Mescaline is a potent psychedelic drug that is found naturally in a few varieties of cactus that grow in Southwest North America and South America. It has a long history of both religious and recreational use in America and ranks as one of the most popular psychedelics. There are three main species of mescaline-containing cactus that will be covered in this article.
For those of you who don’t know much about mescaline, I will begin with a short introduction concerning its use and effects. The mescaline experience begins about a half hour after ingestion, with a feeling of intoxication accompanied in many cases by nausea and vomiting. The adverse physical effects generally dissipate within the first hour. After this, the psychedelic effects of mescaline begin to manifest themselves in increasing degrees. These effects include euphoria, auditory and visual hallucinations, shifting frames of consciousness, increased self-awareness, and intensification of stimuli. Closed and open-eye visuals are common with sufficient doses of mescaline. Like LSD and psilocybin, the mescaline experience can last for a significant amount of time, between six and twelve hours.
The three most common species of cactus that contain mescaline are the peyote, San Pedro, and the Peruvian Torch cactus. Peyote is the only one of these three types of cactus that has attained an illegal schedule I status by the Drug Enforcement Agency. San Pedro and Peruvian Torch cacti are not illegal to own and use for normal horticultural purposes, but one can be prosecuted for attempting to either consume the plants for psychoactive purposes or to extract the mescaline contained within them.
Peyote is a small, spineless, button-like cactus that grows close the ground and is indigenous to arid regions from Central Mexico to Northern Texas. It has a long history of use with Native American tribes in the Southwest, which has earned it an exempt status from the DEA’s schedule I provided that only members of the Native American Church use it for ceremonial purposes. Mescaline was first extracted from the peyote cactus in the late 19th century, and this mescaline was the first hallucinogenic compound isolated by man. The peyote cactus contains more constant and reliable amounts of mescaline than San Pedro or Peruvian Torch cacti, which is potentially one of the reasons behind its illegality. Recently, peyote has become a threatened species of cactus due to increased knowledge of its mescaline and overharvesting. The cactus takes up to two decades to reach three inches in diameter, so generations take long periods of time to establish themselves.
The San Pedro cactus does not resemble peyote in the least aside from the fact that it is blue-green. It grows much more rapidly than peyote and is a branched cactus, reaching heights of ten to fifteen feet. Although the San Pedro cactus can potentially produce large quantities of mescaline due to its availability and size, the actual mescaline content varies greatly from cactus to cactus. Therefore, unless a user is absolutely sure of the potency of San Pedro or extracts a purified, crystalline form of mescaline from the cactus, it is inadvisable to try and dose with it blindly. It is possible to overdose on mescaline, and the variability of potency of the San Pedro cactus pose a potential danger to the curious mescaline novice. In terms of effects, users have described the San Pedro cactus as more pleasant than peyote due to a diminished likelihood of nausea. Furthermore, San Pedro is described as producing more of a body experience than a mind-trip, somewhat similar to psilocybin.
The Peruvian Torch cactus is a cactus indigenous to South America in the Andes Mountains. Like the San Pedro cactus, the Peruvian Torch cactus can reach great heights of up to twenty feet. However, it lacks branches and bears a single stem that is blue-green in color. Also like the San Pedro cactus, it contains varying degrees of mescaline. Some varieties of Peruvian Torch cactus might contain potent quantities of mescaline, while others may contain little if any at all. Like the San Pedro, this cactus is legal to own as a horticultural plant, but not for the use or extraction of its mescaline.
Mescaline is another example of the diversity of substances that plants can provide human beings. The curious cactus once again shows that there is more than what meets the eye of the casual observer.
