San Pedro

(Pachanoi, Huachuma, Mescaline)

TrippyWiki score: 8.6/10

What is San Pedro?

San Pedro is a cactus that contains, along with 60+ other alkaloids, mescaline, a psychoactive compound of the phenethylamine class. The cactus has been used for thousands of years by multiple tribes for healing and religious purposes.

Why choose San Pedro over other psychedelics?

San Pedro…

Doesn’t seem to cause any damage to your organs and there is no lethal dose
Doesn’t cause a “bad trip” as often as most other psychedelics
Has been used for thousands of years, therefore we know a lot about its safety and effects
Has a longer duration than most other psychedelics, which allows you to reap more benefits from your trip
Won’t make you addicted unless you take it just to have fun and see pretty colors
Is natural and has a long history of use so there is less stigma around it
Isn’t a synthetic substance, therefore it cannot be cut with some unwanted drug
Is legal to buy and/or grow in most countries
Is easier to obtain than peyote

Long-term benefits & side effects

Many of the benefits will only occur if you follow the tips below.
Most (if not all) of the side effects are preventable and they will not happen if you follow the Safety checklist.

San Pedro…

Can be used to treat depression and PTSD
Can lower your levels of stress and anxiety, including social anxiety
Is being used to cure addictions
Might help you form positive habits, such as meditation and exercise
Increases neuroplasticity
Makes you more creative and open-minded
Helps you look at your life from a different perspective
Allows you to heal your childhood trauma and forgive people who’ve hurt you
Makes you more conscious and loving
Can help you transcend the fear of death
Gives you insights into the nature of reality
Makes you appreciate nature more
…

Might speed up the onset of schizophrenia if you’re genetically predisposed to it
Can cause HPPD and physical damage if you combine it with other substances (such as alcohol or stimulants)
Has led to self-harm by people who took it in an unsafe environment
Could cause you trauma due to bad set and setting
Might lead to drug-induced psychosis if you’re predisposed to it
Can be psychologically addictive (but only if you use the psychedelic recreationally)
Can cause seizures in rare cases
Can be problematic for those with People heart conditions or high blood pressure
Is illegal in many places and you might get arrested for getting involved with the substance
…

How to take San Pedro

Administration

San Pedro is taken orally. You could eat the cactus raw but it would be extremely unpleasant and nauseating. Eating dried cactus is a little less unpleasant but still isn’t recommended.

The best way to take San Pedro is by making tea from it. To do so:
1) Chop the cactus into small bits that will fit into a blender.
2) Put the cactus into the blender and add 1 gram of water for every 1 gram of San Pedro.
3) Blend the mix for long enough so that the cactus turns into liquid and there are little to no bits.
4) Pour the liquid into a pot and cook at light heat for around 30 minutes.
5) Start stirring the liquid until the foam substance on the top becomes glue-like
6) From there, let the cactus boil for another 2-4 hours.
7) Filter out the water through a clean, cotton shirt.
8) Discard the pulp, drink the water.

Add ginger and lemon water to the tea to make it less nauseating.

Dosage

The doses below apply to pure mescaline.

Dried San Pedro’s mescaline content is anywhere from 0.025%-2.375%. Therefore, 1 gram of dried San Pedro will contain around 10 mg of mescaline but may contain significantly less or significantly more.

If you eat San Pedro raw, multiply the amount needed by 10.

To simplify this, 1 gram of fresh cactus gives you around 1 mg of mescaline.

50 mg = Threshold dose
Best if you’re afraid of tripping and you still want to reap the benefits
100-200 mg = Light dose
Best if you take the substance for enjoyment or for solving human problems (business, relationships, …)
200-400 mg = Regular dose
The insights you’ll learn are easier to retain and incorporate than if you were to take higher doses
400-800 mg = Strong dose
Great for deep personal change
800+ mg = High dose
Best for getting mystical experiences and insights into the nature of reality, this dose is also great if you have a problem with letting go because 800+ mg will force you to surrender to the experience

Many psychonauts recommend starting with a light dose but this isn’t necessarily the best way to go.

If you start at lower doses, your ego will learn how to control the psychedelic states. Because of that, it’ll be harder to let go once you move to higher doses and this can easily lead to bad trips.

