Psychedelics peyote

Many people believe that organic or natural psychedelics such as peyote, magic mushrooms and marijuana are safer or produce better trips than synthetic compounds. This is almost certainly false, since any plant material contains hundreds of compounds, many of which have a definite toxicity, but few of which have psychedelic properties (they tend to make you sick, not stoned). The various impurities or the additives (e.g., amphetamine, belladona, strychnine) sometimes found in synthetic preparations are probably no more toxic than many of the compounds found in the psychedelic plants, and like these compounds, such additives or impurities probably have relatively little effect on the trip. 

Sasha had some peyote plants (the natural source of mescaline) growing in front of his house. The DEA had not asked him to remove them, which surprised me in view of Sasha s firm advocacy of the repeal of the prohibition of marijuana and psychedelic drugs - a view, incidentally, with which I fully sympathized. 

This connection to Huxley s Mind at Large motivates primitive cultures to continue to use psychedelics, like peyote and ayahuasca, in their religious ceremonies. 

The N-acetyl analogue has been found in the peyote plant, and it is also a major metabolite of mescaline in man. It is made by the gentle reaction of mescaline with acetic anhydride (a bit too much heat, and the product N-acetyl mescaline will cyclize to a dihydroisoquinoline, itself a fine white crystalline solid, mp 160-161 °C) and can be recrystallized from boiling toluene. A number of human trials with this amide at levels in the 300 to 750 milligrams range have shown it to be with very little activity. At the highest levels there have been suggestions of drowsiness. Certainly there were none of the classic mescaline psychedelic effects. 

If free base mescaline is brought into reaction with ethyl formate (to produce the amide, N-formylmescaline) and subsequently reduced (with lithium aluminum hydride) it is converted to the N-methyl homologue. This base has also bees, found as a trace component in the Peyote cactus. And the effects of N-methylation of other psychedelic drugs have been commented upon elsewhere in these recipes, all with consistently negative results (with the noteworthy exception of the conversion of MDA to MDMA). Here, too, there is no obvious activity in man, although the levels assayed were only up to 25 milligrams. 

One part is the large collection of psychoactive compounds known as the phenethylamines. The first known plant psychedelic was mescaline, or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine. This simple one-ring alkaloid was discovered in the North American dumpling cactus Peyote (Anhalonium williamsii) in the late nineteenth century, and is now known to be a component of over fifty other cacti. Over a dozen other cactus phenethylamines have been isolated and identified, and there are perhaps a hundred synthetic analogues that are now also known to be psychedelic in action. This body of information has been published by my wife Ann and me as a book entitled "PIHKAL A Chemical Love Story." PIHKAL stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved. 

I made a special note about this "Alcohol and peyote (psychedelics generally) are antithetical. Alcohol produces a downward transcendence, peyote an upward one—the difference between leveling up and leveling down. Alcohol allows... 

Correspondence with Dr. Osmond brought additional information and the names of others who were doing research with these psychedelic substances. All were most helpful in sharing with us the results of their work and advising us as to the best ways in which to proceed with our own investigations. At that time we found that we could obtain peyote, a cactus... 

Our explorations with peyote went on, and we were more and more impressed with the importance of the effects of this substance when taken by people with a motivation toward better understanding of themselves and of life, and when given by one with similar motivation and an awareness of the hazards of improper use. Later we experimented with the use of mescaline, the psychedelic alkaloid present in the peyote cactus, and found the effects to be identical with those we had obtained through the use of peyote itself. 

Masters and Jean Houston (1966). Having guided and observed 206 subjects through a large number of LSD and peyote sessions, Masters and Houston proposed the existence of four levels of mental functioning in the psychedelic state sensory, recollective-analytic, symbolic, and integral. 

Unlike other drugs, when a frequent user stops taking mescaline, there are no withdrawal symptoms. In other words, peyote does not cause an addiction, or physical dependence on a drug. However, while using mescaline, a tolerance to psychedelics in general will develop, meaning it will take a larger dose for the user to get the same effects. This tolerance carries over if the user switches to other psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, but does not last if mescaline use is discontinued. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, peyote was legal throughout most of the United States. During the peak of the psychedelic era, dried peyote cactus buttons were readily available through mail-order catalogues. 

PCP is easy and cheap to manufacture but not very popular, so it is often sold as another drug. Most often, it is sold on the street as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. In fact, real THC is almost impossible to obtain on the street. PCP might also be sprayed or sprinkled on oregano, parsley, or another herb and sold as marijuana. Alternatively, lower quality marijuana might be laced with PCP to make it seem more potent. Other drugs that PCP is sold as include LSD, cannabinol, mescaline, psilocybin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, peyote, cocaine, Hawaiian woodrose, and other psychedelics. In... 

LSD is one of many mind drugs that are known as hallucinogens. Also known as psychedelics, these drugs distort perception, cause spaciness and mild euphoria, and produce other unpredictable effects. In addition to LSD, the most common hallucinogens are marijuana, MDMA (ecstasy, rave), PCP, peyote (mescaline), and psilocybin mushrooms (schrooms). -... 

Cluster 2 Peyote, Mescaline and San Pedro, a cluster once considered the most powerful, the "door opener for psychedelics in the 1950s... 

A fair amount of peyote had also become available as interest in psychedelics spread. Many people had read Aldous Huxley s Doors of... 

Mesoamerican Accounts, 103 Peyote Passes to the U.S., 106 Scientific Scrutiny and Diffusion among Non-Indians, 109 A Decade Opening the "Psychedelic Doors, 114 Discovery of Mescaline in Other Cacti, 117 Mescaline and Peyote Go "Underground, 119 Native and Non-native Use under The Bill of Rights, 120 Trekking Back to Peyote Country, 121... 

Huxley s book opened an era when a number of pioneers of the psychedelic movement first turned on. Robert Masters, who published the earliest account of its effects in the sexual realm in his Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality (Julian Press, 1962), had his first experience with peyote during the 1950s in Louisiana. In I960, Arthur Kleps wrote to Delta Chemicals Co. in New York for mescaline sulfate and tried 500 mg. The experience resulted in his leaving his job as a state prison psychologist, in addition to other considerable changes in his life. Here is how he described what o ccurred ... 

Indian peyotists provide the main contemporary example of mescaline and peyote used as a means of psychic exploration. A quarter million practitioners have taken this potent psychedelic—often quite frequently, often for years, often in large amounts without significant physical, psychological or social problems. The exemption provided in the law for members of the Native American Church has in fact fostered a tradition of spiritual growth and communal interaction. 

A myth that purports to explain the bitterness and nausea associated with the psychedelic cacti has gained some currency. Some people believe that the tufts and center of the peyote button contain strychnine others have made the same assumption about the core of the San Pedro. Strychnine is absent in both cases. 

Some people more experienced with both psychedelics have reported noteworthy differences in their responses to LSD and mescaline. They generally indicate that peyote and mescaline are "warmer and "more earthy than LSD, which is usually seen as being more "cerebral. The mescaline present in the cactus appears to increase considerably a feeling of fellowship... 

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