Mescaline - What Kind of Drug Is It?

What Kind of Drug Is It?

Mescaline is a hallucinogen, which is a substance that produces hallucinations. Such hallucinations cause the user to experience strange sights, sounds, or other perceptions of things that are not actually present. Mescaline is a naturally occurring alkaloidA nitrogen-containing substance found in plants. that is produced by certain types of cactus plants. The best known of these plants is the peyote cactus. The natural ingredients that cause hallucinations in people can also be produced artificially in a laboratory.

For many thousands of years, various Native American groups (in the present United States and Mexico) have consumed peyote in religious rituals. In fact, some native peoples still do. They believe that the hallucinations they experience are visions, or messages from spirits who can help them understand themselves and their place in the world. During the twentieth century, mescaline was studied as a possible treatment for mental illness, but no medical use was found for it.

Some abuse of mescaline as a recreational drug occurred during the last half of the twentieth century, but not in any widespread way. (Recreational users are those who take a drug for the high it produces, not for any medical reason.) Peyote use is not widespread because both natural and artificial forms of it are expensive and hard to find. Much of what may be sold on the street as "mescaline" is actually some other substance that is probably more dangerous than the real thing.