Cactus Excerpts and Commentary

From a variety of sources

[ in response to a Usenet posting, Matthew Baggott writes: ]

Robert Bergman, MD, in "Navajo Peyote Use: Its Apparent Safety," _Amer. J. Psychit. 128(6):51-55/695-699, writes:

"Some rough estimates of the rate of negative reactions to peyote can be made. The Native American Church of Navajoland estimates its membership at 40,000. This estimate may be high and there may be inactive members, so we will use a population base of 30,000. Our informants report attending meetings with an average frequency of about twice a month. Since this may be exaggerated, we will assume an average attendance of only once every two months. This would result in a total of 180,000 ingestions of peyote per year by the population we serve. Assuming that all five of our cases represent true reactions to peyote and that we hear about only half of the cases occurring, the resulting (probably overestimated) rate would be approximately one bad reaction per 70,000 ingestions."

"This rate is much lower than others that have been reported for the use of hallucinogenic agents, and it calls for at least some attempted explanation. It is thought that the usually repressed emotions freed by hallucinogens sometimes are not integrated and cause panic or psychosis. I believe that the feelings made available at meetings are carefully channeled into ego-strengthening directions. Some of the crucial factors are a positive expectation held by the Peyotists, an emphasis on the real interpersonal world rather than the world within the individuals, emphasis on communion rather than withdrawal during the drug experience, emphasis on adherence to the standards of society rather than the freeing of impulses, and certain practices during the meetings."

As you can see from this estimate, the incidence of negative reactions among peyote users is very low when the substance is taken in controlled circumstances. We should note that there may be a sampling bias in the quoted estimate since people who experience repeated or severe problems after using psychedelics may drop out of the Church.

The 5 case reports which the article mentions involve: one man who, against rules, had been drinking and experienced a paranoid panic attack after taking peyote and who recovered in 24 hrs but quit attending the ceremonies; an acute schizophrenic episode which began at the time of the meeting and became worse over the next few days but improved after inpatient treatment and didn't prevent attendance at further meetings; a man who had attended ceremonies at the insistence of his wife and over the objections of his family and who reported feelings of anxiety and depersonalization which stopped after he quit attending meetings and worked out some of his feelings about the marriage; and two chronic schizophrenic patients who became anxious during meetings but who continued to attend them without untoward effects.

This is too small a sample of cases to say anything meaningful, but it is important to note that diagnosed schizophrenics are able to comfortably ingest peyote. This strongly suggests that mescaline and psychedelics do not cause psychotic episodes directly but at best trigger episodes through some stress-related mechanism. After all, if psychedelics directly inter- acted in a negative manner with whatever neurosystems go awry in psychosis and schizophrenia, then we would expect them to increase the symptoms of these disorders. This conclusion is in keeping with that of Rick Strassman's literature survey on the subject (which I have repeatedly quoted on the net and can e-mail copies of those postings to interested parties).

[ ... ]

However, I must disagree with the claim that mescaline isn't as well studied as LSD. It is true that LSD has been studied more in the recent past, but this research has usually only used it as a pharmacological tool. Back when studies were being done on LSD's effects on health, parallel research was being done on mescaline. The fact that mescaline had a higher effective dose compared to LSD actually proved helpful since it made it easier to do studies on mescaline's disposition in vivo. The metabolic pathways of mescaline have been pretty exhaustatively characterized.

Furthermore, mescaline, unlike LSD, had a long tradition of use (1600 years among the Huichol Indians) which allowed long-term studies to be easily done. For example, Oscar Janiger and some others published a study on the effect of peyote on human chromosomes (Dorrance, Janiger, and Teplitz (1975), _JAMA_ 234:299-302) among the Huichols and found no abnormalities. They estimated that the people they tested took peyote up to 35 times a year and had been doing so for essentially all of their lives. Another study, among the Yanomama Indians of Venezuela (Bloom et al (1970) _Proc Natl Acad Sci USA_ 66:920-927), found no difference in chromosomal damage between males and females despite the fact that only males ingested peyote.

Admittedly, I can think of no studies which evaluate how carcinogenic mescaline is, for example. But on the other hand, have such studies been carried out with respect to LSD? I really do think that mescaline is as well characterized as LSD. Every time he writes something about mescaline, Sasha Shulgin likes to introduce it as one of the most thoroughly studied drugs WRT metabolism and biochemistry. We might worry about subtle effects on health, especially given the fact that the effective dose is a pretty significant one, but for now these worries are unfounded.

