustained opposition from missionaries and government officials, the precursor to the Native American Church NAC of today was more or less fully established.
Amendments in clarified and extended this right to all 50 states. Of course, none of this progress took place in isolation. Nevertheless, peyote was becoming well known.
Throughout the s, a number of anthropologists accompanied the Huichol on peyote hunts spiritual journeys to gather the cacti and in Carlos Castaneda published The Teachings of Don Juan with his own firsthand accounts of peyote visions. According to the Global Drug Survey in , mescaline or peyote were only among the top 20 drugs for past month usage in Mexico.
Peyote was taken by 6. Of course, we cannot generalize current usage statistics from such limited data, but it does give us some idea of its popularity relative to other substances.
That said, we can trace the popularity of peyote over time by looking at its appearance in publications and Google searches. Google searches, meanwhile, have remained fairly steady for peyote since —although searches for mescaline have decreased. Searches for peyote did reach an all-time high in December and again in May but this was most likely in relation to its appearance in the video game Grand Theft Auto V.
The popularity of the search term in Uruguay likely has more to do with the Uruguayan band El Peyote Asesino. It also grows in the American Southwest. You can often find peyote in Texas and New Mexico, for instance. The map below shows a rough outline of traditional peyote locations.
For ceremonial practitioners, this has long been the grounds where peyote is collected in the wild. Peyote plant locations have shifted and diminished over time, though. In some regions where the cactus once thrived, there may now be none whatsoever.
Botanists, however, recognize only one species of peyote: Lophophora williamsii. This is the peyote Native American tribes have venerated for millennia. The superficial differences are instead attributed to other factors, such as age. There is another species in the Lophophora genus, the Lophophora diffusa , that looks remarkably like peyote, but it contains only trace amounts of mescaline—and sometimes none whatsoever.
The legal status of peyote in the US can be confusing, but by and large, the consumption of peyote is illegal—it is, after all, a Schedule I substance. See Legality for more information.
FAQ 11 Can it be detected in a drug test? It depends on your state. But in other states, including Arizona, peyote is legal or tolerated for any bona fide religious organization, whether the NAC or not. Check with your local authority for up-to-date laws. Peyote commonly produces visions and philosophical or introspective insights. For more on the peyote experience, see Experience. If you follow the 6Ss of psychedelic use and avoid taking peyote if you have a family history of mental health issues, there appears to be very little chance of long-term psychiatric issues.
Many people find peyote for sale online. In many countries, you can buy peyote seeds and living buttons to grow at home. There are numerous resources online for learning how to grow peyote at home.
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