Terry has been studying peyote for three decades. He says overexploitation occurs because Texas doesn`t allow peyote cultivation. El Ministerio de la Defensa no lleva la estadÃstica de los decomisos de peyotl. Pero se han logrado incautaciones de hasta 198 kilogramos. Since it is illegal in Mexico for anyone outside the Wixárika tribe to harvest and use peyote, many tour guides take people to places where the cactus grows so they can harvest the crop without giving them instructions on how to harvest the crop sustainably. Harvesting Lophophora willamsii using unsustainable methods is the main reason why the plant is at risk of being overexploited. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico half a millennium ago, they tried to convince indigenous people that eating peyote, a discreet cactus containing the psychedelic drug mescaline, resembled a devil cult. In the Criminal Conviction Finder of the Federal Council of Justice (CJF), there are only 4 sentences for the crime of possession of peyote between 2017 and 2020 in Aguascalientes, a state where Profepa has not filed a criminal complaint. The fate of 80% of the peyotes and detainees seized could not be identified. Historically, there has been a close relationship between some members of the Native American Church and Mexican peyote, especially since much of it is in Mexico.
The request of NAC members to consume peyote was rejected by the Directorate of Registration of Religious Associations and the Supreme Court of the Nation, according to the amparo of revision 374/2020. Cutting the crown of the plant too close to the root limits its ability to reproduce, says ecologist Nájera. “It`s like castration,” he complains. Trained peyoteros only cut the crown: “If you do that, the plant grows back – sometimes with more than one head.” He adds, “Large plants are harvested much more than smaller ones, so the population continues to decline.” A loophole in Mexican law allows people to come to San Luis Potosi to consume Lophophora Williamsii in the desert without risking jail. It is only illegal to harvest and remove the plant from San Luis Potosi for use in other places. The Mexican government must have more uniform laws on the harvesting and use of peyote in order to better protect it on lands sacred to Wixárika. También es un espacio para que familias de diferentes Estados, miembros de la Iglesia Nativa Americana, peregrinen como lo hacían sus antepasados, y cosechen el peyote que usan para sus ceremonias. In South Texas, in Jim Hogg County, USA, Javier Martinez and his two dogs tend to nearly 250 acres with more than 3,000 peyotes protecting members of the Native American church. The industry of so-called “miracle cures” has also© begun to illegally market an anointing to eliminate the pain of this plant. The rise of industrial agriculture and peyote tourism endangers sacred lands and rites of indigenous peoples Today, however, scarcity threatens the bud-shaped thornless cactus – which sometimes produces pink flowers, but remains camouflaged under desert bushes. This is due to both the explosion in demand for peyote and deforestation caused by the expansion of the agricultural sector in central San Luis Potosí state (and beyond). He enthusiastically stated that he has dedicated much of his life to peyote since graduating with a degree in agroecology and a master`s degree in social anthropology.
“We recognize that there is a peyote trade, but we think it is mainly sold to hippies and people in general,” said Volat, head of IPCI. AIC: How do indigenous peoples consume peyote? However, for Mario Muñoz, the chef of Wixárika, peyote is priceless, because “when peyote ends, the culture ends, our customs, because this is where it was born, so it is necessary to take care of the plant and reforest wirikuta, we have no other choice, because if we do not prevent it, it will finish” CLF: From the publication of an edict, which comes out the Holy Inquisition, located in the General Archives of the Nation, Fonds des institutions coloniales, Indifférent Vice-royal, Box 1314, File 020. It is an edict that has a religious character. Peyote before the arrival of Europeans, like many other plants, was used to heal and relieve pain and add resistance, it is not new, it is thousands of years old. But this has to do with the lack of dialogue and understanding of the two civilizations, which has other channels, in addition to banning peyote and other things like polytheistic religions. The Federal Penal Code punishes the possession of peyote and only indigenous communities such as the Wixarika or Huichol, the Coras and Rarámuri or the Tarahumaras are exempt only for ceremonial use, although Article 198 punishes its culture. In particular, two proposals for legislative reform have circulated in the public sphere of this country over the past year. The first is a legislative initiative to reclassify the current mushroom and peyote standards proposed to the Senate by Armando Contreras Castillo, a congressman from a political coalition that includes several new parties (including current President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador`s MORENA). The second is a request for legal protection for the consumption of peyote and mushrooms, filed by lawyer and activist Sergio Morales, and debated in Mexico`s Supreme Court last March. “We are overexploiting the shrinking area of the planet that is actually home to wild peyote,” says Martin Terry, professor of botany at Sul Ross State University in Alpine The Ministry of Defense (Sedena), for its part, obtained 28.3 kilos of peyote from 2000 to July 2022, according to figures in this report. Since pre-Hispanic times, the Wirikuta region has been considered sacred to the Huichol and the Rarámuris or Tarahumaras.
