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Addiction is another promising application for mescaline’s therapeutic potential. As peyote, mescaline has long been used in traditional ceremonial contexts to treat alcoholism. In fact, a researcher at Harvard Medical School who has spent years studying peyote use found that the substance has reduced rates of alcoholism and drug abuse among Native Americans. He also concluded that the ceremonies themselves are an important element to the plant’s healing effects. Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid that is the main psychedelic compound in a range of psychedelic cacti native to the Americas, including peyote, San Pedro, and Peruvian Torch.
- In one mid-century study, some of the most significant transformations or breakthroughs came about months after the experience itself, even if the initial psychedelic therapy session seemed to be a failure.
- As for its limitations; we failed to achieve instant dose equivalence, leading to a subsequent increase in the mescaline dose from 300 to 500 mg.
- It was marketed as a sedative/hypnotic by Boehringer & Sohn in Germany but was subsequently discontinued after the advent of barbiturates around a century ago.
- By contrast, use of the mescaline-containing cacti–the San Pedro of the Andes, and the peyote of the north Mexico and south Texas desert–is expanding.
- Research on mescaline indicates that it may have a high potential for treating anxiety, depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Toxicity and harm potential
Finally, both San Pedro and Peyote subgroups reportedusing it in a ceremonial context administered by a shamanic practitioner, which isconsistent with previous knowledge about historical use of Peyote (Dasgupta, 2019). Frequently reported adverse effects, as assessed by the List of Complaints and corresponding statistics are presented in Supplementary Tables S5–6. All three substances moderately increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body temperature, and pupil size relative to placebo.
Mescaline origins
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The most significant mescaline trip of the 1960s, with hindsight, was that taken by the chemist Alexander Shulgin, which he later wrote ‘unquestionably confirmed the entire direction of my life’. He was struck by how little work had been done on compounds with similar structures, and he began to synthesize new ones, including 3,4 methylenedioxymethampetamine, or MDMA, which entered the underground drug market as ‘ecstasy’. Its duration was three or four hours as opposed to mescaline’s grueling ten or twelve; its psychedelic effects were less disorientating and challenging, and its physical effects more euphoric.
Interestingly, on the AMRS, the condition that caused the highest level of “inactivity” was the low 300 mg mescaline dose. In summary, subjective effects of mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin at equivalent doses were comparable. The high 500 mg mescaline dose, LSD, and psilocybin similarly increased systolic blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and the rate pressure product. LSD showed a significantly lower maximal diastolic blood pressure response compared with psilocybin. Conversely, LSD showed a trend toward an increase in heart rate compared with psilocybin. The data are expressed as the mean ± SEM of maximum responses in 32 participants for LSD and psilocybin and in 16 participants for each mescaline dose.
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In another study, researchers found that mescaline helped goldfish learn to avoid a shock more quickly. These findings support the prevailing view that mescaline and other psychedelics can enhance creativity. As the psychologist Stanley Krippner put it, “to invent something new, one cannot be completely conditioned or imprinted.”23 Psychedelics like mescaline tend mesclun psychedelic to dissolve preconceptions and elicit fresh perspectives on reality.
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In this day and age, “microdosing” has become quite the buzzword — both within and beyond the world of psychedelics. Claimed by many to be an alternative to pharmaceuticals and a shortcut to productivity, microdosing is regarded by some as a miracle or a testament to the power of placebo, and by others as a cultish marketing scheme to avoid. Drugs that affect a person’s mental state (psychoactive drugs) can also have varied effects depending on a person’s mood (often called the ‘set’) or the environment they are in (the ‘setting’). Today, pure mescaline has pretty much disappeared from everywhere but the recesses of the dark web.
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Peyote, in its natural form, contains dozens of different types of phenylethylamine alkaloids, some of which are pictured above. It is possible that different kinds of cacti containing various constituents could result in distinct experiences, similar to how cannabis strains produce a variety of subjective effects5. Mescaline is a potent hallucinogen found in the peyote cactus that causes visions and other sensory apparitions that aren’t real. This is due to the chemical reaction the drug has with neural pathways in the brain. Read here to find out more about mescaline highs or «trips» and the effects of peyote on the brain. Mescaline was made a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) in 1970, making it an illegal substance with no medical benefits.
