Drug use for religious purposesJamie GipsonSome of my ancestors are Native American so choose the book:The Peyote CultLa Barre, Weston. (1969).New York: Schocken Books. This book is a study of the background of the Mexican and American Indian rituals based on the plant that produces profound, but temporary sensory and psychic derangements. Peyote is a spineless cactus (Lophophora williamsii), ingested by people in Mexico and the United States to produce visions. The plant is a light blue-green and bears small pink flower. The crown, called a peyote, or mescal, is cut off, chewed, brewed into a drink, or rolled into pellets to be swallowed. The active substance in peyote is mescaline, one of several naturally occurring hallucinogenic drugs. Mescaline tastes bitter, causes an initial feeling of nausea, and then produces visions and changes in perception, time sense, and mood. There are no uncomfortable aftereffects. Peyote use is central to traditional Native American religious practices -- practices that predate this country's founding. Anthropologists date the religious use of peyote back 10,000 years, and its use by Native North Americans has been documented since the 1600s. The present day Native American Church, with 250,000 members and chapters in 20 states, advocates the religious use of peyote. According to practitioners, peyote use is a spiritually profound exercise, and ranks among the oldest, largest and most continuously practiced religions in the Western Hemisphere. Peyote is a sacrament to believers, something which when eaten provides awareness of God. The medical evidence shows that religious peyote use is not harmful to the practitioner, and it is taken in private and secluded religious settings. In fact, to ingest peyote other than in a religious setting is regarded as a sacrilege. Aside from this religious use, peyote is a controlled substance, illegal in all 50 states.Professor La Barre strongly supports the legitim...
