Peyote

Peyote cactus in its natural state.

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small, dome-shaped cactus whose native region extends from the southwestern United States through central Mexico. Its effects as a psychoactive agent have been employed for as many as 10,000 years. Proponents of its use see it as a method to stimulate psychic growth and help reveal what many partakers believe to be a spiritual reality.

Although illegal in most jurisdictions, its popularity continues today, especially among indigenous peoples of both its native regions, who utilize it as part of their religious rites. It is also a widely distributed hallucinogen, both for ardent truth-seekers and recreational "trippers" alike.

Its value as a mechanism to aid in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment has long been questioned by those who see it as either a cheap device to experience what is merely a drug induced altered state or a harmful and powerful tool to reveal a reality best explored through more natural and less instantaneous methods.

Plant

Peyote is a hardy plant; its natural growing range extends from the Rio Grande and western regions of Texas southward into Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert and Tamaulipan Thorn Forest. Peyote prefers a warm, temperate desert with fertile but sandy soil, although it is known to withstand much harsher conditions.

A flowering peyote plant.

The top of the cactus that grows above ground is referred to as the crown. The crown flowers sporadically and produces small pink fruit, which are sweet-tasting when eaten. The seeds, or "mescal buttons," are small and black, requiring hot and humid conditions to germinate. It is these "buttons" that produce hallucinogenic effects when ingested by humans.

Peyote contains a large spectrum (at least 28) of phenethylamine alkaloids, the principal of which is mescaline. All Lophophora species are extremely slow growing, often taking up to 30 years to reach flowering age in the wild (about the size of a golf ball, not including its root). This is one of the reasons why this tranquil plant is becoming rare in its natural habitat, as it is unable to immediately replenish itself when taken from the wild for human purposes.

Cultivation

Peyote buttons with American nickel for reference.

Procuring peyote "buttons" or seeds can be difficult, and growing peyote for ritual use is a slow process. Still, devotees cultivate peyote in almost every part of the world today. It can thrive in greenhouses, grow rooms, shade, or full sun. Belonging to the family Cactaceae, it is a "low maintenance crop," requiring minimal watering, pest control, trimming and other types of attention that most fruitage typically demand.

Cultivated specimens grow considerably faster than do wild plants, usually taking from six to ten years to mature from seedling to adult. Since even the domestic process is quite tedious, most growers prefer to plant or graft the disc-shaped buttons that sprout from the crown of already-growing peyote. When done properly, the top of the root will callous over, and new buttons will eventually grow. When poor harvesting techniques are used, however, the root is damaged and the entire plant dies.

The same buttons used for the grafting process in peyote cultivation are what partakers use for human ingestion as a medicinal, transcendental, and recreational agent. These buttons are generally chewed or boiled in water to produce a psychoactive tea. The resulting infusion is extremely bitter and, in most cases, the user experiences some degree of nausea before the onset of the psychedelic effects.

Medicinal Effects

File:Lophophora williamsii bwdrawing.jpg

Botanical drawing of peyote.

The plant's resilient tenacity makes it a potent medicine. Researchers have attributed antibiotic and other medicinal qualities to the plant; religious users appreciate the natural mescaline, a powerful psychotropic alkaloid, which is the plant's main neuroactive ingredient.

The effective dose for mescaline is about 300 to 500 mg (equivalent to roughly five grams of dried peyote) and the effects last about ten to 12 hours. Peyote is reported to trigger states of deep introspection and insight that have been described as being of a metaphysical or spiritual nature. At times, these can be accompanied by rich visual or auditory effects (see synesthesia). Because these effects can also lead to seriously disturbing experiences as well, proponents recommend that the new user be accompanied at all times by a "trip sitter," who is not intoxicated, to best secure a safe experience.

However, scientific understanding of the possible psychological and spiritual damage suffered from peyote use is still extremely limited. Critics warn that safety can never truly be assured to those who use peyote, even if the utmost care is taken.

Historical Uses

Huichol and Aztec Indians engaged in ceremonial peyote ingestion for centuries before European explorers arrived in what is now called Mexico. In the late 1800's, peyote use spread north into United States, as part of a revival of native spirituality when American Plains Indians brought their peyote rituals to the Great Basin and southern Canada. Peyote "churches", combining Christianity and peyotism, began to be known in the early 1900's as the Native American Church, which was officially formed in 1954. Members of the NAC refer to peyote as "the medicine" and have used it to combat alcoholism and other social ills. Between the 1880s and 1930s, U.S. authorities attempted to ban Native American religious rituals involving peyote.

The Native American Church is one among several religious organizations that still use peyote as part of their religious practice. Another example are the Huichol Indians, whose estimated 20,000 members live in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental in the states of Nyarit and Zacatecas. The Huichols still practice traditional peyote pilgrimages to their sacred land of Wirikuta, a peyote-growing region near San Luis Potosi, where they gather cactus for use in ceremonies designed to ensure rain, food and spiritual health.

