Stolen Cactus Followup
Another article about the New Zealand cactus thieves I blogged this morning indicates they thought they were stealing San Pedro cactus, which makes more sense.
The writer also assumes they had stolen San Pedro cactus.
But it was a Cereus. Also known as the Peruvian cactus apple they have delicious fruit, but no mescaline.
One Hamilton garden centre staff member, who did not want to be named, said she had been approached in the past by people wanting to buy cactus and boil it up for a “high”.
Associate Professor Merilyn Manley-Harris, of the chemistry department at Waikato University, said the stolen cactus looked strikingly familiar to the Echinopsis pachanoi, the San Pedro cactus, that contains the hallucinogenic mescaline.
The cactus held a “chemical cocktail of psychedelic agents” that if taken in the wrong dosage could kill, Ms Manley-Harris said….
And always they must tell you that drugs are bad and even here that drugs can kill.
“If you muck around with it this sort of thing can kill you.”
