Substance info: mescaline

Mescaline is a psychoactive phenethylamine chemical, best known for being the primary psychoactive component in peyote and San Pedro cacti. It was first isolated by Arthur Heffter in 1897 when he was trying to identify the mind-altering principals in peyote. Mescaline is considered one of the classic psychedelic / entheogens, with a long history of traditional use in Central America (in the form of cacti), formalized modern ritual use in the Native American Church, considered by many experienced users as uniquely powerful, and widely known througout the world because of the many accounts of its use. Both synthetic and extracted crystaline mescaline are available on the underground markets, but both are rare and usually quite expensive.

Dose

A standard dose for oral mescaline use ranges from 200-500 mg. One of the more common myths around its use is that it can come in the form of tiny microdot pills. Even 200 mg of material fills a medium size capsule, so obviously microdots are not mescaline.

Mescaline concentration in cacti varies from one species to the next. Peyote is traditionally eaten in pairs of buttons, with anwhere from a single pair (2 buttons) to dozens of pairs of buttons (24 or more) being consumed over the course of an evening/night. Dosages of columnar cacti like San pedro and Peruvianus are generally measured by the number of inches of cacti consumed. One rule of thumb for a relatively potent variety is one foot of cacti (approx 4 inches in diameter) per dose, another says a piece of cacti the length from your elbow to your fingertips.

Price

Pure crystaline mescaline is very rare in the underground and is usually expensive when available (40+ USD per dose). Live trichocereus range in price from 10$ per foot for the cheapest cut columns to 80$ per foot or more for rooted columns. Prepared trichocereus is almost unheard of for sale. We have no data on the current price of peyote buttons in the US. (August 2000).

Law

Mescaline is illegal to possess in the United States (schedule I). It is Schedule I by United Nations Convention and is illegal to possess in most countries. Mescaline containing cacti, however, are controlled very differently from country to country. In the U.S. peyote possession is federally illegal except for some native American ritual use, while some states allow even broader use. Canada excepts peyote from its scheduling as do some other countries. Many other species of mescaline containing cacti are uncontrolled in both the U.S. and other countries.

History

Mescaline was first isolated and identified by German chemist Arthur Heffter in 1897, but the use of mescaline cacti has been documented in Central & South America for thousands of years. Immediately after European subjugation of the native populations in the Americas, Peyote and San Pedro use became persecuted by Christian zealots and the mescaline-using traditions were forced to go underground. In the late 1800s these traditions slowly began a resurgance as North American indians began incorporating peyote use into their religious practices and persecution in South America diminished. Peyote was banned federally in the United States in 1967 and was placed in Schedule I when the Controlled Substance Act was passed in 1971.

Physical and mental effects

The visual distortions produced by mescaline are somewhat different from those of LSD. The subjective "visuals" are not true Hallucinations as they are consistent with actual experience and typically intensifications of the different stimulus (objects and sounds), not the appearance of non existent fanciful objects or actions that the user believes are real. Prominence of color is distinctive, appearing brilliant and intense. Placing a strobing light in front of closed eyelids can produce brilliant visual effects at the peak of the experience. Recurring visual patterns observed during the mescaline experience include stripes, checkerboards, angular spikes, multicolored dots, and very simple fractals which turn very complex. Aldous Huxley described these self transforming amorphous shapes as like animated stained glass illuminated from light coming through the eyelids.

Like LSD, mescaline induces distortions of form and kaleidoscopic experiences but which manifest more clearly with eyes closed and under low lighting conditions; however, all of these visual descriptions are purely subjective. Research into the root causes for the patterns associated with mescaline, LSD and DMT have given rise to mathematical theories that explain the biological processes that are disrupted by molecules like mescaline.

As with LSD, synesthesia can occur especially with the help of music. An unusual but unique characteristic of mescaline use is the "geometricization" of three-dimensional objects. The object can appear flattened and distorted, similar to the presentation of a Cubist painting.
Mescaline elicits a pattern of sympathetic arousal, with the peripheral nervous system being a major target for this drug. Effects last for up to 12 hours.

Risks

Any substance is potentially harmful, but mescaline is one of the safest drugs known. There have been no verified human deaths from mescaline ever, although K. Trout states that there is one unconfirmed (and unconfirmable) report of a person who died during military experiments with the drug, after receiving a 15 gram dose intravenously (or about 150-200mg/kg).In experiments with rats, the LD50 for mescaline has been established in the range of 800-1200mg/kg orally.Considering the human dose of mescaline is around 200-500mg orally, this means you would have to try very hard to take a fatal dose. It would be extremely unlikely to happen accidentally.