Mescaline is a drug that can be artificially created in laboratory conditions, but is most often extracted from cacti plants. It’s a drug that has been consumed for more than 3,000 years, having its roots in the Native cultures in North and South America. You might recognize this drug by a more popular name: peyote.
Facts About Mescaline
1. About 7% of high school seniors say that they have used mescaline at least once in their lives.
2. Synthetic mescaline may cost as much as $200 per gram, with the average dose needed to produce hallucinations being 0.5g.
3. Canadian reports indicate that 90% of peyote products are actually PCP and LSD combinations.
4. Peyote is 4000x less potent than LSD.
5. There are no breakdowns available for ethnic or demographic usage of mescaline available in reports.
6. Between 1980-1987, only 19 pounds of peyote were seized by drug enforcement officials.
7. There has been no trafficking reports of peyote on file with drug tracking agencies and legal distribution is controlled by local laws – which do not track usage information.
8. Hallucinogen use on college campuses has risen by more than 33% since the mid-1990s.
9. For those who do take peyote, they report taking up to 30 “buttons” of the drug at a time, but a common reaction to the drug is vomiting.
10. Because of the body’s adverse reaction to high levels of mescaline, it is very rare to overdose on this drug.
11. Nausea, sweating, and tremors are experienced with mescaline when doses of 300-500 mg are taken.
12. Mescaline and ecstasy are often taken together. This drug combination is called a “Love Trip.”
13. There are more than 250,000 people in the United States who are legally permitted to use mescaline under specific conditions.
14. Tolerance to peyote or mescaline typically develops rapidly with repeated daily use, generally within 3-6 days.
15. The Native American Church was formed in 1918 specifically to preserve the right to use peyote for religious ceremonies. By 1922, there were an estimated 13,000-22,000 ceremonial users of peyote in the U.S.
16. Peyote does not include the chemical properties to make it a physically addictive drug, nor does it promote brain damage after prolonged use.
17. A recent study found no evidence of psychological or cognitive deficits among Native Americans that use peyote regularly in a religious setting.
18. The active ingredient mescaline has also been associated, in at least one report, to fetal abnormalities.
19. For those who do use hallucinogens, 1 in 4 will choose LSD, not mescaline, as their primary drug of choice.
How Mescaline is Produced
The cacti that produces this drug has a central place in many local cultures. It is treasured, almost revered because of the hallucinogenic qualities that it has. Some cultures even base the path of an individuals life based on the experiences that they have with this particular drug. It can be chewed, brewed in tea, or even consumed in capsule form.
What is unique about mescaline is that in its natural form, it can only be created from cacti that are found in the New World.
The effects of peyote are very similar to LSD, but those who use it say that the state of mind they experience is much more lucid. It has been illegal to use in the United States since 1971, but as the statistics will show, it may not really matter if it is legal for general use or not. It is one of the least popular drugs that is available today.
Effects and Impact of Drugs
Mescaline is a difficult drug to track down because most data sources exclude this drug when drug use is being tracked. Data collection after 1998 includes mescaline as an “other hallucinogen,” grouping it together with similar drugs without any independent statistics.
This means as drugs go, there are many that are much worse than mescaline. The problem with street mescaline, however, is that it may be more PCP or even LSD than peyote. Because these drugs are so much stronger than mescaline, the differences in the amount of the drug being taken could create serious health consequences.
It is also clear to see that mescaline is not popular whatsoever as an illegal drug. When 19 pounds of it were seized in a 7 year period, there were 15 million pounds of other illegal drugs seized as well. Kids aren’t abusing mescaline and the ones that are using it are doing so with religious or cultural intent.