Mescaline, abuse

Crude preparations of mescaline (61) from peyote were first reported by the Spanish as they learned of its use from the natives of Mexico during the Spanish invasion of that country in the sixteenth century. The colorful history (44) of mescaline has drawn attention to its use as a hallucinogen and even today it is in use among natives of North and South America. Although in connection with dmg abuse complaints, mescaline is considered dangerous, it has been reported (45) that it is not a narcotic nor is it habituating. It was also suggested that its sacramental use in the Native American Church of the United States be permitted since it appears to provoke only visual hallucination while the subject retains clear consciousness and awareness. 

Recent controversy about the recreational abuse and potential therapeutic use of designer drugs has focused attention on MDA (methylenedioxyampheta-mine HCl) and structurally related phenylisopropylamine compounds, including MDMA istructural analogs of the psychomotor stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, and produce stimulant and/or hallucinogenic effects (Shulgin 1978). 

Schedule I—The drug or other substance has (1) a high potential for abuse, (2) no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and (3) a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. Examples Ecstasy, heroin, marijuana, and the hallucinogens peyote, mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD. 

Schedule I Substances with no accepted medicinal use in the United States and a high potential for abuse for example, heroin, marijuana, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, and psilocybin. 

Mescaline is said to be the oldest known hallucinogenic drug. Before drugs were manufactured in a lab, cooked up in someone s basement, or stolen from a medicine cabinet for illegal and abusive use, they were found in plants. Often, drugs in plants were discovered quite accidentally. 

When the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act (Public Law 91-513) made mescaline and peyote a Schedule I, hallucinogen, the free-flowing use of the cactus as a street drug slowed dramatically. 

LSD is generally considered cross-tolerant with mescaline but not with psilocybin—meaning that use of LSD a day before taking mescaline will reduce the impact of the mescaline (less tolerance develops if the order of the compounds is reversed). It is well established that LSD is cross-tolerant with itself—self-limiting, in the sense that if a second dose is taken a day later the effects will be considerably diminished. This tolerance endures significantly for three days and does not fully dissipate for a week. Abram Hoffer has remarked that LSD is its own greatest enemy. This feature acts as a control on human abuse of this drug. 

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, mescaline could be purchased from several chemical supply houses in the form of sulfate or hydrochloride crystals. In 1970, mescaline and peyote were "scheduled as part of a Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which established penalties for possession, manufacture or distribution "a term of imprisonment of not more than 15 years, a fine of not more than 25,000, or both. Title 21 proscribes possession of "all parts of the plant presently classified as Lophophora williamsii, whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, any extract from any part of such a plant, every compound, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such a plant, its seeds or extracts. ... 

Mescaline does not have a therapeutic use. It is used as a Native American religious intoxicant. It is also a drug of abuse. 

MMDA (methoxymethylenedioxyamphetamine) is a phenylethylamine compound structurally related to amphetamine and mescaline. It is a potent psychotropic (hallucinogenic) but is not used in therapeutics. It is a drug of abuse. 

Schedule I Highest risk for abuse. May be available for investigational use only. Includes LSD, heroin, marijuana, and mescaline. 

Many natural and synthetic hallucinogens are abused by humans. The natural substances most commonly abused are N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline, and psilocybin (see Section 6.11). The most studied and the first abused (prototypic) synthetic hallucinogen is iysergic acid diethyiamide (LSD). 

---