Hallucinogenic peyote plants stopped at border
Customs officials in Guangdong province have issued a warning about peyote plants and their potential hallucinogenic effects after a series of seizures at the border.
Huanggang customs seized more than 120 cactus plants at the entry port in Shenzhen — about 30 kilograms altogether. Substances in the cactus can be harmful to people’s health and are prohibited from entering China, according to a release from customs.
The spongelike, thornless cactuses may look attractive, but they contain mescaline, which can cause hallucinations and other side effects, including anxiety, confusion and nausea, experts warn.
The plants were all “deep
Briefly
green, ball-shaped, super-soft and wrapped in white paper” according to the customs officers. “We thought at first they were fruits or some kind of mushrooms,” said a customs officer surnamed Lin.
Lin also added that each plant has roots and mud, and its surface was covered with some white powder that was visible upon unwrapping.
Customs first seized 33 plants wrapped in newspaper in a passenger’s luggage on April 11 when the man passed the declaration checkpoint, and caught another four passengers carrying similar plants during the rest of the month.
Peyote is widely grown in the southwestern deserts of the United States and northern Mexico. Its possession is illegal in the US except for approved religious rituals by a handful of registered Native Americans.
All five of the passengers held multiple-entry visas and had tried to earn extra money — from 300 to 500 yuan ($45 to $80) — by carrying the plants across the border, customs officers said.
They added that the cases might be tied to the increasing popularity of potted succulent plants, which are favored by Chinese consumers for their chubby leaves. They are expensive if rare. The peyote genus can sell for over 10,000 yuan online.
Shangguan Fazhi, an engineer at the Kunming Institute of Botany told Science and Technology Daily that overdoses or long-term intake of mescaline can be dangerous and can affect people’s sight and hearing, which eventually leads to hallucinations.
“Only a small fraction of succulent plants are toxic, but they are usually not volatile, so it’s safe enough as long as you don’t put it in your mouth,” he said.
Zhang Yangfei contributed to this story.