Peyote

:"Mescalito" redirects here. For the Ryan Bingham album, see Mescalito (album).

Lophophora williamsii (), better known by its common name Peyote (from the Nahuatl word peyotl), is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.

It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico. It is found primarily in the Chihuahuan desert and in the states of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi among scrub, especially where there is limestone.

Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, it is used world wide as an entheogen and supplement to various transcendence practices including meditation, psychonautics, and psychedelic psychotherapy. Peyote has a long history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous Americans. It flowers from March through May, and sometimes as late as September. The flowers are pink, with thigmotactic anthers (like Opuntia).

Description

The cactus flowers sporadically and produces small edible pink fruit. The seeds are small and black, requiring hot and humid conditions to germinate. Peyote contains a large spectrum of phenethylamine alkaloids, of which the principal one is mescaline. The mescaline content of Lophophora williamsii is about 0.4% fresh (undried) and 3-6% dried.

The top of the cactus that grows above ground, also referred to as the crown, consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut above the roots and sometimes dried. When done properly, the top of the root will form a callus and the root will not rot. When poor harvesting techniques are used, however, the entire plant dies. Currently in South Texas, peyote grows naturally but has been over-harvested, to the point that the state has listed it as an endangered species. The buttons are generally chewed, or boiled in water to produce a psychoactive tea. Peyote is extremely bitter and most people are nauseated before they feel the onset of the psychoactive effects.

Distribution and habitat

L. williamsii is native to southern North America, mainly distributed in Mexico. In the United States it grows in southern Texas. In Mexico it grows in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in the north to San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. It is primarily found at elevations of 100 to 1500 m and exceptionally up to 1900 metres in the Chihuahuan desert, but is also present in the more mild climate of the state of Tamaulipas. Its habitat is primarily in desert scrub, particularly thorn scrub in Tamaulipas. It is common on or near limestone hills.

Uses

of mescaline, the primary psychoactive compound in peyote]] Common doses for pure mescaline range from roughly 200 to 400mg. This translates to a dose of roughly 10 to 20g of dried buttons of average potency; however, potency varies considerably between samples, making it difficult to measure doses accurately without first extracting the mescaline. The effects last about 10 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).

In addition to psychoactive use, some Native American tribes use the plant for its curative properties. They employ peyote to treat such varied ailments as toothache, pain in childbirth, fever, breast pain, skin diseases, rheumatism, diabetes, colds, and blindness. The US Dispensatory lists peyote under the name Anhalonium, and states it can be used in various preparations for neurasthenia, hysteria and asthma. Screening for antimicrobial activity of peyote extracts in various solvents showed positive microbial inhibition. The principal antibiotic agent, a water-soluble crystalline substance separated from an ethanol extract of the plant, was given the name peyocactin.

In the same study, mice were used for preliminary animal toxicity tests and protection studies to determine the degree of the inhibitory action of peyocactin against normally fatal infections with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. In every case, the mice that had been given a peyocactin extract survived, while those in the control group died within 60 hours after infection. Peyocactin proved effective against 18 strains of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, several other bacteria, and a fungus. (RMHI) or any neuropsychological measures...", and that they scored significantly better than non-users on the "general positive affect" and "psychological well-being" measures of the RMHI, a standard instrument used to diagnose psychological problems and determine overall mental health. By contrast, alcohol abusers did significantly worse than the control group (non-users) in all measures of the RMHI.

History

Peyote is known to have been used since the middle of the Archaic period in the Americas by the people of the Oshara Tradition in the Southwest. In 2005 researchers used radiocarbon dating and alkaloid analysis to study two specimens of peyote buttons found in archaeological digs from a site called Shumla Cave No. 5 on the Rio Grande in Texas. The results dated the specimens to between 3780 and 3660 B.C.. Alkaloid extraction yielded approximately 2% of the alkaloids including mescaline in both samples. This indicates that native North Americans were likely to have used peyote since at least five and a half thousand years ago.

Specimens from a burial cave in west central Coahuila, Mexico have been similarly analysed and dated to 810 to 1070 AD.

From earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by indigenous peoples, such as the Huichol of northern Mexico and by various Native American tribes, native to or relocated to the Southern Plains states of present-day Oklahoma and Texas. Its usage was also recorded among various Southwestern Athabaskan-language tribal groups. The Tonkawa, the Mescalero and Lipan Apache were the source or first practitioners of peyote religion in the regions north of present-day Mexico. They were also the principal group to introduce peyote to newly arrived migrants, such as the Comanche and Kiowa from the Northern Plains. Documented evidence of the religious, ceremonial, and healing uses of peyote dates back over 2,000 years.

Under the auspices of what came to be known as the Native American Church, in the 19th century, American Indians in more widespread regions to the north began to use peyote in religious practices, as part of a revival of native spirituality. Its members refer to peyote as "the sacred medicine", and use it to combat spiritual, physical, and other social ills. Concerned about the drug's psychoactive effects, between the 1880s and 1930s, U.S. authorities attempted to ban Native American religious rituals involving peyote, including the Ghost Dance. Today the Native American Church is one among several religious organizations to use peyote as part of its religious practice.

Peyote and its associated religion are fairly recent arrivals among the Navajo in the Southwestern United States, and can be firmly dated to the early 20th century. Traditional Navajo belief or ceremonial practice did not mention the use of peyote before its introduction by the neighboring Utes. The Navajo Nation now has the most members of the Native American Church. According to some estimates, 20 percent or more of the Navajo population are practitioners.

Dr. John Raleigh Briggs (1851–1907) was the first to draw scientific attention of the Western scientific world to peyote. Arthur Heffter conducted self experiments on its effects in 1897. Similarly, pioneering Norwegian ethnographer Carl Sofus Lumholtz studied and wrote about the use of peyote among the Indians of Mexico. Lumholtz also reported that, lacking other intoxicants, Texas Rangers captured by Union forces during the American Civil War soaked peyote buttons in water and became "intoxicated with the liquid". Arguably, this is the first documented use of peyote by non-native Americans.

Cultural Significance

Huichol Culture

The Huichol religion consists of four principal deities, the trinity of Corn, Blue Deer and Peyote, and the eagle, all descended from their Sun God, "Tao Jreeku". Peyote's importance can sometimes supersede other deities as in ethnographer, Stacy B Schaefer’s, documentation of a conversation with a San Andres Shaman, "Peyote is everything, it is the crossing of the souls, it is everything there is. Without peyote nothing would exist". Schefuer has interpreted this to mean that peyote is the soul of their religious culture and a visionary sacrament that opens a pathway to the other deities.

Legality

United States

Where there is exclusive federal jurisdiction or state law is not racially limited, peyote use by Native American Church members is legal and racially neutral in the United States. This exemption from federal criminalization is as old as creation of federal law creating peyote related offenses.

Code Of Federal Regulations, SPECIAL EXEMPT PERSONS

Section 1307.31 Native American Church. The listing of peyote as a controlled substance in Schedule I does not apply to the nondrug use of peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church, and members of the Native American Church so using peyote are exempt from registration. Any person who manufactures peyote for or distributes peyote to the Native American Church, however, is required to obtain registration annually and to comply with all other requirements of law.

U.S. v. BOYLL, 774 F.Supp. 1333 (D.N.M. 1991) addresses this racial issue specifically and concludes:

For the reasons set out in this Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court holds that, pursuant to 21 C.F.R. § 1307.31 (1990), the classification of peyote as a Schedule I controlled substance, see 21 U.S.C. § 812(c), Schedule I(c)(12), does not apply to the importation, possession or use of peyote for bona fide ceremonial use by members of the Native American Church, regardless of race.

United States federal law (and many state laws) protects the harvest, possession, consumption and cultivation of peyote as part of "bonafide religious ceremonies" (the federal statute is 42 USC §1996a, "Traditional Indian religious use of the peyote sacrament," exempting only use by Native American persons, while some state laws exempt any general "bonafide religious activity"). American jurisdictions enacted these specific statutory exemptions in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Employment Division v. Smith, , which held that laws prohibiting the use of peyote that do not specifically exempt religious use nevertheless do not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Peyote is listed by the United States DEA as a Schedule I controlled substance.

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, and 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. Those with Native American blood are allowed to consume and cultivate Peyote in all 50 states while non-native Peyote use is only protected in five states: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Oregon. Native Americans have subsequently been allowed to answer "no" on armed forces application question "Have you ever used illegal drugs"? with respect to peyote.

