Gisele Beker, a 26-year-old from Argentina, hung out for hours under the scorching sun in the vast Wirikura desert, hungry for peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus that people in Mexico consider sacred. Caesar, one of Gisele`s friends who wanted to keep his last name private, remembers his favorite saying: „You can`t find peyote. He finds you. Lophos has made significant progress in commissioning its recently acquired 10,000 square foot facility in Ontario. Progress at the facility is ahead of schedule with the recent submission of its drug and substance controlled distributor licence application. Approval of this license will allow Lophos to grow peyote and other mescaline-producing cacti, as well as its in-house lab to conduct research and analysis on extracted psychedelic alkaloids. The most fascinating feature of this cactus comes from its psychoactive alkaloid mescaline. When dried, „Lophophora Williamsii“ contains about three to six percent mescaline, which is more than enough for a meaningful psychedelic experience. The older the cactus, the higher the mescaline content. Native Americans call the oldest peyote „grandfather peyote“ because they can be so old that their seeds have produced many lines of offspring.
A peyote cactus the size of a fist could be more than 30 years old. Far too many people see the plant as a drug and while this is true, it plays a more important role in many people`s lives and our environment. The illegality of the peyote cactus prevents ordinary people from growing this cactus in their homes according to the government`s „war on plants,“ but it does far more harm than good. The cactus must be recognized as more than the outdated perspective that sees it as an insidious drug that only harms a society. People need to be aware of the endangered status of the potentially medicinal cactus and the endangered cactus. Unfortunately, the naturally growing peyote used by the NAC is on the verge of becoming an endangered species. The once abundant cactus has declined compared to the deserts in which it once thrived. Due to poor harvesting methods, poaching, urbanization around natural habitat, and lack of government involvement, peyote availability has declined since the 1990s. „Lophophora Williamsii“ does not receive the attention it deserves in the field of mediation of endangered plants. I dreamed of peyote, just last night! Thank you for this article. I hope to learn more about this plant on my next trip to the southwest. ALL biodiversity must be protected! Radiocarbon dating of peyote buds found in a cave near the Rio Grande has allowed scientists to trace the plant back about 5,000 years ago.
So why don`t we hear much about one of the oldest psychedelic plants ever discovered? Thanks to the Spanish conquerors and later to the Controlled Substances Act. Even the legal context has not changed the availability of local guides who, when they hear the magic words of tourists – „We want to go to the desert“ – get together and quietly offer their services. Then a sacrifice is made to the plant and people are careful not to uproot it. Peyote is splashed with water and its small, fleshy, bud-shaped parts are eaten. I live in Japan. Lophophora willamsii can be legally grown and owned here. I bought a beautiful one, whose center is about 12 cm wide and which now has about twenty circumferential buttons. I have had it for twenty years.
Concerned about his dangerousness, I wanted to protect him for posterity. It was imported from Mexico about thirty years ago. Every year, the local community travels to Quemado Hill, led by a shaman who gives blessings and offerings to peyote. So much so that since the 1960s, this remote corner of the state of San Luis Potosi has become a promised land for those who have hiked here to taste peyote despite logistical challenges. Mexican Eliana enjoys the mystical feel of the place and bites her peyote. „It`s like getting into your own mind,“ she says. „When I`m done, I`ll think a little bit more and then leave.“ Local expert Jose Luis Bustos, 67, said people who try to treat peyote disrespectfully could pay the price. The drug is technically illegal, but for centuries it has played a role in the indigenous culture of northern Mexico and Texas, where it is part of transcendence and meditation for cultures like the Wixarika or the Huicholes in Spanish. Today, the cultivation and possession of „Lophophora Williamsii“ is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Peyote is a Schedule I drug, which marks it as one of the most dangerous plants known to society, according to the government. It turns out that there is a way to legally possess and take peyote, but the right is only granted to members of the Native American Church — an organization that is exempt from this law thanks to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The right to freedom of expression protects the use and cultivation of „Lophophora Williamsii“ for NAC members. In 1993, the church received permission from the U.S. government to legally harvest and use peyote. Definition: This entry contains information on the five categories of illicit drugs – narcotics, stimulants, tranquilizers, hallucinogens and cannabis. These categories include many drugs that are legally manufactured and prescribed by doctors, as well as those that are illegally manufactured and sold outside of medical channels. Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is the most common hemp plant that provides hallucinogens with certain sedative properties and includes marijuana (pot, acapulco gold, weed, reefer), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, marinol), hashish (hashish) and hash oil (hash oil). Coca (usually Erythroxylum coca) is a bush with leaves containing the stimulant used to make cocaine. Coca should not be confused with cocoa, which comes from cocoa beans and is used to make chocolate, cocoa and cocoa butter. Cocaine is a stimulant extracted from the leaves of the coca bush. Tranquilizers are medications that reduce tension and anxiety and include chloral hydrate, barbiturates (Amytal, Nembutal, Seconal, phenobarbital), benzodiazepines (Librium, Valium), methaqualone (Quaalude), glutethimide (Dorids) and others (Equanil, Placidyl, Valmid).
Drugs are all chemical substances that cause physical, mental, emotional or behavioral changes in an individual. Addiction is the use of a legal or illegal chemical that causes physical, mental, emotional or behavioral disorders in a person. Hallucinogens are drugs that affect sensation, thinking, self-esteem and emotions. Hallucinogens include LSD (acid, microdot), mescaline and peyote (mexc, pimples, cacti), amphetamine variants (PMA, STP, DOB), phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust, pork), phencyclidine analogues (PCE, PCPy, TCP) and others (psilocybin, psilocyne). Hashish is the resinous exudate of the cannabis or hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). Heroin is a semi-synthetic derivative of morphine. Mandrax is a trade name for methaqualone, a pharmaceutical sedative. Marijuana is the dried leaf of the cannabis or hemp plant (Cannabis sativa).