Outside of Mauro Morales's Rio Grande City, Texas home is a sign that reads "Peyote Dealer, Buy or Sell Peyote." Morales is one of three "peyoteros" licensed by the US government to deal in the cactus that contains mescaline. The psychedelic is legal for members of the Native American Church, but sadly the Peyote cactus is become scarce. From Reuters:
"There's still some peyote out there, but not like there used to be. It's getting kind of scary now," said Morales above the crowing of a rooster from the roof of his shed.
He has had his peyotero license for 16 years, and before that worked as a picker, walking the arid brush country of southern Texas with a machete in hand and lopping off the top of the cactus when he found it.
It used to be easy — peyote was plentiful and landowners were happy to let peyoteros harvest the cactus for a small fee.
But urban development and widespread "root plowing," which scrapes natural vegetation off the land to replace it with grass for cattle grazing, destroyed many of the peyote fields that once sprawled along the U.S.-Mexico border.
And more and more peyote land is off-limits because it is being bought by rich Texans who turn it into hunting preserves, said Martin Terry, a biology professor at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.
Previously on BB:
• US government attacks ritual use of DMTea Link
