Mescaline

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Mescaline
Chemical name 3,4,5-Trimethoxy-
phenethylamine or
2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)
ethanamine
Chemical formula C₁₁H₁₇NO₃
Molecular mass 211.26 g/mol
Melting point 128–129 °C
CAS numbers 54-04-6
SMILES NCCC1=CC(OC)=C(OC)C(OC)=C1

Mescaline
Chemical name	3,4,5-Trimethoxy- phenethylamine or 2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl) ethanamine
Chemical formula	C₁₁H₁₇NO₃
Molecular mass	211.26 g/mol
Melting point	128–129 °C
CAS numbers	54-04-6
SMILES	NCCC1=CC(OC)=C(OC)C(OC)=C1

Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is a hallucinogenic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class.

It occurs naturally in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), the San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), in the Peruvian Torch cactus (Echinopsis peruviana), and it is also found in a number of other members of the Cactaceae. It can be extracted from these sources. Mescaline was first isolated and identified in 1897 by the German Arthur Heffter and first synthesized in 1919 by Ernst Späth.

Contents

1 Usage and history

1.0.1 Dosage and effects

2 Legal status
3 Chemistry
4 Side effects

4.1 Positive side effects
4.2 Neutral side effects
4.3 Negative side effects

5 Famous users
6 See also
7 External links
8 Categorization

Usage and history

Mescaline powder

The use of extract from peyote in Native American religious ceremonies has been noted since the earliest European contact, notably by the Huichols in Mexico.

Dosage and effects

The effective human dosage is 200–400 milligrams (3.75 mg/kg), with the effects lasting for up to twelve hours. Users typically experience visual hallucinations and radically altered states of consciousness, often experienced as pleasurable and illuminating but occasionally as accompanied by feelings of anxiety or revulsion. It is not physically addictive.

Legal status

In the US it was made illegal in 1970 by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. It was prohibited internationally by the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances[link] and is categorised as a Schedule I hallucinogen by the CSA.

Chemistry

A common synthetical approach starts from 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzaldehyde ([PiHKAL entry]).

Side effects

One or more of the following side effects may or may not accompany any individual experience with mescaline.

Positive side effects

Open eye visuals
Closed-eye visuals
New thought processes
Dream-like scenarios
Euphoria
Mystical experience

Neutral side effects

Pupil dilation
Sensations of warm and cold
Temporary splitting/destruction of ego

Negative side effects

Dizziness
Vomiting
Tachycardia
Diarrhea
Headaches
Anxiety
Feeling of dying or annihilation
Fear of not being able to return to normal consciousness
Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD)
Irrationality of the thought-process

Famous users

Jerry Garcia
Aldous Huxley
Ernst Jünger [link]
Leo Kenney [link]
Henri Michaux [link]
Jim Morrison
Carlos Castaneda
Hunter S. Thompson
Robert Del Naja
Timothy Leary
Christopher Mayhew, Labour MP and BBC television personality, who took Mescaline Hydrochloride in 1955 for an unbroadcast episode of Panorama [link]
Jean-Paul Sartre
Antonin Artaud
Sébastien Branconnier
Comedian Jim Breuer, in his stage act, talks about trying it once as a teenager, in a bit called "The Wizard".
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer, dramatist, photographer, philosopher and painter.

Don Henley, Glen Frey, Joe Walsh, Don Felder(The Eagles)

External links

For a full list of external links to MSDSs, spectroscopic data, commercial chemicals suppliers etc. for this compound, see [Chemical sources].

Categorization

Psychedelic phenethylamines [http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit]

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