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Essay: Uncovering the Healing & Spiritual Power of Peyote: Revisiting its Schedule I Status

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Tyler Croson

Plants and Civilization

November 8th, 2018

Reschedule Peyote

Found naturally in western Texas and northern Mexico a cactus called Lophophora williamsii or better known as Peyote still thrives. Peyote is said to be the oldest recognized plant drug that affects the brain dating back to almost 5,700 years (Cholden, 1956). Peyote is currently a schedule one drug according to the United States meaning that there are no known medical benefits for the cactus. There is a psychoactive component found in peyote called mescaline that Native Americans use for many different things such as medicine and religious ceremonies. The classification on peyote should be reconsidered due to its historical and medical context.

Peyote is a cactus with an alkaloid called mescaline (Aragane et al., 2011). The cactus itself grows on the ground usually in groups. A unique thing about peyote is that it does not have any cactus pricks on them for protection. Inside the cactus there are alkaloids that act as the defense for predators. The cactus has a range of around 3 different colors all similar to green. It also produces flowers that are pink, white and reddish. Peyote grows at a rather slow rate meaning that over cultivation of the plant can ruin the population of peyote as a whole. Peyote is often misidentified due to other plants looking similar to it (Anderson). This is sometimes a problem since some of the plants that people identify as peyote don’t contain mescaline.

Mescaline is the main compound in peyote that makes it so interesting. It naturally grows inside peyote and it can be consumed by being eaten, or also ground and made into a tea. Peyote is sometimes used in meditation and psychotherapy amongst its users. It is said that within 30 minutes of ingestion the user has a slight sense of discomfort but that goes away rather fast and is replaced with a sense of relaxation (Tetsi, 2016). With psychedelics every users experience is different and it is rather hard to fully explain what the person gains from it.

Peyote has and still is a huge part of certain parts of Native American culture. Many tribes used peyote in ceremonies for a spiritual purpose and to be closer with God. The cactus has been used and accepted in this culture for almost as long as the indigenous tribes have existed. The Native Americans used the cactus from headaches to fevers (Morgan, 1983). Yet, to this day the United States has placed the drug as schedule one making it as bad as heroin and methamphetamine and meaning that it has no medical purpose. However, there was an effort made to allow members of the Native American Church still use the plant drug and they are the only people in the United States that are able to use the drug (Terry and Trout, 2017). It does not make a lot of sense to allow a single group of people to use the plant especially when it remains a schedule one drug for everyone else.

The peyote religion a very important part amongst the Native American history. Around the 1800’s is when the religion was needed the most. Historically that is when the Native Americans lost most of their land and put into reservations. The actual ceremony was typically held inside a hut or a peyote house and lasted all night (Majchrzak, 2000). Many tribes ceremonies were different but they all incorporated religion some had Christian beliefs others had their own. Many Native Americans participated in the ceremony to escape from white supremacy. The practice of using peyote has changed throughout the years especially within the Native American Church (NAC). Many Native Americans do not want peyote to be used amongst other races (Majchrzak, 2000). This does make sense since throughout history White people destroyed their culture and treated them brutally.

Peyote is still used today among the Native Americans despite the fact that it has gotten increasingly harder to find peyote due to overharvesting (Morgan, 1983). A major concern that comes with any drug is the possibility of abuse. There has been a study done on Native American youth on the abuse of peyote (Fickenscher et al., 2006). It concluded that there is a concern of abuse and that should be considered in its classification. However, another research was conducted that shows that there is no psychological damage that comes with peyote use (Halpern et al,. 2005). These two studies are limited to only Native Americans meaning that it was conducted with a small number of people so, there would be holes with the data. These two studies should not be ignored nonetheless because it is just about the only type of data we can achieve with the United States current scheduling of the drug.

There are many reasons as to how and why peyote was regulated and placed in the same category as heroin and methamphetamine. The counterculture popularized it back in the 60’s increasing consumption and also struck fear for people who were ignorant about the drug itself. Another reason was that many people not affiliated with Native Americans were using the plant recreationally. Thus, depleting the cactus population making it harder to find and harvest. Since it takes a while for peyote to have a sufficient amount of mescaline and the fact that it is only found in a small part of the United States made it hard for Native Americans to practice their culture. The final nail that set peyote as a schedule one drug was the Controlled Substance Act 1970 (CAS). The CAS was an act that classified drugs based on their abuse, safety, and medicinal value. It took another twenty-four years for the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994 to be enacted allowing American Indians to use the drug for religious reasons (Terry and Trout, 2017). Due to the limited knowledge and research on the plant drug, it was classified as a schedule one drug. The current problem that remains is that now psychedelics have been found to have medicinal benefits but, with the way the system works makes it nearly impossible to conduct any meaningful research on any psychedelics.

Mescaline is the main alkaline found in peyote that makes the plant so special for the Native Americans. It one of the oldest hallucinogens that are known to man. The effects are closely related to LSD and psilocybin. A risk that does come with legalizing research for psychedelic drugs for medicine is the possibility of people synthesizing street drugs (Nichols, 2011). Despite that, there has been a recent discovery that MDMA helps with PTSD solving a major problem among people who have experienced trauma (Sessa, 2017). These two things should be factored in the scheduling of the plant drug. There could be possible benefits that come with mescaline and they have yet to be truly tested simply due to restrictions from the government.

It is clear that the plant drug peyote has many benefits and is not as harmful as people in the 60’s had believed. The reclassification of the drug should be seriously considered. There could be many benefits that researchers can find out if they were able to do more research on peyote. Legalization may not be the solution considering the fact that it takes a long time to cultivate the plant. However, it could be placed as a schedule 3 drug with the likes of morphine, codeine, and hydrocodone. Schedule 3 would mean that there is a possibility of abuse but, they can be prescribed for medical reasons. Psychedelics are also no joke and they should be taken seriously. The way the classification system was based off of fear and ignorance. There is no reason that the plant drug should still remain as a schedule one drug. It is also considered one of the oldest recognized plant drugs. This is not a synthetic drug that has just reached the streets. This is a plant drug that Native Americans have utilized and implemented into their lifestyle of finding their god(s).

 

Works Cited

Anderson, E. F. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/pbotany.htm

Aragane, M., Sasaki, Y., Nakajima, J., Fukumori, N., Yoshizawa, M., Suzuki, Y., … Nagumo, S. (2011).

Peyote identification on the basis of differences in morphology, mescaline content, and trnL/trnF sequence between Lophophora williamsii and L. diffusa. Journal of Natural Medicines, 65(1), 103–110. Retrieved from https://ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=s4640792&db=lah&AN=20113019064&site=ehost-live

Cholden, L. (1956). Proceedings of the roundtable on lysergic acid diethylamide and

mescaline in experimental psychiatry, held at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Atlantic City, New Jersey, May 12, 1955. New York: Grune & Stratton.

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Leaflet – Harvard University, 29(2), 73–86. Retrieved from

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in the U.S.A.: A Historical Victory of Religion and Politics over Science and

Medicine. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 11(1), 147–156. https://ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=s4640792&db=aph&AN=124803269&site=ehost-live

Tsetsi, E. (2016, April 03). A Remote Arizona Church Offers Peyote-Induced Spiritual Journeys.

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