Mescaline is 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, a member of the phenethylamine family rather than the tryptamines. A pharmacology review attributes its effects mainly to serotonin 5-HT2A to 2C receptors, and notes that, as a phenethylamine, it also produces fight-or-flight effects on the body (Dinis-Oliveira et al., 2019). The German chemist Arthur Heffter first isolated it from peyote in 1896 (Uthaug et al., 2022).
It is long-acting. In a randomized, double-blind crossover trial in 32 healthy people, mescaline’s effects lasted a mean 11.1 hours, against 8.2 for LSD and 4.9 for psilocybin, with no clear difference in the kind of altered state at equally strong doses (Ley et al., 2023). Research on it is thin, and modern controlled data come from healthy volunteers.
In Canada, mescaline is item 17 of Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, worded to cover mescaline “but not peyote (lophophora)” (CDSA). The exclusion names peyote only. This is not legal advice.
Sources
- Dinis-Oliveira et al., 2019, Current Molecular Pharmacology: mescaline
- Ley et al., 2023, Neuropsychopharmacology
- Uthaug et al., 2022, Journal of Psychopharmacology: mescaline survey
- Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Schedule III (Justice Laws)
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