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trucha

2016 peyote harvest numbers are online

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My apologies for the math error in that original posting. That has been corrected.

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The harvest has halved in ten years, I hope this is as a result of sustanable farming and not a decline in wild stock.

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There is no peyote farming involved in sacrament production for legal users of peyote in the USA or Mexico.

All peyote is presently wild harvested. Licensed distributors are actually forbidden to cultivate or to plant seeds by the same sets of laws that enable them to harvest. Similarly a landowner has permission to allow harvesting (iand to charge a fee for access) and are permitted to clear their land or otherwise destroy it but they are not permitted to plant, move or cultivate it.  They also can't sell their peyote by volume or by the piece and can only lease access to pickers and charge them a fee for a given period of harvesting opportunity. 

TONS of misunderstandings about these topics exist. Some people (including some authors) actually believe the Peyote Gardens are a garden rather than being a wild natural feature. Vastly more peyote, peyote populations and peyote habitat have been destroyed in the course of land development and brush clearing than from all harvesting activities combined. The majority of the previously existing populations in Texas have been gone for quite some time. 

There is a fourth distributor now but she is too new to have added numbers to the record and 2016 was the last year of mandatory reporting to DPS. This activity is under the DEA's oversight now so it is not yet clear if this will continue to be information that is available to the public.

A lot of information on this general subject of peyote harvesting can be found at www.cactusconservation.org.

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1 hour ago, trucha said:

There is no peyote farming involved in sacrament production for legal users of peyote in the USA or Mexico.

All peyote is presently wild harvested.

 

Thanks heaps for the clarification, it def adds weight and meaning to the numbers

 

And thank you again for all your excellent, quality, long-term dedication to the species and issues around them. Brilliant.

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1 hour ago, trucha said:

There is no peyote farming involved in sacrament production for legal users of peyote in the USA or Mexico.

All peyote is presently wild harvested. Licensed distributors are actually forbidden to cultivate or to plant seeds by the same sets of laws that enable them to harvest.

 

I am definitely no expert on the subject and don't live in the US, but apparently The Peyote Way Church out in Arizona is cultivating at least some of the peyote used in their ceremonies as shown in this video:

 

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Sure, there is no question about that. Dig into their documents --at their website and elsewhere online-- to study the actual details of their legal challenges (or ask them) Peyote Way lost their last court battle more than twenty years ago despite being recognized as sincere by the same judge. They are not just sincere but dedicated to their beliefs and did not abandon them. 

They are operating openly but it is without recognition of legal protection. They are simply being unmolested. That subject is densely complicated so it is often misunderstood to be something other than what it is. Ever since Oklahueha and two ayahuasca churches experienced limited success the DEA is picking their fights carefully to avoid more of those from occurring. In the scenario as it now exists and if PWCOG had the resources to support such a legal fight it is conceivable they might triumph in the wake of being attacked now.

It would take them many years and a lot of money to do so. I don't know how much money Oklavueha spent but it took them 12 years of court appearances and legal fees.  AND it is clear the powers that be are still wanting to try and find a way to somehow take them down. It is a circus very much worth watching in the wake of them declaring cannabis, ayahuasca "and other" to be their sacraments in addition to peyote.

It is also important to understand Peyote Way ended up in court due to actions that involved Emerson Jackson who was then president of the Native American Church of North America and objected to them being peyote people -- on racial grounds.

 

There are cultivation efforts occurring in Alaska and in Canada. One important element about the limited efforts ongoing towards peyote cultivation is those are all greenhouse activities and none are presently involving wildcrafting or repopulation in South Texas.

Edited by trucha
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One other comment. At this moment none of the actively ongoing cultivation activities inside of the USA (all of which are relatively tiny operations) involve groups with legal protection for that activity and, as far as I can determine, none of them produce sacrament for or accepted by the federally recognized legal users of peyote. This appears to be in the process of possibly shifting but it is not there yet.

 

There is a subtle element many people miss. No group presently using peyote or ayahuasca with some degree of legal protection is doing so under constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and are variously accomodated under either state law or is based on congressional legislation.  

 

Edited by trucha
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