The epidemiology of mescaline use: Pattern of use, motivations for consumption, and perceived consequences, benefits, and acute and enduring subjective effects

This web-based survey study (n=452) investigated the epidemiology of mescaline-use amongst English-speaking adults and found that many of the respondents use it for spiritual exploration, connection with nature, or in conjunction with a clinical condition such as anxiety or depression. They reported moderate to low levels of mystical-type, ego-dissolving, insightful, or challenging experiences regarding the acute effects, which did not differ between mescaline types (San Pedro or Peyote).

Abstract

“Background: Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychoactive phenethylamine found in several cacti and historically used ceremonially by Indigenous and Latin American populations. Broader recognition of its possible therapeutic value in Western science began in the 1950s; however, knowledge of the safety profile of mescaline and the extent of its use remains limited. The primary aim of this study is to examine the epidemiology of mescaline use among English-speaking adults.

Methods: About 452 respondents completed a web-based survey designed to assess their previous experience with mescaline (subjective effects, outcome measures, and mescaline type used).

Results: Most respondents reported that they had consumed mescaline infrequently (⩽once/year), for spiritual exploration or to connect with nature (74%). A small number of respondents reported drug craving/desire (9%), whereas very few reported legal (1%), or psychological problems (1%) related to its use, and none reported seeking any medical attention. Overall, respondents rated the acute mystical-type effects as “moderate,” ego-dissolution and psychological insight effects as “slight,” and challenging effects as “very slight.” Most respondents reported that they used Peyote and San Pedro in their most memorable mescaline experience. Overall, the intensity of acute mescaline effects did not differ between mescaline types. About 50% of the sample reported having a psychiatric condition (i.e. depression, anxiety, etc.), and most (>67%) reported improvements in these conditions following their most memorable experience with mescaline.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that the mescaline in any form may produce a psychedelic experience that is associated with the spiritual significance and improvements in the mental health with low potential for abuse.”

Authors: Malin V. Uthaug, Alan K. Davis, Trevor F. Haas, Dawn Davis, Sean B. Dolan, Rafael Lancelotta, Christopher Timmermann & Johannes G. Ramaekers

Summary

Introduction

Mescaline, a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid within the substituted phenethylamine class, is the primary psychoactive compound in two cacti species: the North American Lophophora williamsii and the South American Trichocereus pachanoi. It has been used ceremonially by Indigenous cultures for more than 7000 years.

Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychoactive phenethylamine found in several cacti. Its use is still limited, but there is growing recognition of its potential therapeutic value.

452 English-speaking adults completed a web-based survey.

Medication used.

Most respondents used mescaline infrequently, for spiritual exploration or to connect with nature, and reported mild to moderate acute psychedelic effects. Few reported legal or psychological problems related to mescaline use, and none reported seeking any medical attention.

Improvements in mental health.

Mescaline is a psychedelic phenethylamine substance that acts primarily at 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, and alpha-2 adrenergic receptors. It has very low binding affinity at dopaminergic and histaminergic receptors and does not inhibit uptake at monoamine transporters.

Synthetic mescaline is three orders of magnitude greater than the equivalent dose of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and has a longer half-life compared to other classic psychedelics (i.e. 6 h).

The acute subjective and enduring effects of mescaline consumption are less well understood, but include sensory alterations, ideas of influence, paranoia, delusions, and depersonalization. However, mescaline also produces varying positive emotional and cognitive effects, such as pleasant feelings, euphoria, and transcendence.

Mescaline is a psychedelic drug that produces psychological effects such as anxiety, panic, and disorganized behavior. It is associated with a rapid-onset tolerance period lasting 3 – 4 days after the use, but has not been shown to produce dependence.

Mescaline is used by eight million people in the United States, while Peyote is used by 5.5 million people. The use of Peyote has increased among Native Americans since the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994.

Members of the NAC report using Peyote anywhere from once per year to two to three times per week. Decriminalization resolutions may lead to an exponentially increased use of Peyote by Indigenous peoples.

Mescaline has been used therapeutically to help patients access repressed memories, gain insight into emotional issues, and explore ego defense mechanisms. It has also been used recreationally to help people attain spiritual transformation, gratitude, compassion, and interconnectedness with the universe.

Mescaline has been studied in animal models and case studies, but no epidemiological studies have been conducted in the general population to evaluate the effects of mescaline use.

This study examined the epidemiology of mescaline use among English-speaking adults who have consumed mescaline at least once in their lifetime. It also examined whether there were changes in medical and psychological functioning following mescaline use.

Procedure

We posted recruitment advertisements on multiple Internet platforms and shared links to the survey via personal networks to recruit people who had used mescaline at least once in their lifetime.

Measures

A Mescaline survey was introduced with a description of the various types of mescaline and asked respondents to describe their most memorable experience with one of these types. The participant was asked to answer questions about their mescaline experience, including the administration route, how the mescaline was obtained, whether there were other people present, and how many times they had used mescaline before and after this experience.

The second part of the survey asked about lifetime use of mescaline, including questions about age at first use, administration route, frequency, reason, and location of use, as well as questions about abuse potential, craving/desire for mescaline, and possible consequences of mescaline use.