You are correct that the duration isn't particularly different. I was estimating from limited personal experience, but the various authorities don't seem to support that idea. It seemed to me that there initial phase 'cut into' the psychedelic phase, but, again, I don't have any real evidence to support that. I haven't noticed a significant difference in onset.

From "Psychedelics Encyclopedia," 3rd ed. by Peter Stafford:

The scientific discovery of mescaline and related molecules in cacti other than peyote began in 1945 with the first report that the San Pedro cactus (Trichocerus pachanoi) was used in rituals by the Indians of Andean Ecuador. These shamanic practices were quite similar to rituals developed in Mexico for peyote. By 1950, it was established that mescaline constitutes about 1-2 percent of the San Pedro cactus when dried, about 0.12 percent of the fresh plant.

The San Pedro cactus in the fresh form has about 0.01 percent mescaline, which is a fairly typical percentage for nine of the ten Trichoceri known to contain mescaline. Trichocerus peruvianus, however, is at least ten times as potent as the others. This branching, candelabra type of cactus, originally collected in Peru, has a mescaline content equal or superior to that in peyote.

From "...Of the Jungle" catalog, 1993:

Trichocereus spp of Ethnopharmacologic Interest: Each of these hardy Trichocereus species are excellent as grafting stock for smaller, slower, low-growing cacti. These are also the 'best' types in terms of their known properties for ethnopharmacological specimen collectors. Trichocereus are the fastest growing cacti, very easy from seed. Within 12-18 months quantities of vigorous stock can be raised to sizes which are the equivalent of beginning by vegetative cuttings, but in far less space and at considerable savings. Researchers should note that genetic variation between seedling individuals will give rise to interesting new characteristics (i.e. rate of growth, hardiness, bioactivity) unobtainable from cloned populations or cuttings.

T. pachanoi (very rapid, hardy, columnar)
T. peruvianus (very fast, huge, columnar)
T. peruvianus var trujilloensis (new variety!)

"Trichocereus pachanoi 'San Pedro Cactus' San Pedro is a large columnar cactus of unusually rapid growth (12-18"/year) and is tolerant of a broad range of conditions. It is especially popular as a specimen because of its near lack of spines and its lovely, hypnotic, huge 10" night-blooming flowers which fill the air with their heavenly, quite unforgettable fragrance. Prefers rich, drained composted soil, abundant watering and full sun. Tolerant of frost. Does well indoors in pots. Easy to cultivate. We generally ship this hardy species year-round. Healthy, well-rooted 6"-10" specimens in vigorous growth."

From Edward F. Anderson's "Peyote: The Divine Cactus":

Several methods are available to isolate and identify mescaline within plant or animal tissue. Extraction is accomplished by methanol; this initial stage is then completed by filtration of the extract and its evaporation to dryness. The extract is then treated with chloroform and 0.05 N hydrochloric acid in a sep- aratory funnel; the aqueous portion is retained after several washings with chloroform. Ammonia or sodium carbonate is added to the aqueous solution in sufficient quantities to produce a slightly basic solution with a pH of about 8. This is followed by further extraction with chloroform and chloroform-ethanol (3:1). After adjusting the pH to about 10 a final chloroform-ethanol extraction is made. The chloroform extract which contains the alkaloids is then dried. The alkaloids can be separated into phenolic and non-phenolic groups by passing the extract (redissolved in chloroform) through Amberlite IRA-400 (OH-) ion-exchange resin. If thin layer chromatography is used for alkaloid separation and identification, several spray reagents are particularly useful. For example, Flourescamine (4-phenyl- spiro [furan-2 (3H), 1'-phthalan]-3,3-dione) readily distinguishes phenethylamines from tetrahydroisoquinolones. Mescaline may then be identified by comparison with known samples using infra-red spectrophotometry.

"Applied chemists" within the drug cult have devised ingenious methods of extracting pure mescaline from dried or fresh plant material. The basic process varies somewhat but a typical one is as follows: the plant material is first boiled to extract the alkaloids; this extract is then made basic by the addition of sodium hydroxide (lye). Next benzene (try methylenechloride) is added to further separate the alkaloids. The aqueous and benzene portions are allowed to separate following a gentle shaking. Dilute sulfuric acid (hydrochloric works as well) is next added in small quantitites to the benzene portion and the solution is again shaken. The mixture is allowed to stand, and the process is repeated several more times with the addition of a more dilute acid every time. A white precipitate will soon settle and can easily be dried. This is mescaline sulfate (or hydrochloride) and further steps can make it quite pure.