An updated graph was recently generated for a presentation and was added to the Cactus Conservation Institute website in the event it is of any interest. Nothing surprising of course.
http://cactusconservatio...ales-reported-1986-2016/

Thanks KT!

Quite a drop in 2016. Does this represent an off year, or can we expect an ongoing decline in sales moving forward?

I was also curious, we are down to just a handful of legal vendors in Texas right? and most of them are getting up there in years from what I understand? What does the future look like for the legal gardens and sales?

Huh. Is the steady decline we're seeing a result of decline in demand? Or decline in supply?

I would say supply is driven by demand.

There is a lot about this topic published by K Trout and M Terry at the Cactus Conservation Institute website.
Demand vastly exceeds supply.
https://www.cactusconser...on.org/CCI/CCI_Home.html

https://www.cactusconser...g/CCI/library_index.html

Ah, I see. So do the NAC members consume only wild grown peyotes? If so, then it makes sense...

Most do.
There is a consensus among most of them that cultivation is bad for some reason.
They are destroying their own spiritual tradition.

That is sad
I would like to know what reason is leading them to avoid cultivation. Does cultivated cactus have affected entheogenic properties from their experience? Anyone knows that, guys?

The way it was told me, the creator provides the medicine, as long as the people are sincere in their practice, they will be provided for.

My understanding is that while the legal farms are on native habitat, and sustainable wildcrafting is taking place, they are also cultivating it (see the big gardens in Hamilton's Pharmacopeia) so I'm not sure how truthful it is that all of the NAC is using only wild harvested material.

My understanding which may be wrong is that the NAC is diverse and has several semi independent groups, the majority of these don't cultivate. I have heard a minority do.

No... Not when it comes to a limited/endangered natural resource. Demand would drive the supply down, in this case.


I bet that if only the native peoples consumed wild peyote, there would be enough for them. It's when the foreigners come in and partake also in the wild peyote, that the number goes down.

I wonder if feeding only cultivated peyote to foreigners would solve the problem.

Foreigners?

How is that defined?

My understanding, largely drawn from Trout's work, is that among the threats to peyote are encroachment and habitat loss and harvesting practices that frequently kill the plants.

I don't know anything about foreign people and peyote and would like to learn more.
I've only had peyote that was cultivated and only a handful of times.

I am defining it in this particular instance as anyone who is not indigenous to North America. Non-tribespeople. America is now a nation of immigrants. I.e., foreigners. I'm not trying to be derogatory, but let's call a spade a spade, shall we? : P

I don't want to draw this thread too far off topic, but this is actually really interesting to consider historically.

The only tribes we have evidence for a true peyote lineage going back thousands of years are the Huichol and the Tarahumara, both indigenous to Mexico.

Peyote wasn't introduced to the North American tribes till the mid 1800's via Quanah Parker who was healed by a Huichol using peyote, ultimately giving rise to the Native American Church and it's associated peyote religion. Use of peyote wasn't widely adopted by the Navajo till the 1930's.

So given the history, it's rather odd that Mexican-Americans, even those of full Tarahumara or Huichol blood, are not exempt from peyote laws, since they are not federally recognized tribes. Yet tribes that have only been using peyote for 150 years at best do enjoy the exemption.

As an aside, the NAC was incorporated largely thanks to the assistance and testimony of a white man and good friend of Quanah Parker's named James Mooney, who's grandson is the founder of ONAC with all it's associated controversy, illegitimacy, and exact same historical lineage.

I would suggest this particular incident of institutionalized racism is no longer relevant (if it ever was) and measures be taken to protect and preserve the remaining wild populations of this truly special plant as a HUMAN heritage.

Which means, since we are all related, all of us African foreigners eat cultivated peyote.
/end rant

Thanks for the history lesson, Dreamer! I look forward to reading more about Quanah Parker and the inception of the NAC.

btw, when I said North America I was including Mexico.

And I am glad you said that it is "a HUMAN heritage." I agree, mostly for selfish reasons, hah, but I think we cannot avoid a globalized, super-interconnected future in which these things become disseminated among all.

I guess I was just saying that, for the time being, if anyone should have access to the limited quantity of peyote out there, it should be the native people.

What "particular incident of institutionalized racism" are you talking about, exactly?

I have the utmost respect for this plant (spirit) and want to see it most respectfully protected and used by those who need it.

Our mother (Mitochondrial Eve) would be proud of this!

I mean the law that says if you were chance to born with such and such amount of blood from this short list of tribes, then you can practice the peyote religion, otherwise, even if you are Native American but not on the list, even if you are Huichol, you are a criminal for using this gift of the earth.

I think that we all need it.