The Decline of American Peyote (vice.com)

dmoberhaus writes: An investigation into the decline of America's peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus that is critically important to the rituals of the Native American Church, the largest pan-tribal religious organization in the U.S. Motherboard spoke with Dawn Davis, a researcher using satellite data to track the destruction of peyote's habitat, as well as Salvador Johnson, one of only four people who is licensed to harvest and sell peyote in the U.S. by the DEA. "In 2011, Davis traveled to the peyote gardens for the first time and met with Johnson," reports Motherboard. "Davis said that Johnson was following many conservation best practices, such as cycling through the areas where peyote is harvested, but this hadn't slowed the steady decrease in the size and quantity of peyote buttons in his harvests. Today, the biggest threats to peyote continue to be rapid land development, poaching, and rooting by feral pigs -- problems that responsible harvesting by peyoteros can't solve."

While there has been an increase in the number of indigenous people growing peyote in greenhouses, this is only a temporary solution to the conservation crisis. Davis is advocating for conservation easements or tax breaks for landowners to encourage the protection of peyote. She also said it will be necessary to push for the DEA to reschedule peyote, which is still considered a Schedule I substance that has "no currently accepted medical use." This makes it exceedingly hard for individuals to become licensed peyoteros.

Comments

Re:Religion legitimates ALL the things?

[Applehu Akbar]

In any case, how is this News For Nerds?

Bing recommends piracy for peyote 2019?

[zennling]

Maybe check the links in the article, editor?

One of those is easily solved

[MikeRT]

and rooting by feral pigs

Pigs are an invasive species in the wilds of North America. There is no conservation argument for protecting them under hunting regulations. Just lift all of the hunting regs and give hunters a standard meat value of a few bucks per pound donated to a charity, and you'll see the problem dry up quickly.

Re:One of those is easily solved

[rmdingler]

Some States place restrictions on hunting feral hog populations, but Texas is not one of them. Nuisance hogs can be trapped en masse, killed at night using IR, and from a vehicle such as a four-wheeler or helicopter, and still:

Best places to hunt

It shouldn't be a surprise, but Texas by far tops this list of the best states to hunt hogs in the United States. With a hog population conservatively estimated at upwards of 1.5 million hogs, Texas has by far the largest hog population of any state. In fact, Texas is experiencing such a dramatic increase in feral hog populations (an average of 20% per year) that some think that the state is actually losing the war on feral hogs.

Correct link

[Alwin Henseler]

15 Comments and still no one bothered to provide the correct link... sigh. Must be this one I assume:

The Decline of American Peyote

Re:Don't indians now use alcohol for their rituals

[bill_mcgonigle]

The founder of AA felt psychadelics were so important to combating alcoholism that he resigned from AA when the board refused to make it one of the twelve steps.

So go ahead and criminalize (in 1972, as a political weapon) substances that societies have used for at least 180,000 years and see what the repercussions might be.

Here's an example of where conservatism is wise.