Canada

Mescaline is listed as a Schedule III controlled substance under the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but peyote is specifically exempt. which has been growing for roughly one year.]]

International

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. However, this exemption would apply only if the peyote cactus were ever explicitly added to the Schedules of the Psychotropic Convention. Currently the Convention applies only to chemicals. Peyote and other psychedelic plants are neither listed nor regulated by the Convention. See Convention on Psychotropic Substances#Psychedelic plants and fungi.

Popular culture

Many authors, especially those of the Beat Generation, wrote about their experiences with peyote, or were otherwise influenced by the plant. The image of the peyote plant has made its way into other media as well.

Film and television

In Sex and The City 2, Aiden refers to peyote that he did in Arizona that "blew my head off"

In the film The Crow: Wicked Prayer. The Satanic group uses peyote to dust their food.

On a 2010 episode of the Spike TV show 1000 Ways To Die, in a segment entitled "Succu Offed", two men steal a saguaro from the desert and celebrate by drinking mezcal and ingesting peyote. This causes them to experience a shared hallucination, in which the cactus punishes them for stealing the plant. This makes them run around frantically in fear, each of them falling over a cactus. Cactus needles pierce one character's eyeballs and brain and an agave plant impales the other character through the heart.

Beavis ingested peyote in the film Beavis and Butthead Do America, in which Beavis has a "trip" with music by White Zombie.

In the movie The Doors, Jim Morrison and the band go to Death Valley and have a spiritual experience with peyote.

In The Simpsons episode (10x6) D'oh-in in the Wind, Homer stumbles upon and juices the hippies' "personal vegetables", which causes the public to hallucinate. Police Chief Wiggum performs a raid and sticks his finger in one of the bottles of "vegetable juice", after which he exclaims: "My God, it's nothing but carrots and peyote".

In the eighty-third episode of the TV series The Sopranos, "Kennedy and Heidi" (episode 6x18), Tony and a stripper named Sonya use some peyote. The drug initially makes Tony nauseous. Afterward, while still high, Tony and Sonya earn money gambling in one of the Las Vegas casinos (signalling the end of Tony's losing streak) and watch a sunrise in the desert, at which Tony famously exclaims, "I get it!".

In the movie Young Guns, the band of outlaws led by Billy the Kid consume a peyote drink prepared by their Mexican-Indian companion, while hiding from a pursuing posse. They then proceed through a hostile Indian village, while under the influence. The Indians all look at them with amusement and Charlie asks, "Hey, Chavez, how come they ain't killing us?" to which Dirty Steve answers, "Because we're in the spirit world...They can't see us."

In the movie Zoolander, hippie model Hansel talks about his psychedelic experience with peyote, falling off Mount Vesuvius, and later realizing he had never even been to such a place.

In the television series "True Blood" a hoax hoodoo practitioner administers the drugs to both Tara and her Mother, it attempts to cure them of anger and alcoholism.

In the movie "Fanboys", Hutch, Linus, Windows, and Bottler cross paths with a native American at a bar who gave them a batch of guacamole with Peyote as an ingredient. They had hallucinations that contrasted with the point of their quest as major Star Wars fans.

Dead Man (1995) Johnny Depp has a Peyote vision, while his caretaker native American "Nobody" is the one who induces peyote.

In the movie , Ricky's dad Reese asks his son how long it had been since he had last seen him. When Ricky says that it has been ten years, Reese replies, "Ten years? Man, I gotta lay off the peyote."

In the television series Spin City, Season 2 - Episode 19, Mike Flaherty (Michael J Fox) drinks peyote accidentally when he is in a meeting with a Native American Chief.

In the TV series "Family Guy", Season 9, Episode 18, Peter Griffin announces to his Meg and Chris whom he home-schools that he will take unorthodox teaching methods a step further by doing 'Peyote in the desert'. Subsequently the three characters are seen high in the desert.

In the TV series "Bones", Season 1, Episode 17, The Skull in the Desert, Peyote plays a role in finding the killer.

Games

In the 2004 video game, , The Truth (an aging conspiracy theorist hippie) takes several British band members on a "peyote safari" in the desert, and due to one of the band members spiking a drink (presumably peyote tea), they end up extremely disoriented, not having any recollection of the night before (which involves sleeping with pigs at a snake farm).

