Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogeba here. For centuries, people's in Central America
Speaker 1: and the North American Southwest have used peyote, a hallucinogetic cactus,
Speaker 1: for certain religious ceremonies and rituals, and during the psychedelics
Speaker 1: infused days of the nineteen sixties, peyote found a new
Speaker 1: audience among counterculture hippies seeking a back to nature lifestyle.
Speaker 1: These days, peyote is in the news again, in part
Speaker 1: because the plant, along with hallucinogenic mushrooms, was decriminalized in Oakland, California,
Speaker 1: in June of nineteen, the second city in the US
Speaker 1: to do so after Denver, Colorado. Advocates say the cactuses
Speaker 1: new status will free up law enforcement to pursue more
Speaker 1: serious matters and potentially allow for more research into payotes
Speaker 1: physical and psychological effects, which may help people with mental
Speaker 1: health disorders or substance misuse disorders. But before we look
Speaker 1: at its medicinal side, let's first find out what the
Speaker 1: plant is all about. Payote taxonomical name Lufaphora william z I.
Speaker 1: Peyote is a small cactus that grows mostly underground only
Speaker 1: its top is visible. This is called the button or crown,
Speaker 1: and it ranges in size from roughly that of a
Speaker 1: ping pong ball to a baseball. Both slightly flattened and bulbous,
Speaker 1: they're actually super cute and look like little bluish green
Speaker 1: steam buns. Peyote is a spineless, slow growing cactus one
Speaker 1: that may take years to reach flowering maturity in the
Speaker 1: deserts of South Texas and northern Mexico. As they grow,
Speaker 1: the cacti produced a range of compounds called enetyl amine alkaloids,
Speaker 1: some of which have a distinctive hallucinogenic effect on humans.
Speaker 1: Once harvested, the crowns can be eaten, brewed as a tea,
Speaker 1: or dried and crushed into a powder, which can then
Speaker 1: be loaded into capsules. Users may also smoke the dried version.
Speaker 1: The primary active ingredient is mescaline, a powerful drug that
Speaker 1: the United States categorizes as a Schedule one substance, making
Speaker 1: it mostly illegal to possess or consume. Interestingly, the mescaline
Speaker 1: causes a severe reaction in animals, which deters them from
Speaker 1: eating it, providing protection for this cactus with no spines,
Speaker 1: but as with many plants, that developed chemical deterrence to
Speaker 1: being eaten by mammals. Some humans have decided that they
Speaker 1: enjoy the effect flavor compounds that taste bitter or spicy,
Speaker 1: or thought to have developed for the same reasons. Some
Speaker 1: indigenous people in parts of northern Central America revere peyote
Speaker 1: is a way to accentuate their spiritual ceremonies. Native Americans
Speaker 1: may gather around a fire and share peyote as a
Speaker 1: shaman or ceremonial leader chance and sings, guiding participants through
Speaker 1: the experience, which may last ten hours or longer. In Mexico,
Speaker 1: the Uhe tool or Weraritari people may set out on
Speaker 1: peyote pilgrimages throughout the desert several times a year, stopping
Speaker 1: along the way to take more peyote. The traditional belief
Speaker 1: is that the experience opens channels to their gods, and
Speaker 1: I hope I said we atari correctly. I couldn't find
Speaker 1: a good pronunciation. I did try. Beyond religious ceremonies, peyote
Speaker 1: has a long history as medicine in these cultures. People
Speaker 1: sometimes use the cacti to help with fever, skin problems, blindness, colds, diabetes,
Speaker 1: and pain. The u s government does not reckoning eyes
Speaker 1: any of the medicinal claims made regarding payoty, and given
Speaker 1: its illegality, research into those medical claims has thus far
Speaker 1: been limited. Paoty ingestion was prohibited in nineteen seventy when
Speaker 1: the Controlled Substance Act was passed by Congress, although the
Speaker 1: Native American Church was exempt from this law. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy six, Alan Bernbaum, founder of his own Native American
Speaker 1: Church of New York, challenged the status quo by insisting
Speaker 1: that the Drug Enforcement Administration or d e A quote
Speaker 1: exempt the use of all psychedelic drugs and religious ceremonies
Speaker 1: of all churches that believe that psychedelic drugs are deities.
Speaker 1: When the d e A refused, he sued. The Supreme
Speaker 1: Court sided with him. Laws regarding payoty vary in other nations.
Speaker 1: For example, it's legal in Canada, but only if you're
Speaker 1: using the plant for religious reasons, not for recreational purposes,
Speaker 1: and in the United Kingdom it's legal to grow payote,
Speaker 1: but not to prepare it for consumption. In Mexico, it's
Speaker 1: illegal to consume payote or harvest the wild variety because
Speaker 1: it's endangered, but there's again an exception for religious purposes.
Speaker 1: Peyote works by interacting with the neurotransmitter serotonin in your
Speaker 1: brain to alter your thinking and perception. Because potency varies
Speaker 1: from plant to plant, it's difficult to dose the drug
Speaker 1: with any real accuracy. Those who eat peyote cacti or
Speaker 1: drink its tea report a bitter taste, one so overwhelming
Speaker 1: that many people become nauseated and wind up vomiting, sometimes violently.
Speaker 1: As the drug takes hold, people may see brighter colors
Speaker 1: or hear louder sounds, or lose track of time or place.
Speaker 1: They could experience euphoria, detachment, allusions, or visual distortions. As
Speaker 1: to whether they have a good trip or a bad
Speaker 1: trip can depend on the expectations of the users and
Speaker 1: the setting. Is it taking place in a church, a nightclub,
Speaker 1: or a doctor's office. If the trip goes badly, mood swings, paranoia,
Speaker 1: or panic may occur. Other side effects may include dry mouth, headaches,
Speaker 1: increased heart rate, and impaired motor skills. Peyote isn't generally
Speaker 1: regarded as a physically addictive drug, like hallucinogenic mushrooms. Many
Speaker 1: users take the drug only occasionally and often as part
Speaker 1: of a spiritual experience, but as with all mind altering substances,
Speaker 1: some mental health experts express concerns the peyote may produce
Speaker 1: psychological dependency in some users. Although most Native cultures frown
Speaker 1: on recreational use, many curious people outside of Native American
Speaker 1: churches seek payote, sometimes simply as a psychedelic or perhaps
Speaker 1: as part of what they see as a personal spiritual journey.
Speaker 1: There is an industry of churches and guides who will
Speaker 1: help tourists find an take peyote, but over harvesting from
Speaker 1: tourism is threatening the payote supply, and as a result,
Speaker 1: is also imperiling which hold religious traditions which rely so
Speaker 1: heavily on the sacred plant. Once the plant has been harvested,
Speaker 1: it may take a decade or more for it to
Speaker 1: regenerate and produce mature crowns. In Texas, only a handful
Speaker 1: of peyote harvesters called peyotheros can legally harvest the cacti
Speaker 1: and then sell them to the Native American church. The
Speaker 1: potheros leaves land in the tiny patch of Texas where
Speaker 1: the cacti is found, hoping to find enough of the
Speaker 1: prized plant to make a living. It grows in less
Speaker 1: than one percent of the state by area, a swath
Speaker 1: roughly the size of Rhode Island, or about one thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty square miles. That's around thirty square
Speaker 1: kilometers for a metric fronts. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more
Speaker 1: in this and lots of other spiritual topics, visit our
Speaker 1: home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for more
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