These groups make a pilgrimage through the desert every year in May to reach Cerro del Quemado. According to their belief, the sun appeared on this road for the first time in history, so tradition says that once you reach the slopes of the mountain, you must eat peyote. It`s hard to judge how much peyote is harvested each year (or how much grows), but the biggest buyer is thought to be the Native American Church. He buys hundreds of thousands of peyote “buttons” a year from peyoteros licensed in the United States and is exempt from drug legislation because the psychoactive cactus is for religious purposes. Where peyote once grew, there are now colossal greenhouses and millions of chickens and pigs in cages. “I`ve seen several who go ashore to steal peyote because they have to make a living and sell it. And the natives, who only want their medicines, buy them. The legend of the “blue deer” tells that when the world was conceived in a sea called Tatã©i Haramara (present-day San Blas, in Nayarit), a deer was born, following the sun to the east, but was struck by five Huichol hunters who killed it with an arrow. Before he died, he managed to reach Wirikuta in the state of San Luis Potosã.
His heart and every step he took along the way turned into peyote. CLF: Their possession is illegal in Mexico, with the exception of the Huichol, Cora and Tarahumara groups; in addition to being used in the rituals of the Native American Church in the United States. The growing demand for peyote has led to indiscriminate harvesting methods as well as poaching. Researchers recently documented a crater that housed a 125-year-old peyote bed, suggesting a large-scale trade in powdered peyote overseas. The Rio Grande City peyote dealer confirmed that there was a theft of peyote. Profepa, which is responsible for protecting and monitoring the country`s environment and natural resources, conducted 20 operations and seized 2,877 peyotes from 2015 to 2022. More than four million cubic meters of water per year are needed to irrigate the tomato greenhouses, which are already operating in the supposed protected area of Wirikuta. Many of these plants were built in areas where peyote grows. Drilling deep into the already overexploited aquifer to irrigate non-indigenous crops in an area regularly affected by severe drought also threatens the livelihoods of local farmers and drives them off their land. Según organizaciones especializadas como el Centro Internacional de Servicio, Investigación y Educación Etnobotánica, (ICEERS, por siglas en inglés) el peyote puede tardar entre 15 y 20 años en llegar a su madurez. “My father was still alive and had returned to Mirando. He sold peyote for about 18 years.
I came back here and applied for my licence, and I started selling peyote. I`ve been doing it ever since,” Johnson says. This is where the mystery facing peyote lovers becomes increasingly acute: it`s at the heart of religious usage inside and outside Mexico, but given conservation concerns in Texas and Mexico, can nature meet the demand in the absence of organized culture? Of all the natural psychedelics (including ayahuasca, iboga, and magic mushrooms), peyote – or híkuri, as the Wixárika call it – seems to be facing the most acute ecological and cultural crises. Agricultural megaprojects that seem to care little about the wider ecosystem or the protection of Wixárika`s sacred sites exacerbate the problems caused by the expansion of the peyote tourism industry across Mexico. Sin embargo, a la fecha, no exist ninguna sentencia por tráfico ni cultivo de peyote. “I believe this is the only way for a certain group of people to get closer to God, and there is no other way.