Originally published December 8 2005
New study of peyote contradicts DEA website
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have found, in spite of information featured on the DEA's website, that peyote may actually have psychological benefits for users.
A Nov. 4 study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital contradicted the DEA, finding that peyote use by Native Americans in religious ceremonies is not cognitively harmful, and may even have psychological benefits.
Indigenous peoples have long used natural substances as medicines and religious sacraments.
Some of these substances -- such as coffee and chocolate -- have been embraced by Western societies, while others, such as coca and peyote, have been condemned.
What native peoples say empowers them has too often been labeled as hazardous, while what enriches Western societies is branded as beneficial.
In the last century, U.S. authorities' efforts to make peyote illegal focused on the supposed harmful effects, saying that ignorant indigenous people couldn't be trusted to act in their own behalf.
Ironically, peyote is considered by native peoples to be a treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse.
Recently, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston also found evidence that ginkgo -- traditionally used by Chinese communities as medicine -- may help lower a woman's risk of ovarian cancer.
Beyond peyote, an even clearer case of politics trumping cultural tradition can be found in Bolivia, where indigenous people have long chafed under U.S. drug policies that destroy their coca crops.
U.S. authorities didn't take seriously enough the deep cultural dimensions of coca use among indigenous communities.
As a result, the indigenous population has organized itself -- as never before in Bolivian history -- driven out two presidents and launched the presidential candidacy of an indigenous leader, Evo Morales.
Bad blood with Bolivia could have been avoided if U.S. officials had made an effort to understand the indigenous culture.
It's time for politics to catch up with science.
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