An Overview on the Hallucinogenic Peyote and Its Alkaloid Mescaline: The Importance of Context, Ceremony and Culture.

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a cactus that contains various biologically active alkaloids-such as pellotine, anhalonidine, hordenine and mescaline. Here, mescaline induces the psychoactive effects of peyote through the activation of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor and the subsequent release of calcium (Ca2+) from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Moreover, an evaluation of the therapeutic benefits of mescaline is also currently the subject of research. It is important to consider that the outcome of taking a psychedelic drug strongly depends on the mindset of the recipient and the context (set and setting principle), including ceremonies and culture. This overview serves to summarise the current state of the knowledge of the metabolism, mechanism of action and clinical application studies of peyote and mescaline. Furthermore, the benefits of the potential of peyote and mescaline are presented in a new light, setting an example for combining a form of treatment embedded in nature and ritually enriched with our current highly innovative Western medicine.

[En masse testing is not sensible and economical care]. / Massaal testen is geen zinnige en zuinige zorg.

The current policy is to test en masse for access on the basis that we then have a safe system to prevent the possible spread of an epidemic virus. The question is whether this reasoning is correct. To answer this, we have developed two scenarios. One with a low prevalence, as applied in the Fieldlab experiments and the other with a fictitious high prevalence of 10%. Both examples show that there is both collateral damage in the number of people who are wrongly denied access and in the number of people who are wrongly admitted, which means that it does not provide the security we hope for. The cost of EUR 60 million per month is as much as we spend per year on the national breast cancer screening programme. This expensive testing policy does not offer 100% safety and is not fair. It is not an effective policy, either at an individual or a population level.