Commerce, Religion, Drug Regulation and Conservation
in the Current Peyote Trade of the Texas Borderlands.
Martin Terry
Department of Biology, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
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Typical Lophophora
williamsii (peyote) in habitat in Starr County, Texas.
The U.S. 25-cent coin provides scale.
These are not large plants, and are almost certainly
regrowth from previous harvest(s).
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Typical
Lophophora
williamsii var. echinata (peyote) in
habitat in central Coahuila (near Cuatrocienegas).
These plants, strikingly different from the South Texas plants, are similar to the plants in
the populations of West Texas.
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A dried peyote button,
approximately 2 cm
in diameter.
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Gate to Native American Church
Spiritual
Residence in Mirando City, Texas.
Note top of tipi in lower right.
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The Problems of Diminishing
Returns
NAC membership:
Unknown.
250,000-400,000 members?
Demand for peyote exceeds the supply.
Demand appears to be increasing while the
supply is decreasing.
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The Problems of Diminishing Returns
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In Texas, peyote occurs
only on the periphery, along the Mexican border.
Commercially harvestable quantities occur only in
four counties: Starr, Zapata, Webb and Jim Hogg.
This small area of habitat in the South Texas
borderlands supplies the peyote needs of the NAC across the entire
continental United States and Canada.
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Distribution of Lophophora
williamsii.
Shaded area corresponds to the area outside of which
peyote is not known to occur naturally.
The actual distribution within the shaded area is
extremely patchy.
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The Problems of Diminishing Returns
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The DEA-registered
distributors of peyote are under pressure to harvest
as much peyote as possible to satisfy their NAC customers.
The result is that the distributors return to harvest
previously
harvested populations too soon – before the newly regenerated buttons
are mature.
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The Problems of Diminishing Returns
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The results of
harvesting
too frequently:
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(1) Average size of harvested buttons
decreases, which results in consumption of greater numbers of buttons
to achieve the desired psychic effect. (Vicious circle.)
(2) Seed production of plant population
decreases, so that harvested plants are not sufficiently replaced by
seedlings.
(3) Some harvested plants never grow
back. (Harvest-related mortality.)
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Freshly cut peyote buttons
in a bin of one DEA-registered peyote distributor in South Texas.
Notice the small
size of
the majority of the buttons being offered for sale to the Native
American Church as religious sacrament. Many are only 1-2 cm in
diameter.
Photo © 2007 by Gerhard Koehres
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Freshly cut peyote buttons
in a bin of a second DEA-registered peyote distributor in South Texas.
Notice again the
small
average size of the majority of these buttons.
Photo © 2007 by Gerhard Koehres
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Total annual sales of peyote
buttons
by all registered peyote distributors,
as accounted for by the Texas Department of Public Safety,
from 1986 to 2011.
Upper curve is number of buttons sold.
Lower curve is total sales in dollars.
Click here to see the actual numbers through 2014
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Implicit in these numbers is
this
fact:
While the cost per button has risen in a more or less
linear fashion over time, the cost per gram of peyote tissue (which
corresponds to the cost per amount of peyote required for sacramental
use per person) has increased dramatically with the marked reduction in
average size of the buttons being sold.
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Peyote Scarcity is Not
Geographically
Ubiquitous
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Many ranchers exclude peyote harvesters
from their ranches and actively protect their peyote populations from
poachers.
Where peyote is protected from
harvesting, the populations are healthy.
But this fact does not help the NAC or
the peyote distributors.
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Possible Solutions
Importation
of
peyote
from
Mexico
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(1) Not a sustainable solution.
(2) Would merely extend the problem of
overharvesting from Texas into Mexico.
(3) Mexico has its own problem of
scarcity of peyote due to overharvesting in certain regions, as well as
its own indigenous peoples who require peyote for ceremonial use.
(4) "Protección especial": To date, the
Mexican authorities have shown no interest in allowing exportation of
Mexican peyote to the U.S.
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Possible Solutions
Better
harvesting
techniques
through education.
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(1) Most harvesting by DEA-registered
peyote distributors and their usual employees is performed correctly
and sustainably (cutting the button off at ground level to promote
regrowth).
(2) Some harvesters cut too deep on the
underground part of the stem or into the root, rendering regrowth
unlikely or impossible.
(3) Others are digging up entire plants
by the roots, eliminating any possibility of regrowth.
(4) Behavior modification is a long-term
process.
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Recommended
technique
for sustainable harvest of peyote button.
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The
cut
is made at ground level and parallel to the surface of the ground.
Unfortunately, this procedure is not
universally followed in practice, which may result in decreased
regrowth. This means increased mortality in harvested plants.
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Possible
Solutions
Greenhouse
cultivation of
peyote.
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(1) Requires regulatory guidance from
DEA,
which means creating new policy. At least one petition for
greenhouse cultivation by a Native American Church is currently under
consideration by DEA.
(2) Requires acquisition of a greenhouse
and following a learning curve to optimize greenhouse horticultural
production.
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Possible
Solutions
Increasing
peyote yield in
natural habitat.
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(3) Requires
no
huge investment in land.
(4) Security in a greenhouse is easier to
maintain than security on rural land in South Texas.
(5) Can be done at any latitude and in
any climate.
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Possible
Solutions
Greenhouse
cultivation of
peyote.
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(6) Would provide NAC groups with
the opportunity to supply their own sacrament using techniques that
they themselves determine to be in harmony with their religious
requirements for their sacrament.
(7) Would make the self-providers
independent of the currently permitted sources of peyote that are
limited to South Texas.
(8) Would reduce the harvesting pressure
on the wild populations of South Texas, allowing the remaining ones to
recover.
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A
research
greenhouse,
registered
with
the DEA,
where peyote has been cultivated since 2003.
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Welded
steel
cages with
padlocks contain the peyote, to prevent "diversion".
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Inside
their
cages the Lophophora
plants are quite healthy.
There
is a
learning
curve
to optimal cultivation of peyote, but it is no more difficult than
cultivating other cacti – and is much easier than with many of the more
delicate species of cacti.
Feasibility is not an issue.
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Thanks
to the
following
folks
for
their help:
Leslie Thayer-Coleman and the Texas
Department of Public Safety (DPS) for the peyote sales data.
Gerhard Koehres for recent photos of
commercially harvested buttons of small size in Mirando City and Rio
Grande City.
Bennie Williams for the photo of the NAC
gate at the Cárdenas place in Mirando City.
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