What Is Peyote?

In brief, peyote is a cactus with hallucinogenic properties that's been used in religious ceremonies for centuries. Learn how it works and why it's endangered in today's episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain
Stuff Lauren Vogeba here. For centuries, people's in Central America
and the North American Southwest have used peyote, a hallucinogetic cactus,
for certain religious ceremonies and rituals, and during the psychedelics
infused days of the nineteen sixties, peyote found a new

(00:22):
audience among counterculture hippies seeking a back to nature lifestyle.
These days, peyote is in the news again, in part
because the plant, along with hallucinogenic mushrooms, was decriminalized in Oakland, California,
in June of nineteen, the second city in the US
to do so after Denver, Colorado. Advocates say the cactuses
new status will free up law enforcement to pursue more

(00:43):
serious matters and potentially allow for more research into payotes
physical and psychological effects, which may help people with mental
health disorders or substance misuse disorders. But before we look
at its medicinal side, let's first find out what the
plant is all about. Payote taxonomical name Lufaphora william z I.
Peyote is a small cactus that grows mostly underground only

(01:06):
its top is visible. This is called the button or crown,
and it ranges in size from roughly that of a
ping pong ball to a baseball. Both slightly flattened and bulbous,
they're actually super cute and look like little bluish green
steam buns. Peyote is a spineless, slow growing cactus one
that may take years to reach flowering maturity in the
deserts of South Texas and northern Mexico. As they grow,

(01:28):
the cacti produced a range of compounds called enetyl amine alkaloids,
some of which have a distinctive hallucinogenic effect on humans.
Once harvested, the crowns can be eaten, brewed as a tea,
or dried and crushed into a powder, which can then
be loaded into capsules. Users may also smoke the dried version.
The primary active ingredient is mescaline, a powerful drug that
the United States categorizes as a Schedule one substance, making

(01:51):
it mostly illegal to possess or consume. Interestingly, the mescaline
causes a severe reaction in animals, which deters them from
eating it, providing protection for this cactus with no spines,
but as with many plants, that developed chemical deterrence to
being eaten by mammals. Some humans have decided that they
enjoy the effect flavor compounds that taste bitter or spicy,
or thought to have developed for the same reasons. Some

(02:14):
indigenous people in parts of northern Central America revere peyote
is a way to accentuate their spiritual ceremonies. Native Americans
may gather around a fire and share peyote as a
shaman or ceremonial leader chance and sings, guiding participants through
the experience, which may last ten hours or longer. In Mexico,
the Uhe tool or Weraritari people may set out on
peyote pilgrimages throughout the desert several times a year, stopping

(02:37):
along the way to take more peyote. The traditional belief
is that the experience opens channels to their gods, and
I hope I said we atari correctly. I couldn't find
a good pronunciation. I did try. Beyond religious ceremonies, peyote
has a long history as medicine in these cultures. People
sometimes use the cacti to help with fever, skin problems, blindness, colds, diabetes,
and pain. The u s government does not reckoning eyes

(03:00):
any of the medicinal claims made regarding payoty, and given
its illegality, research into those medical claims has thus far
been limited. Paoty ingestion was prohibited in nineteen seventy when
the Controlled Substance Act was passed by Congress, although the
Native American Church was exempt from this law. In nineteen
seventy six, Alan Bernbaum, founder of his own Native American
Church of New York, challenged the status quo by insisting

(03:22):
that the Drug Enforcement Administration or d e A quote
exempt the use of all psychedelic drugs and religious ceremonies
of all churches that believe that psychedelic drugs are deities.
When the d e A refused, he sued. The Supreme
Court sided with him. Laws regarding payoty vary in other nations.
For example, it's legal in Canada, but only if you're

(03:44):
using the plant for religious reasons, not for recreational purposes,
and in the United Kingdom it's legal to grow payote,
but not to prepare it for consumption. In Mexico, it's
illegal to consume payote or harvest the wild variety because
it's endangered, but there's again an exception for religious purposes.
Peyote works by interacting with the neurotransmitter serotonin in your
brain to alter your thinking and perception. Because potency varies

(04:08):
from plant to plant, it's difficult to dose the drug
with any real accuracy. Those who eat peyote cacti or
drink its tea report a bitter taste, one so overwhelming
that many people become nauseated and wind up vomiting, sometimes violently.
As the drug takes hold, people may see brighter colors
or hear louder sounds, or lose track of time or place.
They could experience euphoria, detachment, allusions, or visual distortions. As

(04:32):
to whether they have a good trip or a bad
trip can depend on the expectations of the users and
the setting. Is it taking place in a church, a nightclub,
or a doctor's office. If the trip goes badly, mood swings, paranoia,
or panic may occur. Other side effects may include dry mouth, headaches,
increased heart rate, and impaired motor skills. Peyote isn't generally

(04:52):
regarded as a physically addictive drug, like hallucinogenic mushrooms. Many
users take the drug only occasionally and often as part
of a spiritual experience, but as with all mind altering substances,
some mental health experts express concerns the peyote may produce
psychological dependency in some users. Although most Native cultures frown
on recreational use, many curious people outside of Native American

(05:14):
churches seek payote, sometimes simply as a psychedelic or perhaps
as part of what they see as a personal spiritual journey.
There is an industry of churches and guides who will
help tourists find an take peyote, but over harvesting from
tourism is threatening the payote supply, and as a result,
is also imperiling which hold religious traditions which rely so
heavily on the sacred plant. Once the plant has been harvested,

(05:36):
it may take a decade or more for it to
regenerate and produce mature crowns. In Texas, only a handful
of peyote harvesters called peyotheros can legally harvest the cacti
and then sell them to the Native American church. The
potheros leaves land in the tiny patch of Texas where
the cacti is found, hoping to find enough of the
prized plant to make a living. It grows in less
than one percent of the state by area, a swath

(05:57):
roughly the size of Rhode Island, or about one thousand,
two hundred and fifty square miles. That's around thirty square
kilometers for a metric fronts. Today's episode was written by
Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff is
a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more
in this and lots of other spiritual topics, visit our

(06:18):
home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
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