Researchers find peyote does not harm the brain

• Hallucinogenic drugs have long fascinated researchers, who are now studying whether they hold the potential to treat mental illnesses like depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Part of the problem is that many users -- such as LSD aficionados -- take a variety of other drugs, so it's hard to tease out the specific effects of psychedelic drugs.
• Compared with LSD and mushrooms, peyote is a bit obscure, with its use -- at least legally -- limited to the sacramental rites of the Native American Church, which has as many as 300,000 members.
• Peyote comes from the crowns of a cactus that grows in northern Mexico and parts of Texas.
• Harvesters cut off the crown, dry it and sell it in "buttons," Halpern said.
• Halpern and colleagues recruited three groups of Navajos -- 61 members of the Native American Church who regularly ate peyote, 36 alcoholics who have been dry for at least two months and 79 people who reported little or no use of alcohol or drugs.
• The researchers then gave mental-health and cognitive tests to the subjects.
• "The context of the use is a really important thing," McKenna said.
• "Most people using mushrooms or LSD in a recreational way don't really have a context for this type of use," such as an emphasis on setting, à la psychedelic guru Timothy Leary.
• By contrast, both alcohol and marijuana are considered bad for the brain if overused.
• Although there's still plenty of debate, some research suggests heavy pot use can harm memory for days after the last toke.
• Marijuana damage seems to be temporary, while alcohol-related damage appears to be more permanent, said study co-author Dr. Harrison Pope Jr., director of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory at McLean Hospital.