Literature

In Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel Against the Day, Frank Traverse consumes hikuli, a live cactus plant that induces hallucinogenic effects.

In Robert M. Pirsig's semi-autobiographical sequel to , , the author starts by wanting to write a book on Native American's and how they understand "Quality", and writes of experiencing several rituals including peyote.

William S. Burroughs' first account of a peyote experience can be found in his seminal work Junky; at the end of the novel, the protagonist-narrator describes a detailed episode under the influence of the plant in sundry locations in Mexico City.

In William S. Burroughs' semi-autobiographical novel Queer, the protagonist and his unrequited lover are setting out to search the Amazon jungle for yage, another psychedelic drug, prompting the protagonist to recount his idiosyncratic struggles with the peyote experience. In the 1970s, the early writings of Carlos Castaneda, sparked a resurgence of interest in using peyote as a psychoactive drug.

Author Aldous Huxley published The Doors of Perception in 1953, which describes his experience with mescaline. (The title of Huxley's novel is an allusion to Sir William Blake. Blake was well known to have both hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations, both of which are associated with the use of mescaline, and the images he experienced were then transcribed for us in his artwork. There is some chemical similarity between the carboxyl group in certain compounds of both tetrahydrocannabinal (THC) and other comparable psychedelic hallucinogens with neuro-transmitter qualities such as mescaline, which binds to our psycho-reactive receptors in our lymbic system.)

Ken Kesey, while working as a night watchman at a psychiatric ward, was peyote-inspired to write his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "'Peyote... inspired my chief narrator, because it was after choking down eight of the little cactus plants that I wrote the first three pages.' (As quoted in John Clark Pratt's "Introduction to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", The Viking Critical Library, ed. John Clark Pratt, expanded edition, 1996)." Michael McClure wrote his great "Peyote Poem" after experimenting with peyote and other psychedelic drugs.

An image of the plant, and by extension its possible usage, is found in the gonzo fist symbol attributed to Hunter S. Thompson.

Hunter S. Thompson recounts experiences with mescaline, most notably in his novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Music

Jim Morrison, lead singer of the band The Doors was known to experiment with peyote.

The Eagles song, "Bitter Creek", contains the line: "Oh peyote/She tried to show me/You know there ain't no cause to weep/at Bitter Creek."

Tool's song "Third Eye" makes reference to Peyote through the lyrics "Like phosphorescent desert buttons".

Asher Roth in "Fat Raps Remix" says the line: "Or I'll take peyote/Roam the rivers of Nairobi."

In Istanbul there is a concert venue named Peyote, mainly featuring indie bands.

Willie D ,Rapper from Houston has a song on his 1992 Album I'm Goin'out Like a Soldier called Pass The Peyote.

Other

Jesse Custer, the main character of the graphic novel series, Preacher (comic), took Peyote late in the series in an attempt to rediscover his lost memories of when he encountered God in the Monument Valley.

References

Further reading

Calabrese, Joseph D. "The Therapeutic Use of Peyote in the Native American Church" Chapter 3 in Vol. 1 of Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogens as Treatments Michael J. Winkelman and Thomas B. Roberts (editors) (2007). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.

Feeney, Kevin. "The Legal Basis for Religious Peyote Use." Chapter 13 in Vol 1 of Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogens as Treatments Michael J. Winkelman and Thomas B. Roberts (editors) (2007). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.

Baggot, Matthew J. A Note on the Safety of Peyote when Used Religiously. Council on Spiritual Practices, 1996.

External links

Peyote Way Church of God

Botany of Peyote

Notes on growing Lophophora

Peyote Won't Rot Your Brain

Peyote news page - Alcohol and Drugs History Society

The Vaults of Erowid: Peyote

USDA: NRCS Plants Profile Lophophora williamsii

Category:Lophophora Category:Entheogens Category:Herbal and fungal hallucinogens Category:Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Category:Flora of Texas Category:Flora of New Mexico Category:Flora of Northeastern Mexico Category:Flora of the U.S. Rio Grande Valleys Category:Flora of Zacatecas Category:Medicinal plants Category:Native American Church Category:Native American religion Category:Huichol Category:Psychedelic phenethylamine carriers Category:Religion and politics Category:Nahuatl words and phrases