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Substance Abuse during Pregnancy
Published in “Bert” Bertis Britt Little, Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Mescaline is a naturally occurring hallucinogenic alkaloid that is concentrated in the ‘buttons’ of the peyote cactus, Lophophora williamsii. Mescaline also occurs in the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi) and the Peruvian torch (Trichocereus peruvianus). Flattened, dried seedpods from these cacti are called “peyote buttons” or simply “peyote.” Buttons are ingested for recreational use. Members of the Native American Church may use mescaline legally in their religious rituals and ceremonies. Naturally occurring mescaline is often contaminated with strychnine, which may heighten the excitement sensation. Mescaline from natural sources is associated with severe nausea and vomiting. Mescaline is available from chemical synthesis. Mescaline effects are similar to LSD effects, but some mescaline users report much more vivid and intense hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations are reported with mescaline but not with LSD. The hallucinogenic effects usually last about 12 hours, but some users report much longer (20–40 hours) periods of hallucination, probably depending mainly upon dose and drug concentration.
Mystical States achieved through Psychedelics: The Origins, Classical, and Contemporary Use of Psychedelics
Published in Andrew C. Papanicolaou, A Scientific Assessment of the Validity of Mystical Experiences, 2021
On the basis of their chemical structure, the classic psychedelics are divided into two classes. The one includes drugs with a chemical structure like that of tryptamine. Among the drugs in this class are the synthesized psychedelic LSD, psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine or DMT, which is found in ayahuasca, a psychotropic concoction used ritually in South America. The second category includes substances with a chemical structure similar to phenethylamine. Mescaline, the main psychoactive agent in the peyote (Lophophora williamsii), and other cacti, is the best-known psychedelic of that class. This class includes also several synthesized compounds. The cactus Peyote has been used for millennia by several Mexican Indian tribes including the Chichimeca, Huichol, and Tarahumara tribes, for therapeutic and religious purposes9 and it continues to be used today as a sacrament by the Native American Church to be recounted below.
Targeting the Nervous System
Published in Nathan Keighley, Miraculous Medicines and the Chemistry of Drug Design, 2020
Stimulant and mind-altering drugs of this kind have been used in different forms throughout history. Mescaline, found naturally in the peyote cactus, is used by native North Americans to access a pseudo-religious trance. Another psychoactive plant extract belonging to this class of compounds is ephedrine, known since ancient China. The first fully synthetic ‘recreational drug’ is an analogue of ephedrine, amphetamine, first synthesised in 1887. It has been used to cheat in sports, to increase heart rate and circulation to improve the performance of the athlete, but this was risky and resulted in deaths. Interestingly, pseudoephedrine (a diastereomer of ephedrine) is used in many over-the-counter cold remedies, but has a much lower stimulant effect than ephedrine. Even though it is freely available, it is illegal in many sports, and has been implicated in many drug scandals.
Beyond LSD: A Broader Psychedelic Zeitgeist during the Early to Mid-20th Century
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2019
Jacob S. Aday, Emily K. Bloesch, Christopher C. Davoli
Much of the psychedelic research conducted in the 1950s and 1960s focused on either LSD’s basic effects on cognition, as a potential adjunct to psychotherapy/clinical applications, or as a model for psychosis (see Masters and Houston 1966). Subsequently, the progression of LSD research mirrored that of mescaline and employed very similar methods. Mescaline is the principle alkaloid in the peyote cactus found in many parts of the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico and has been used for thousands of years by Native Americans. Its effects were popularized in The Doors of Perception (1954), Aldous Huxley’s classic account of his experience taking the psychedelic substance. This section elaborates on the ways in which much of the early mescaline research paralleled the LSD research that would follow, suggesting that LSD researchers were influenced by this early work.
Psychedelics as anti-inflammatory agents
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2018
Thomas W. Flanagan, Charles D. Nichols
Although all psychedelics tested were anti-inflammatory, the super-potency of (R)-DOI was unexpected, because other structurally similar psychedelics were orders of magnitude less potent. From a structural standpoint, (R)-DOI is a phenethylamine (Nichols, 2012) and related to mescaline. Mescaline naturally occurs in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), and was first isolated by the chemist Dr Arthur Heffter in 1898 (Heffter, 1898). Not only has peyote been consumed by Native North Americans for millennia for religious ceremonies (Bruhn, De Smet, El-Seedi, & Beck, 2002), it has also been shown to activate several immune parameters (nitric oxide and cytokine production in macrophages and lymphocyte proliferation) and directly kill tumour cells (Franco-Molina et al., 2003). In the mid 20th century, the mescaline structural template was used to develop a series of hallucinogenic phenethylamines (Hey, 1947; Peretz, Smythies, & Gibson, 1955; Shulgin, Sargent, & Naranjo, 1969). One of these, (R)-DOI, was found to selectively label 5-HT2 receptors in studies incorporating a radioactive iodine isotope (Johnson, Hoffman, Nichols, & Mathis, 1987; McKenna et al., 1989), and currently represents one of the best tools for pharmacologists to study selective activation of 5-HT2 receptors. Subjectively, the behavioural effects of (R)-DOI in humans are similar to those of LSD; however, the duration is significantly longer (> 24 h vs ∼8 h), and there are reported differences in tactile body sensation (i.e. muscle tension, nausea, etc.) (Shulgin, 1991).
Prevalence of Stimulant, Hallucinogen, and Dissociative Substances Detected in Biological Samples of NPS-Intoxicated Patients in Italy
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2021
Pietro Papa, Antonella Valli, Marcello Di Tuccio, Eleonora Buscaglia, Elena Brambilla, Giulia Scaravaggi, Mariapina Gallo, Carlo Alessandro Locatelli
Phenylethylamines. The most represented phenethylamines with hallucinogen activity belong to the 2 C and NBOMe family (17 cases) during the period 2012–2017. In three cases two different NBOMe were present. NBOMe drugs have effective doses in the micrograms range, consequently low concentrations (< 1 ng/ml) are expected in biological samples. Since 2014 our analytical procedure included a targeted screening of 7 NBOMe (Table 3) by LC-MS-MS (LOD 0.3 ng/ml). The NBOMes identified in urine or in blood were 25I, 25B, 25 C, and 25 H. The concentration ranged from 0.3 to 43.4 ng/ml. In six cases, being the reference standards available, the corresponding 2 C-substances were detected with a concentration that ranged from 1.7 to 11.1 ng/ml. The presence of 2 C-analytes could derive both from the metabolism of the corresponding NBOMe or from the intake of a 2 C drugs. Before 2014, three cases tested positive for 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine (2 C-E), but the corresponding NBOMe was not investigated. Nevertheless, in one case the high urine concentration of 2 C-E (331 ng/ml) suggested the intake of a 2 C-E containing product. Only in one case, a different NPS (ketamine) was detected while conventional drugs of abuse (i.e., amphetamines and phytocannabinoids) were positive in four cases. In one case, 25 C and 25 H NBOMes caused an altered mental state and suicidal thoughts in a young man who died by drowing (Morini et al. 2017). During the period 2015–2018, five cases were positive for 2,5-dimetossi-4-cloroamphetamine (DOC), and in four cases ketamine was also present; in three cases conventional drugs of abuse tested positive (amphetamines and cocaine). In the same period, mescaline was detected in two cases: once alone and once with dimethyltryptamine (DMT).