Mescaline
Pronunciation:MES-kuh-lin (also pronounced MES-kuh-leen)
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:54-04-6
Formal Names:3, 4, 5-Trimethoxyphenethylamine
Informal Names:Beans, Big Chief, Blue Caps, Button, Cactus, Cactus Buttons,
Cactus Head, Chief, Love Trip (combination withMDMA), Mesc, Mescal, Mes-
calito, Mescap, Mese, Mezc, Moon, Musk, Peyote, Topi
Type:Hallucinogen.Seepage 25
Federal Schedule Listing:Schedule I (DEA no. 7381)
USA Availability:Illegal to possess
Pregnancy Category:None
Uses.This is the main active drug in thepeyotecactus. In addition to being
found in that natural product, mescaline can also be manufactured in a lab-
oratory. Researchers have noted that mescaline,LSD, andpsilocybinhave
similar actions even though the substances have significant chemical dissim-
ilarities. Effects are so alike that volunteers who took the drugs in experiments
could not tell which of the three they received. Studies indicate cross-tolerance
exists among the three. Mescaline is related to amphetamine.
Mescaline has been used to study mechanisms of schizophrenia, and at one
time the substance was used in experimental psychotherapy. The drug en-
couraged self-examination in patients and helped them to see significance in
ordinary things they had barely noticed before. Such effects have also been
described by persons who took the drug simply to find out what it is like.
When mescaline was used as an experimental drug in psychotherapy, thera-
pists reported that the substance helped people recall repressed memories.
Debate existed, however, about whether the apparent memories were real and
whether the recollection experience turned out to have therapeutic benefit.
One experiment found that mescaline could help persons achieve creative an-
swers to work-related problems that had resisted resolution for months. Re-
search designed to measure whether the drug promotes creativity has found
that volunteers’ feelings of increased creativity were supported in general and
as a group by higher test scores on elements of creativity. “In general” and
“as a group” may be important qualifiers about the results, however.
Users have reported expansion of color perception, but a test designed to
detect such a phenomenon produced mixed results. A rabbit study found that