Mescaline of the genus "Echinopsis" are technically controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act, they are commonly sold publicly as ornamental plants. In the United Kingdom, mescaline in purified powder form is a Class A drug. However, dried cactus can be bought and sold legally. Mescaline is considered a schedule 9 substance in Australia under the Poisons Standard (October 2015). A schedule 9 substance is classified as "Substances with a high potential for causing harm at low exposure and which require special precautions during manufacture, handling or use. These poisons should be available only to specialised or authorised users who have
Mescaline so contemporary users will often grind it into a powder and pour it in capsules to avoid having to taste it. The usual human dosage is 200–400 milligrams of mescaline sulfate or 178–356 milligrams of mescaline hydrochloride. The average button contains about 25 mg mescaline. Mescaline was first isolated and identified in 1897 by the German chemist Arthur Heffter and first synthesized in 1918 by Ernst Späth. In 1955, English politician Christopher Mayhew took part in an experiment for BBC's "Panorama", in which he ingested 400 mg of mescaline under the supervision of psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. Though the recording was