You will also not get as many benefits from the drug as if you were to start with higher doses.

It’s been shown that mystical experiences can deeply change your identity and the higher the dose you take, the more intense they will be.

Do not, however, start with a strong dose if you don’t have a trip sitter nearby.

Keep in mind that the higher the dose you take, the more important it is to be in a safe environment.

Some people are more sensitive than others. There are people who can take a relatively strong dose and feel nothing. This mainly happens to people with autism. Otherwise, it is rare.

Equivalents for 1g of San Pedro

The effects of the psychedelics below are not the same as the effects of San Pedro. This chart only compares the intensity of each substance.

Dry San Pedro	1 gram
Fresh San Pedro	10 grams
Mescaline	~10 mg
Peyote	~0.3 grams
LSD	~4 µg
Magic Mushrooms	~0.068g
Moringa Glory (LSA)	~6 seeds

Safety checklist

Maximize the benefits

Keep in mind that integration is even more important than the trip itself. Taking psychedelics would be almost useless if you didn’t retain any lessons in your day-to-day life.

What will help you the most is contemplating about the experience – be it by journaling, thinking about the trip, or sharing your memories with a trusted friend.

Distracting thoughts can get in the way, which is why you want to spend the day after your trip without TV, social media, and other distractions.

If you can, spend time in silence and solitude. Meditate, go for a walk, contemplate the experience.

Duration

Onset = 30-90 minutes
Come up = 60-120 minutes
Peak = 4-6 hours
Come down = 2-3 hours

You should notice the first effects within 40 minutes after you take the psychedelic
You will reach the maximum effect around the 3-hour mark
The whole trip usually lasts for 8-14 hours
At heroic doses, your trip may last for even longer
If you eat before your trip, the substance will take longer to kick in (up to 2 hours)

What does San Pedro feel like?

A San Pedro experience is extremely similar to what you may feel on LSD. The main difference is that users report San Pedro to be more personal and spiritual.

San Pedro is also a lot more nauseating and will likely make you vomit.

Common short-term effects include:

Euphoria
Increased creativity and open-mindedness
Mindfulness, being present
Higher capability for love and compassion
Pain relief
Feeling one with all that is
Seeing life from a different perspective
Appreciating small things
Higher energy
Increased awareness
Stamina enhancement
Feeling your emotions more intensely
Memory suppression
Time distortion
Visual effects (enhanced colors, seeing patterns in everything, distortions, …)
Confusion
Inability to focus
Increased body temperature
Increased heart rate
Worse thermoregulation
Difficulty urinating
Anxiety, paranoia
Vulnerability

The higher dose you take, the more intense these effects will be.

With that said, it is impossible to accurately describe the experience through human language.

The psychedelic affects each individual differently and no two trips are the same. Therefore, there is virtually no way to know what your trip will feel like.

The only way to truly know what San Pedro feels like is to take it.

The cactus will most likely give you a pleasant experience. Bad trips can happen but you can prevent them by following the tips below.

Bad trips

Bad trips mostly happen because people take the substance irresponsibly. If you take this psychedelic the right way, there is virtually no chance you’ll get a bad trip.

In case you still do, that’s good! A “bad” trip isn’t bad, it can actually be the most healing and insightful moment of your life!

During a “bad” trip, negative emotions are coming up from your subconscious mind. They have always been there whether you are aware of it or not. They have been damaging your life and a difficult trip is an opportunity to process these traumas and unpleasant feelings and let go of them.

The more painful the experience, the more you can heal.

So instead of calling bad trips bad, call them challenging.

If you understand that bad trips are awesome in the long-run, not only will you feel more comfortable diving into these challenging states, it will actually excite you!

Why they happen

The most common reasons for getting a bad trip are:

Tripping in an unsafe environment (in public, at a party, even nature doesn’t feel safe if you take higher doses)
Facing difficult times in your day-to-day life (a break-up, death of a loved one, …)
Rejecting to let go and trying to hold on to your ego and control the state
Being afraid of the trip (either because of the stigma around psychedelics or because you are not sure how pure your substance is)
Mixing the psychedelic with alcohol, weed, or other drugs
Expecting a bad trip (it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy)

How to cope with a bad trip

Do not perceive this experience as something bad, remember that facing these difficult emotions is extremely healing
Fully surrender to the experience, do not try to feel good
If you’re alone, call a trusted friend to come over and keep you safe

How to end a bad trip

In case you are not ready to face your inner demons yet, there are a few ways to end a bad trip.

