What’s with psychedelic cacti?
San Pedro and Peyote are more popular than ever. We think there are a few things are feeding into the hype:
Emerging research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
Mescaline cacti are often legal to grow
A global environmental movement
To our knowledge, all psychedelic cacti contain the same drug – mescaline. We don’t think mescaline occurs in any plants outside the cactus family. There are only two plants that have been traditionally consumed to induce a psychedelic experience: San Pedro and Peyote.
Peyote is under threat in their native habitat in Mexico and the United States. Land clearing is a big threat, but wild harvesters are a threat too. San Pedro, on the other hand, grow all around the Andes Mountains and their in-situ populations seem much better protected.
In the U.S. it is often legal to grow San Pedro, but illegal to grow Peyote, even though Peyote is native and cultivation is important for conservation. At the request of the Native American Church, the recent Decriminalisation Nature movement did not advocate for the decriminalisation of Peyote. While NAC members can legally consume Peyote, there are other First Nations Peyote traditions in the U.S. that are not supported by law. In Mexico, Peyote use and harvest is protected for all Wixárika people.
For Australians in New South Wales and Victoria, mescaline cacti are legal to grow, but some cacti may not be in South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. That being said, Acacia trees may be considered illegal too – even though Acacia forests are Australia’s second most common type of forest.
If you’re a sucker for succulent psychedelics, Garden States 2022 has got your cactus needs covered. Join Keeper Trout, Dr Liam Engel and Simon Green, to name just some of the more cacti-centric contributors to this special psychedelic and ethnobotanical conference. Grab a ticket, some spike-proof gloves, your garden trowel and get ready to germinate, clone, graft and conserve plants with a special place in human culture.
