Peyote vanishing from Texas

The Dallas Observer has a mournful, in-depth article on how peyote is vanishing from southern Texas, the only part of the United States that can grow it. Only three people are legally allowed to harvest peyote, which can only be sold under strict guidelines. However, the buttons are getting smaller and scarcer:

"Peyote is in jeopardy," he says. "You hear stories about it coming from Mexico now. The ranchers in Texas have put up tall fences you can't jump. Then, there are all the wetbacks and Border Patrol. There's just too much heat.

"A lot of the Natives are real sensitive about the situation," Collum says. "The supply will not meet the demand unless you can convince the ranchers to cooperate. And the ranchers, they don't give a fuck about peyote."

Ranchers used to be friendly with the peyoteros, who paid them a small lease for access to their land. In recent years, as land prices have skyrocketed and Hispanic immigration has boomed, Anglo ranchers have come to view the peyoteros as a nuisance. According to Morales, many ranchers would rather plow their fields to plant grass for cattle feed than protect their native plants.

This isn't a story about the extinction of peyote, given that 90% of North America's peyote supply comes from Mexico. But Mexican peyote cannot be legally imported into the United States. Theoretically it can be grown in greenhouses, but even though it can be legally harvested, it apparently cannot be legally cultivated. What to do?

As a botanist, Terry thinks he's found a solution—buying up land to protect the plant. But the price of land has skyrocketed.

"The only obstacle is the cost of buying a minimum of 2,000 acres of South Texas real estate," he says. "That means we're talking about something on the order of $2 million. For a relatively new 501(c)3 like the Cactus Conservation Institute, that's a fund-raising project of enormous magnitude."

It's also a challenge raising money to save a plant that the federal government considers a dangerous, addictive drug. But the biggest obstacle for conservation might be the Indians themselves. Many Indians are opposed to cultivating peyote in greenhouses. Their opposition stems from a mystical belief in the cactus as divinely planted.

Hmm, caught between government policy and mystical belief - sounds like the church is definitely headed for a spiritual test...