Name layer
Mescaline is a classic psychedelic phenethylamine. It belongs in the phenethylamine lane, not the tryptamine lane that holds DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, mebufotenin, or psilocybin.
SCM should also keep the compound, the cactus, and the tradition separate. Mescaline is the compound; peyote and San Pedro / huachuma are botanical and cultural contexts; Native American Church protections and conservation questions are not interchangeable with a generic compound page.
Human-effects evidence
Recent peer-reviewed human studies give SCM a better anchor than folklore alone. A 2024 double-blind, placebo-controlled study describes acute dose-dependent mescaline effects in healthy subjects, while a randomized cross-over study compared acute mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin effects in healthy participants.
Those studies are acute-effects evidence, not proof of approved therapy. The page should not imply that mescaline-assisted therapy is approved, broadly available, or clinically proven for a named psychiatric condition without a source that directly supports that claim.
Peyote, San Pedro, and cultural boundary
The United States legal and cultural picture is especially sensitive around peyote. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act amendments protect non-drug peyote use by Indians in bona fide traditional ceremonies under U.S. federal law, which is a narrower and more specific statement than saying peyote is generally legal.
Future SCM pages should split out peyote / Lophophora, San Pedro / huachuma, and Indigenous or church traditions rather than asking the mescaline compound page to carry every botanical, conservation, legal, and ceremonial claim.
SCM reading rule
Use mescaline as the chemical and evidence anchor, then link outward to organism and tradition pages once those exist. Do not convert community experience reports into clinical evidence, and do not use generic “classic psychedelic” language when a claim actually comes from a mescaline-specific study.
Legal posture should be dated and jurisdiction-specific. The eCFR source below is a U.S. federal checkpoint; it is not a global legal map.