 "What is mescaline, the new drug that is getting Delhi high?")
A drug that thrives in a desert has invaded a party circuit in India’s New Delhi.
Police in Delhi have confiscated the first-ever shipment of mescaline, a substance that had not been known to the city before, raising concerns.
According to PTI, a Nigerian woman was arrested for allegedly smuggling and supplying psychotropic substances and 3.87 kilogrammes of mescaline worth around Rs 15 crore in the international market, police said on Thursday.
Here’s all we know about it.
About mescaline
According to officials, mescaline, commonly used as a party drug, has the same hallucinogenic effects as LSD and psilocybin (magic mushroom).
It is a natural psychedelic derived from the button-shaped Mexican Peyote cactus and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian San Pedro cactus.
The drug is also found in other cactus and bean plants from the Cactaceae and Fabaceae families.
Also known as buttons, cactus, mesc and peyoto, the drug can affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
It is well-known for its strong effects at parties and can be taken in a variety of forms, such as liquid, tablets, powder, or capsules.
Each person experiences mescaline in a different way, but some common effects include euphoria, increased energy, distorting perceptions of space and time, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, severe nausea and vomiting, decreased appetite, increased body temperature, and sweating.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAccording to anecdotal reports, the effects of mescaline take approximately 45–90 minutes to commence and can last between nine and 14 hours.
No fatal overdoses from taking mescaline have been reported.
Its history
Native American ceremonial rites have been using mescaline for hundreds of years.
The Times of India claims that the substance rose to prominence in the middle of the 20th century after Aldous Huxley wrote about his experiences using it in his 1954 book, The Doors of Perception.
Because mescaline was thought to have benefits for mental health, it also became a popular drug in Europe and the United States.
“In the early 2000s, psychedelic trance band 1200 Micrograms came up with a track called Mescaline. The psychoactive substance was a rage in the US and Mexico at the time. Mexico was the sole producer of the contraband at the time,” TOI source explained.
But eventually, “lack of supply and some Russian groups overpowering the market with the LSD supply” caused the substance to lose its appeal.
Despite its popularity in other countries, the drug never gained much traction in India.
Mexico has long been recognised as the primary mescaline producer.
The raid in Delhi
The Delhi Police obtained information in April 2024 on a global drug trafficking organisation that was bringing mescaline into Delhi and the surrounding areas. The Special Cell monitored every member of this drug network closely throughout the following four months, according to News18.
The culmination of the efforts was a raid in Mehrauli, Delhi, on August 14, 2024, where Nigerian citizen Faith Rachel was arrested.
Upon searching her trolley bag, 3.8 kilos of premium mescaline were found, deceptively hidden among fish products and branded toffee packaging.
The cost of these toffees varied according to the buyer’s status.
The amount of mescaline that was found is estimated to be worth Rs 15 crore.
Rachael arrived in India on a medical visa in August of 2022.
She didn’t go back to Nigeria when her visa expired.
She began smuggling drugs after meeting a Nigerian national, according to the authorities.
With the assistance of the above person, she joined the drug cartel and was responsible for delivering shipments of narcotics substances from one conduit to another.
An investigation showed that the substance was manufactured in hidden labs run by the drug gang outside of India.
A global problem
In India, mescaline-related cases have been rare.
Two years ago, a minor amount of the substance was found in Pune, and in 2013, there was another case recorded in Punjab.
Earlier this year, 18 people were detained by Spanish police after a raid on a drug den in Madrid on suspicion of trafficking in mescaline and the psychedelic substance ayahuasca, as per TOI.
These traffickers advertised their goods as components of “neo-shamanic rituals” that enhanced mental and physical well-being.
They even planned retreats where participants ingested these substances combined with road venom, or the deadly secretions of “kambo” frogs.
With inputs from PTI
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