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Cactus Thieves Prickle Conservationists
September 06, 2008 11:52 AM
Collectors and pleasure-seekers steal and smuggle rare desert plants from the American Southwest and Mexico.
Cacti Disappearing
Robbed of their cacti by collectors, souvenir hunters and “narco-tourists,” conservationists in the southwestern United States and Mexico are upset by the depletion.
In Mexico, poor villagers often sell rare cacti to smugglers for a little money; smugglers then sell the treasures to collectors at a higher cost. In the United States, the greater problems appear to be souvenirs and hallucinogens. Dr. Martin Terry, a biologist at Sul Ross University in West Texas explains that tourists who come to scope out the landscape dig up cacti and FedEx them home.
Peyote plants are smuggled by narco-tourists seeking their legendary hallucinatory powers; sometimes the physically similar Star cacti, which are endangered, are mistaken for peyote. The only people who can legally harvest the peyote plant are Peyoteros who then sell the plant to Huichola Indians of the Native American Church for religious purposes.
Regardless of intent, most thieves get away with the crime because the sparsely populated desert regions are difficult places to enforce conservation laws. Arizona has begun implanting microchips to try to protect its cacti populations, specifically the Saguaro, its “signature cactus” and the bearer of Arizona’s state flower.
Cacti are especially popular in The Netherlands, Japan and the Czech Republic, and Web sites illegally selling cacti are abundant. Time magazine cites a 2005 Mexican study which estimated that there are close to 4,000 such sites. To evade prosecution, sites frequently change servers.
The saguaro cactus, which stands between 15 and 20 feet tall, can sell for $60 a foot.
In Mexico, poor villagers often sell rare cacti to smugglers for a little money; smugglers then sell the treasures to collectors at a higher cost. In the United States, the greater problems appear to be souvenirs and hallucinogens. Dr. Martin Terry, a biologist at Sul Ross University in West Texas explains that tourists who come to scope out the landscape dig up cacti and FedEx them home.
Peyote plants are smuggled by narco-tourists seeking their legendary hallucinatory powers; sometimes the physically similar Star cacti, which are endangered, are mistaken for peyote. The only people who can legally harvest the peyote plant are Peyoteros who then sell the plant to Huichola Indians of the Native American Church for religious purposes.
Regardless of intent, most thieves get away with the crime because the sparsely populated desert regions are difficult places to enforce conservation laws. Arizona has begun implanting microchips to try to protect its cacti populations, specifically the Saguaro, its “signature cactus” and the bearer of Arizona’s state flower.
Cacti are especially popular in The Netherlands, Japan and the Czech Republic, and Web sites illegally selling cacti are abundant. Time magazine cites a 2005 Mexican study which estimated that there are close to 4,000 such sites. To evade prosecution, sites frequently change servers.
The saguaro cactus, which stands between 15 and 20 feet tall, can sell for $60 a foot.
Reference: Peyote; saguro cacti
Mescaline, the drug found in the peyote plant, doesn’t cause a loss of consciousness, or extreme hallucinations, “rather one experiences vivid colors, tactile sensitivity, and altered attitudes or emotional states.”
Source: Texas Beyond History (University of Texas at Austin): Peyote
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, a Spanish historian, believes that peyote was used by the Chichimeca and Toltec tribes long before Europeans arrived. It was later used by other tribes including Huichol. Sahagún chronicles a peyote religious ceremony and describes its perceived powers: “Those who eat or drink it see visions either frightful or laughable. This intoxication lasts two or three days and then ceases. It is a common food of the Chichimeca, for it sustains them and gives them courage to fight and not feel fear nor hunger nor thirst. And they say that it protects them from all danger.” Shaman in some tribes chew the cacti, then use the fibers to treat wounds.
Source: Peyote.org
In an episode of the PBS show Dragonfly TV, hosts Alex and Mark of the Arizona–Sonora Desert Museum examine saguaro cacti and learn about the bird holes which Mark calls “apartments” because when one bird leaves, another bird will reuse the hole, becoming the cactus’s new tenant.
Source: PBS Kids
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