A particular surge of interest in the use of peyote was spawned in the 1970s and can be credited to the accounts of its effects in the early works of writer Carlos Castaneda. Don Juan Matus, the pseudonym for the author's instructor in the use of peyote, used the name Mescalito to refer to an entity that purportedly can be sensed by those using peyote to gain insight in how to live one's life. Though no movement is specifically tied to Castaneda's influence regarding peyote use, it is certain that much of the hippie counterculture's connection to the plant was inspired and reinforced by his writings.

Later works of the author asserted that the use of such psychotropic substances was not necessary to achieve heightened awareness and de-emphasized the use of peyote as a general means to achieve this end. He stated that they could "inalterably damage the luminous ball of energy emanations from the body, as well as the physical body." In Journey to Ixtlan, he wrote:

My perception of the world through the effects of those psychotropics had been so bizarre and impressive that I was forced to assume that such states were the only avenue to communicating and learning what Don Juan was attempting to teach me. That assumption was erroneous.

The Controversy

Ever since the arrival of the first Europeans in the New World, peyote has provoked controversy, suppression, legal sanctions, and even persecution. It was condemned by the Spanish conquerors, as one example, for its "satanic trickery." Today, the opposing sides of this issue debate whether peyote use should be protected as a harmless religious rite, or banned as a dangerous drug which harms humans in both apparent examples and in ways they have not yet come to realize.

Regardless of whether it is within the rights of indigenous groups to legally ingest this plant, it is feared that securing its benefits for them only encourages its popularity among groups and individuals who are using the drug in more casual and reckless ways.

As peyote comes straight from the earth, its proponents often argue that mescaline is the safer, more natural alternative to LSD, a popular synthesized psychedelic drug which produces a very similar, but more intense, trip. The counter-argument to this notion is that a good thing may in fact come from the earth, but that does not mean humans will not misuse it, or even know how not to misuse it.

Legality

USA

While peyote is considered a controlled substance and therefore illegal to possess and sell generally, United States federal law (and many state laws) protect the harvest, possession and consumption (but not cultivation) of peyote as part of "bonafide religious ceremonies." The federal regulation is 42 USC §1996a, called the "Traditional Indian religious use of the peyote sacrament," which exempts only Native American use, while most state laws exempt any general "bonafide religious activity."

American jurisdictions enacted these specific statutory exemptions in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), which held that laws prohibiting the use of peyote do not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Although many American jurisdictions specifically allow religious use of peyote, religious or therapeutic use not under the aegis of the Native American Church has often been targeted by local law enforcement agencies. Non-natives attempting to establish spiritual centers based on the consumption of peyote as a sacrament or as medicine, such as the Peyote Foundation in Arizona, have been prosecuted.

Canada

Under the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act mescaline is defined as an illegal Schedule 2 drug, but peyote is specifically exempt. The Native Americans in Canada are able to take peyote if they have a full status card.

Although peyote does not grow naturally in Canada, native tribes in Alberta and Saskatchewan had been importing peyote buttons from Arizona and other arid locales in the American Southwest and using them in peyote ceremonies, for at least a few hundred years. Some believe peyote has been imported into Canada for thousands of years. Federal officials were sympathetic to the peyotists' plea not to ban their sacred plant, and so decided to only ban the extracted active ingredient, mescaline.

International

Article 32 of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances allows nations to exempt certain traditional uses of peyote from prohibition:

A State on whose territory there are plants growing wild which contain psychotropic substances from among those in Schedule I and which are traditionally used by certain small, clearly determined groups in magical or religious rites, may, at the time of signature, ratification or accession, make reservations concerning these plants, in respect of the provisions of article 7, except for the provisions relating to international trade.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Anderson, Edward F. Peyote: The Divine Cactus. University of Arizona Press; 2nd edition, 1996. ISBN 978-0816516544

• Gottlieb, Alan. Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti. Ronin Publishing; 2.00 edition (July 7, 1997) ISBN 978-0914171959

• Olive, M. Foster. Peyote And Mescaline. Chelsea House Publications, 2007. ISBN- 978-0791085455

• Stewart, Omar C. Peyote Religion: A History. University of Oklahoma Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0806124575

Eternal Links

Coulter, John M. "Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora" U.S. National Herbarium, June 19, 1985. lophophora.blogsport.com. Retrieved May 14, 2007.

Curtis' Botanical Magazine "ECHINOCACTUS WILLIAMSII" 1894 lophophora.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 14, 2007.

The Vaults of Erowid "Documenting the Complex Relationship Between Humans and Psychoactives", Peyote. www.erowid.org. Retrieved May 15, 2007.