Peyote

Other Names : Lophophora Williamsii, Mesc, Peyoto, Buttons, Cactus
Peyote is a small, spineless cactus, Lophophora williamsii, whose principal active ingredient is the hallucinogen mescaline. From earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by natives in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a part of traditional religious rites. Mescaline can be extracted from peyote or produced synthetically. The top of the cactus above ground — also referred to as the crown — consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut from the roots and dried. These buttons are generally chewed or soaked in water to produce an intoxicating liquid.

Special Precautions of Peyote

• Psychoactive effect : Once ingested, peyote can cause feelings of nausea before the desired mental effects appear, resulting in altered states of perception and feeling. Other effects can include increased body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure; loss of appetite, sleeplessness, numbness, weakness, tremors. Effects can be different during each use due to varying potency, the amount ingested, and the user’s expectations, mood and surroundings. On some trips, users experience sensations that are enjoyable. Others can include terrifying thoughts and anxiety, fear of insanity, fear of death, or fear of losing control. Some users experience “flashbacks”, or hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), which are reoccurrences of hallucinations long after ingesting the drug. The causes of these effects, which in some users occur after a single experience with the drug, are not known.
• 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.
• Peyote is also known to cause potentially serious variations in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.
• A four-year large-scale study of Navajo who regularly ingested peyote found only one case where peyote was associated with a psychotic break in an otherwise healthy person; a handful of other psychotic episodes were attributed to peyote use in conjunction with pre-existing substance abuse or mental health problems.
• Later research found that those with pre-existing mental health issues are more likely to have adverse reactions to peyote. Peyote use does not appear to be associated with Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (a.k.a. "flashbacks") after religious use.
• Peyote does not seem to be associated with physical dependence, but some users may experience psychological dependence.

The benefits of Dandelion are

• 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.
• Peyote also contains an alkaloid which was given the name peyocactin. It is now called hordenine.
• Spiritual/Psychoactive use : When used for its psychoactive properties, common doses for pure mescaline range from roughly 200 to 400mg. This translates to a dose of roughly 10 to 20g of dried peyote 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.

references

• Shulgin, Alexander; Ann Shulgin (September 1991). PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley, California: Transform Press. ISBN 0-9630096-0-5. OCLC 25627628.
• McCleary, J.A.; Sypherd, P.S.; Walkington, D.L. (1960). "Antibiotic Activity of an Extract Of Peyote [Lophophora williamsii (Lemaire) Coulter]". Economic Botany 14: 247–249. doi:10.1007/bf02907956.
• Hyman, S. E. & Malenka, R. C. (2001). Addiction and the brain: The neurobiology of compulsion and its persistence. Neuroscience. 2;696
• K B Nolte and R E Zumwalt. Fatal peyote ingestion associated with Mallory-Weiss lacerations. West J Med. 1999 Jun; 170(6): 328.
• Nole and Zumwalt 1999
• Dorrance; Janiger; and Teplitz (1975), "Effect of peyote on human chromosomes: cytogenic study of the huichol indians of northern mexico." JAMA 234:299-302.