Results from this study also showed no significant differences in the subjectiveacute and enduring effects between mescaline types. Although this may indicaterelatively minimal or no differences in the acute and enduring effects of differenttypes of mescaline, rigorous controlled studies could reveal potential differencesbetween them. While all groups exhibited broad similarities, the Peyote subgroupreported consuming more doses compared to other groups. This might be due to thebitter taste of Peyote, which is known to induce nausea and vomiting (Erowid, 2009; Nolte and Zumwalt, 1999).It is possible that participants in the Peyote subgroup experienced emesis that canhave warranted repeated dosing to obtain desired subjective effects. Additionally,it is not clear why the Peyote subgroup reported shorter duration of effects, butone could speculate if it could be due to lower net intake of mescaline (despiteincreased number of doses ingested), due to the alkaloid ratio of the cacti, dose,and experience of emesis.
Mescaline-containing cacti, by contrast, are more widely used than ever before. Along with the growth of the NAC, peyote is increasingly popular in Mexico for ceremonies and herbal remedies, to the point where the ecology of the cactus is becoming threatened. The San Pedro cactus, though, grows abundantly across Peru, Eduador and Bolivia, and San Pedro shamans and healing ceremonies are spreading round the globe. On Indian reservations, peyote was often prohibited and its users harassed and imprisoned. To protect themselves, peyote worshippers in Oklahoma incorporated the Native American Church, to give their sacrament legal status under the First Amendment’s freedom of worship.
Huxley presented mescaline as something different, connected both to ancient wisdom and to cutting-edge science. The term “psychedelic” freed it from its associations with psychiatry and mental illness, and made it part of a new generation’s quest for personal growth and spiritual illumination. This makes it different from other psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin and DMT, which are tryptamines, derived from a different amino acid, tryptophan. Mescaline has some effects that are similar to these, though it’s also intensely visual and trippy.
- All three substances moderately increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body temperature, and pupil size relative to placebo.
- In the 1890s, aesthetes and poets such as Havelock Ellis and WB Yeats experimented with it, looking at art objects and listening to music under the influence.
- Mescaline is also known for fostering compassion and gratitude, while also alleviating psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and addiction.
- Anecdotal Internet reports from the US describe the mescaline use for recreational,spiritual, and therapeutic purposes (Erowid, 2011).
- For example, hordenine is a N,N-dimethyl derivative and has activities in the human body similar to the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine.
Mescaline is known to provide spiritual insights, psychological healing, and deep contemplative states22. However, the current research on psychotherapeutic applications is quite limited compared to other psychedelic substances. More clinical trials are needed to investigate the potential use of mescaline for various psychiatric conditions. To reduce prosecution for consuming naturally occurring psychedelic plants and fungi, a movement initiated by the nonprofit Decriminalize Nature started in 2019 in Oakland, California. Some say the therapeutic benefits of this sacred medicine should be accessible to everyone who needs it; however, others from Indigenous communities see peyote as a sacred element of their culture and religion. They object to the inclusion of peyote in local and state decriminalization measures because of the growing scarcity of wild peyote and the potential negative impacts on native communities that use peyote in religious ceremonies.
The idea that mescaline could be used to mimic psychosis in patients, a property known as psychotomimetic, was common at the time. The medical field began examining this idea more closely — including administering the drug to artists. Subjective effects include open and closed-eye visuals, time distortion, enhanced introspection, conceptual thinking, euphoria, and ego loss. Mescaline is generally considered to be one of the most gentle, insightful, and euphoric psychedelics. It is known for placing greater emphasis on bodily and tactile sensations (sometimes compared to MDMA) than psychedelic tryptamines like psilocybin or DMT, which tend to have a more frenetic headspace and dynamic visual geometry.
