RELIGIOUS USE OF PEYOTE NOT HARMFUL TO AMERICAN INDIANS

BOSTON -- A study of the effects of peyote on American Indians found
no evidence that the hallucinogenic cactus caused brain damage or
psychological problems among people who used it frequently in
religious ceremonies.

In fact, researchers from Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital found
that members of the Native American Church performed better on some
psychological tests than other Navajos who did not regularly use peyote.

A 1994 federal law allows roughly 300,000 members of the Native
American Church to use peyote as a religious sacrament. The five-year
study set out to find scientific proof for the Navajos' belief that
the substance, which contains the hallucinogen mescaline, is not
hazardous to their health even when used frequently.

The study was conducted among Navajos in the Southwest by McLean
psychiatrist John Halpern.

It compared test results for 60 church members who have used peyote
at least 100 times against those for 79 Navajos who do not regularly
use peyote and 36 tribe members with a history of alcohol abuse but
minimal peyote use.

Those who had abused alcohol fared worse on the tests than the church
members, according to the study.

Church members believe peyote offers them spiritual and physical
healing, but the researchers could not say with any certainty that
peyote's pharmacological effects were responsible for their test results.

"It's hard to know how much of it is the sense of community they get
(from the religion) and how much of it is the actual experience of
using the medication itself," said Harrison Pope, the study's senior
author and director of the biological psychology laboratory at the
hospital near Boston.

The researchers argue that their findings should offer "reassurance"
to the 10,000 Native American Church members serving in the military
who were barred from using peyote before new guidelines were adopted in 1997.

"We find no evidence that a history of peyote use would compromise
the psychological or cognitive abilities of these individuals," they
wrote in their paper published in the Nov. 4 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

The researchers note that their study draws a clear distinction
between illicit and religious use of peyote.

They did not rule out the possibility that other hallucinogens, such
as LSD, may be harmful.

"In comparison to LSD, mescaline is described as more sensual and
perceptual and less altering of thought and sense of self," they
wrote, adding that peyote does not seem to produce "flashbacks" the
same way that LSD apparently does.

The project was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. A NIDA spokeswoman would not comment on the study.

Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor who
was not involved in the research, said the study lends scientific
weight to a long-held belief that peyote is not harmful.

"The thing that excites me most about the paper is that the study was
actually done," he said. "The U.S. government -- and NIDA, in
particular -- has been rather balky about allowing studies of
psychedelic drugs of any kind."