One possible way is to put on music that is familiar to you. Another way is to switch up your location and move from one place to another. This can completely change your train of thought.

In case the trip becomes extremely challenging and there is no one around you to keep you safe, consider ending your trip with a trip killer.

Using a trip killer usually is not the best idea because the bad emotions will stay unresolved and you will get little to no benefits from the experience. With that said, using a trip killer is smarter than harming yourself.

The 2 best options that you have for ending a bad trip are Phenibut and benzodiazepines.

Phenibut is generally safer. The downside is that it can take hours to kick in.

So to end a trip, use benzodiazepines but only do this if you completely have to.

Interactions

Qualia Mind
This nootropic is comprised of 28 ingredients designed to support and maximize your brain function. These ingredients act synergistically and many of them will protect you from the neurotoxic effects of psychedelics. Qualia will also make your trips more pleasant and help you retain more benefits from them.
Herbs
Herbs can help calm you down. Herbal teas (chamomile, lemon balm, valerian root, …) are especially helpful.
Green tea
Tea makes you both more alert and calm at the same time. It also contains neuroprotective antioxidants, such as EGCG.
CBD
CBD has a calming effect.
Magic mushrooms
The substances act synergistically, some people prefer this combination instead of taking the two individually.
Weed
Marijuana will greatly intensify the trip.
MDMA
They have a synergistic effect but mescaline might increase the neurotoxicity of MDMA. Also, do not combine the two if you suffer from heart problems.
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide will multiply the intensity of your trip.
Dissociatives
Combining dissociatives with psychedelics won’t necessarily cause you harm but it can be confusing and lead to bad trips.
Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, …)
Benzos will end your psychedelic experience within 40 minutes but using this method may cause you side effects in the long-run.
Alcohol
Alcohol minimizes all the potential benefits of a psychedelic experience. It also greatly increases your chance of having a bad trip.
SSRIs or MAOIs
Not only will these antidepressants greatly decrease the intensity of your trip, but they can also lead to long-lasting side effects.
Lithium
Combining psychedelics with lithium significantly increases the risk of seizures and psychosis.
Stimulants
The combination can easily lead to heart problems, even if you’re a healthy individual.
Tramadol
Combining the two can cause seizures.
St. John’s Wort
This combination may lead to serotonin syndrome.

Microdosing

If you are not ready to take higher doses, microdosing is a way to go because it can bring similar benefits to your life with even fewer side effects.

Since mescaline produces similar effects to LSD, microdosing with San Pedro should bring similar benefits.

If you are going to microdose with San Pedro, it is recommended to take 20-40 mg worth of mescaline every 3rd day. Taking a microdose more often is not a good idea because you would become tolerant to the psychedelic and the substance would have little to no effect.

To get 20 mg of mescaline from San Pedro, take 2g of dry or 20g of fresh cactus.

40 mg is more likely to bring positive benefits into your life so start at 20 mg and gradually build your way up.

Around 80% of people who take microdoses claim that it has profoundly changed their lives.

For some, microdosing has cured their depression and helped them find beauty in small things. Some also say that they experience significantly less anxiety when they microdose.

Many people take tiny doses to become more creative and productive throughout the day. Microdosing has also been shown to increase athletic performance.

What is awesome about microdosing is that you can stop at any time in case you notice some adverse reaction or if you simply don’t see any benefits.

Legality

Unlike peyote, San Pedro cactus is completely legal to buy and grow in most countries if you have no intent to consume or sell the substance.

It is technically illegal in most countries to grow the cactus for its psychoactive effects but whether or not anyone cares is a different story.