Subjective acute and enduring effects

The psychological insight questionnaire is a 23 item scale that asks respondents to rate the intensity with which they experienced a broad range of insights after taking a classic psychedelic.

Acute mystical experiences are described by a 30-item self-report scale that has four factors: mystical, positive mood, transcendence of time/space, and ineffability. A “complete mystical experience” is counted when a person endorses all four subscales.

A 26-item self-report measure, the challenging experience questionnaire, was used to assess the intensity of challenging experiences after taking mescaline. It produces seven subscales: fear, grief, physical distress, sanity, isolation, death, and paranoia.

We altered the phrasing of the instructions for the ego-dissolution inventory and asked the respondents to describe the intensity of ego-dissolution after ingesting mescaline on a scale from 0 to 5.

The persisting effects questionnaire assesses desirable and undesirable enduring effects of a hallucinogenic experience. It includes questions about personal well-being, life satisfaction, life’s purpose, life’s meaning, social relationships as a whole, attitudes about life, attitudes about self, relationship to nature, behavioral changes, spirituality, attitudes about death, and views regarding the universe.

Data analysis

We used frequency counts, descriptive demographic characteristics, patterns of mescaline use, subjective mystical, challenging, ego-dissolution, psychological insight effects, and psychological harms/benefits variables to examine differences in demographic characteristics, mescaline use variables, and subjective acute effects as a function of the type of mescaline that respondents reported having the most memorable experience with.

Respondent characteristics

2025 people clicked on the recruitment ads, 788 consented to participate, and 477 completed the main study questionnaires. 22 people were excluded because they could not identify the form of mescaline they had the most memorable experience with.

Most survey respondents were Caucasian, male, and heterosexual, with a mean age of 38 years. The San Pedro group had a younger mean age and larger proportions of respondents from North America than the Peyote or synthetic groups.

The epidemiology of mescaline use

Most respondents had consumed San Pedro in their lifetime, and almost all had consumed mescaline through oral ingestion. Most reported having used mescaline less than once per year, and most reported having last used mescaline at least 6 months prior to survey participation. Most respondents believed that mescaline had potential applications for personal growth, spiritual growth, psychotherapeutic work, enhancing creative abilities, and enhancing cognitive abilities.

Most respondents never consumed more than one dose of mescaline in a session, and most never craved mescaline. Additionally, most never sought medical attention as a result of mescaline use.

Characteristics of the “most memorable” mescaline experience

Most respondents reported using San Pedro or Peyote for their most memorable mescaline experience, and most reported self-administering their mescaline. Most reported using mescaline outdoors, and most reported consuming their mescaline an average of three times prior and four times since this most memorable mescaline experience.

There were several differences across the four mescaline subgroups, with those in the Peyote subgroup reporting consuming more doses (2.9) in their most memorable experience compared to all other subgroups, and reporting a total duration of the experience less than 7 h compared to those in the San Pedro subgroup.

Subjective effects of the “most memorable” mescaline experience

Overall, respondents rated the intensity of acute subjective mescaline effects as moderate, with very slight ratings for challenging effects, psychological insight effects, and ego-dissolution effects.

One-quarter to one-third of respondents rated their most memorable mescaline experience as one of the top five or single most personally meaningful, spiritually significant, or psychologically insightful experiences of their entire lives.

Effect of the “most memorable” mescaline experience on psychological functioning

Almost half of the respondents reported having a mental health condition prior to their most memorable mescaline experience, and most reported that the condition improved following their experience.

Discussion

The present data indicate that most people used San Pedro or Peyote orally through self-administration for spiritual and nature connection. The motivation for mescaline use is similar to reports from other research on psilocybin and ayahuasca used in a naturalistic setting.

Respondents’ ratings of mescaline’s subjective effects were inconsistent with other psychedelics and were low in comparison to reported craving for more widely used substances. However, definitive safety profiles need to be established in laboratory studies of mescaline administration.

Most respondents with prior psychiatric conditions reported improvements in these conditions following their most memorable experience with mescaline. This finding is consistent with previous findings that psychedelics can improve mental health and substance use outcomes.

Results from this study showed no significant differences in the subjective acute and enduring effects between mescaline types, although the Peyote subgroup reported consuming more doses compared to other groups and reported shorter duration of effects.

This study has several limitations, including that it was cross-sectional and that it used a different scoring scale of the EDI created by Nour et al. (2017). Additionally, the sample was mostly made up of White heterosexual men and it was recruited using Internet advertisements.

The research team made explicit attempts to reach out to NA and Indigenous communities, but only 10 responded. This is likely due to historical trust issues and a reluctance to take part in Western scientific studies with plants that are considered sacrilegious.

Although we have compared mescaline experiences by mescaline type of use, further rigorous, clinical research are needed to draw any strong conclusions.

Conclusion

Despite the limitations described above, mescaline may produce a psychedelic experience that is associated with meaningful and spiritually significant experiences, improvements in mental health, and low probability for increased use and misuse.