The peyote ( ; Lophophora williamsii ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. Peyote is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl peyōtl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root peyōni, "to glisten".Other sources, apparently incorrectly, translate the Nahuatl word as "divine messenger". p. 396. p. 246. See in Wiktionary.
It is native to southern North America, primarily found in desert scrub and limestone-rich areas of northern Mexico and south Texas, particularly in the Chihuahuan Desert at elevations of 100–1500 meters. It flowers from March to May, and sometimes as late as September. Its flowers are pink or white, with thigmotactic anthers (like Opuntia). It is a small, spineless cactus that grows in clusters, produces edible fruits, and contains psychoactive alkaloids—primarily mescaline—at concentrations of about 0.4% when fresh and up to 6% when dried.
Peyote is a slow-growing cactus that can be cultivated more rapidly through techniques such as grafting, and while wild populations in regions like south Texas have declined due to harvesting, cultivation, and the use of alternatives like San Pedro are being explored as potential conservation approaches.
It has been used for over 5,000 years by Indigenous peoples of the Americas for ceremonial, Spirituality, and folk medicine purposes. Its effects last up to 12 hours. The Native American Church considers ingestion of peyote a sacrament and uses it in all-night healing ceremonies to connect with the spiritual world. Native American Church members often personify peyote as a divine spirit akin to Jesus. In Wixarika (Huichol people) culture, peyote is considered the soul of their religion and a visionary sacrament that connects them to their principal deities — corn, deer, peyote, and the eagle. Peyote and its psychoactive component mescaline are generally controlled substances worldwide, but many laws—including in Canada and the United States—exempt its use in authentic Native American religious ceremonies, with U.S. federal law and some states allowing such ceremonial use regardless of race.
The cactus produces flowers sporadically; these are followed by small edible pink fruit. The club-shaped to elongated, fleshy fruits are bare and more or less rosy colored. At maturity, they are brownish-white and dry. The fruits do not burst open on their own and they are between long. They contain black, pear-shaped seeds that are 1 to 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide. The seeds require hot and humid conditions to germinate. Peyote contains a large spectrum of phenethylamine alkaloids. The principal one is mescaline for which the content of Lophophora williamsii is about 0.4% fresh (undried) and 3–6% dried.
In addition to psychoactive use, some Native American tribes use the plant in folk medicine. They employ peyote for varied ailments. Although uncommon, use of peyote and mescaline has been associated with poisoning. Peyote contains the alkaloid hordenine (also called peyocactin).
Specimens from a burial cave in west central Coahuila, Mexico have been similarly analyzed and dated to 810 to 1070 CE.
From earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by indigenous peoples, such as the Huichol peopleLumholtz, Carl, Unknown Mexico, New York: Scribners, 1902 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. The religious, ceremonial, and healing uses of peyote may date back over 2000 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. Some users claim the drug connects them to God.
Traditional Navajo belief or ceremonial practice did not mention the use of peyote before its introduction by the neighboring Ute people. The Navajo Nation now has the most members of the Native American Church.
Since 1846, the official Mexican Pharmacopoeia recommended the use of peyote extract in “microdose” as a tonic for the heart.
John Raleigh Briggs (1851–1907) was the first to draw scientific attention of the Western scientific world to peyote.{{cite journal %2FBF02862854 | doi=10.1007/BF02862854 | title=Early peyote research an interdisciplinary study | year=1973 | last1=Bruhn | first1=Jan G. | last2=Holmstedt | first2=Bo | journal=Economic Botany | volume=28 | issue=4 | pages=353–390 | s2cid=6988545 }} Louis Lewin described Anhalonium lewinii in 1888. British sexologist Havelock Ellis self experimented with it on Good Friday 1896, publishing details in 1898."Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise". The Contemporary Review. LXXIII. 1898. Arthur Heffter conducted self experiments on its effects in 1897. Daniel Perrine, "Visions of the Night: Western Medicine Meets Peyote, 1887–1899" , in The Heffter Review of Psychedelic Research, Vol. 2, 2001, p.42, accessed 15 Nov 2009 Similarly, Norway Ethnography Carl Sofus LumholtzLumholtz, Carl, Unknown Mexico, New York: Scribners (1902) 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".Lumholtz, Carl, Unknown Mexico, New York: Scribners (1902), p.358
Peyote can have strong emetic effects, and one death has been attributed to esophageal bleeding caused by vomiting after peyote ingestion in a Native American patient with a history of alcohol abuse.K B Nolte and R E Zumwalt. "Fatal peyote ingestion associated with Mallory-Weiss lacerations." West J Med. 1999 Jun; 170(6): 328. Peyote is also known to cause potentially serious variations in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and mydriasis.Nole and Zumwalt 1999
Research into the Huichol natives of central-western Mexico, who have taken peyote regularly for an estimated 1,500 years or more, found no evidence of chromosome damage in either men or women.Dorrance; Janiger; and Teplitz (1975), "Effect of peyote on human chromosomes: Cytogenic study of the Huichol Indians of northern Mexico." JAMA 234:299–302.
According to a statement made by Gertrude Bonnin in 1916, a member of the Sioux tribe, the use of Peyote had been the direct cause of death among 25 Ute people in last two years.
Peyote is consumed during an all-night healing ceremony inside a hogan, a traditional Navajo building, or a tipi. The ritual starts around 8 P.M Saturday, and includes prayer, singing, sacramental eating of peyote, water rites, and contemplation. It concludes with a communion breakfast on Sunday morning.
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.
Following the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994, United States federal law (and many ) protects the harvest, possession, ingestion and cultivation of peyote as part of "bona fide religious ceremonies" the federal statute is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, codified at , "Traditional Indian religious use of the peyote sacrament", exempting only use by Native American persons. US v. Boyll expanded permitted use to all persons engaged in traditional Indian religious use, regardless of race. All US states with the exception of Idaho, Utah, and Texas allow usage by non-native, non-enrolled persons in the context of ceremonies of the Native American Church. Some states such as Arizona additionally exempt any general bona fide religious activity or spiritual intent. US jurisdictions enacted these specific statutory exemptions in reaction to the US 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. Though use in Native American Church ceremonies or traditional Indian religious use, regardless of race, is legal under US federal law and additional uses are legal under some state laws, peyote is listed by the United States DEA as a Schedule I controlled substance.
The US military prohibits inductees from enlistment for prior drug usage, however past usage of peyote is permissible if found to be used in accordance with Native American cultural practices.
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