Where to get San Pedro cactus

These are the ways you can get your hands on the psychedelic:

Buy San Pedro in-person
If you are lucky enough to know someone who grows San Pedro, he may have a few extra cactuses to sell. In Mexico and a few other countries, you can find dried mescaline in offline stores.
Buy San Pedro from the internet
San Pedro usually isn’t regulated and you can buy both seeds and a whole cactus on the internet.
Attend a San Pedro ceremony
Ecuator is the most common place for San Pedro ceremonies. However, taking it at home is cheaper and maybe safer.
Buy mescaline from a hidden market
The problem of going this route is that most dark web markets are a scam (including current SilkRoad) and you might not receive anything.
Find San Pedro in a desert
The cactus is abundant in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.
Become a research subject
If you live in the right place at the right time, you may have a chance to become a participant in studies done on mescaline.

FAQ

Becoming addicted to mescaline is virtually impossible. What you need to know about is tolerance.

If you were to trip 2 days in a row, your 2nd trip would be extremely weak. You will have to wait for several days to refresh your tolerance.

How many days does it take?

This mostly depends on the dose. At regular doses, it takes approximately 7 days to become sensitive again.

So you could technically take mescaline every week but if you want to maximize the benefits, do not trip before you integrate all the lessons from your last trip.

Counter-intuitively, you might get more benefits by tripping less often.

That is why you may only want to trip once or twice a month or just a couple of times a year.

As your trips get more and more intense, you will not want to trip nearly as often anyway.

Mescaline mainly affects the 5-HT_2A and 5-HT_2C, serotonin receptors.

With that said, the only way to truly know what this psychedelic does to your brain is to try it yourself.

It is not about your age, it is about how mature you are.

Teenagers (and younger) generally aren’t responsible enough to take psychedelics but it isn’t always the case.

If you are under the age of 21, your brain is evolving at a rapid rate on its own. This means that when you take psychedelics, there is more potential for growth but the risks are also higher.

Most importantly, you need to trip in a safe place where there are no strangers around.

Whether you should take the cactus at home, at a ceremony, or in nature will depend on your priorities.

Attending a ceremony isn’t wrong but it isn’t necessary either if you are responsible enough to follow the safety guidelines.

Tripping at home is safer and better for personal growth while taking psychedelics outside will help you develop a strong connection with nature.

Try both and see which one you like more.

If you are a mentally stable individual who does not suffer from psychosis or have a predisposition to schizophrenia, there is virtually no way you would develop any mental illnesses because of taking the psychedelic.

No.

Mescaline can be detected in your blood for 12-24 hours after you’ve taken it.

It stays in your urine for 2-3 days.

In your hair, mescaline can be detected for up to 3 months.

All that said, there’s almost no chance anyone would ever test you for mescaline. Police officers never do it and in sports, mescaline isn’t prohibited.

The cactus has a bitter taste. The taste isn’t extremely unpleasant but can cause you nausea and make you vomit. If you make a tea from San Pedro, the taste can actually be somewhat pleasant.

The cactus is abundant in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.

The cactus takes 3-5 years to grow until you can eat it.

In the spiritual community, there are mixed opinions on this.

You will not be able to retain these states of consciousness unless you put in a lot of work in your “sober” life.

However, that doesn’t mean that psychedelics cannot be helpful. Reaching these temporary states on psychedelics and seeing that these states are obtainable can be motivating.

This is why psychedelics can help you build a daily practice of yoga and meditation – both of which will help you awaken.

These substances also teach you to let go of your ego which will be essential for awakening.

So psychedelics can help you awaken. Indirectly, but they can.

Eating before you take San Pedro has some advantages as well as a few disadvantages.

One reason you’d want to eat before your trip is because people sometimes lose appetite on mescaline.

Preparing and eating food can also be a distraction.

If you don’t eat anything and become hungry during your trip, it can make you feel fatigued and irritated.

However, eating before your trip can intensify nausea and is likely going to make you vomit.

The substance will also take longer to kick in, sometimes up to 2 hours.

So the best way to go about food is to stop eating at least 3-4 hours before the trip and have some snacks prepared next to you.

Pregnant or breastfeeding women
People with heart conditions or high blood pressure
Immature people who are not willing to follow the safety guidelines
People who suffer from psychosis
People who have a familial history of schizophrenia
Those who suffer from HPPD
People who are going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder
If you’re going through extremely challenging times, you can take psychedelics but the trips might be unpleasant, beware of that

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