Peyote Is Disappearing (and the Law Designed to Protect It Is Part of Why) | Leonardo Mercado, The Peyote Lorax ~ ATTMind 209

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Peyote grows wild in one place on earth, a narrow stretch of land along the Texas-Mexico border.

It’s been used as a sacrament by indigenous people for centuries, and it’s at the center of an entire religious tradition that spans North America. It is a culturally important and legally protected plant.

However, its wild supplies are starting to run very thin And our guest for this episode, Leonardo Mercado, has come onto the show to explain why and what we can do about it.

Also known as The Peyote Lorax, Leonardo Mercado has spent over four decades in a relationship with peyote: as a vision quester, Huichol pilgrim, and Native American Church member since 1995. He is the cultivation director of Morningstar Conservancy, a Southern Arizona nonprofit dedicated to peyote conservation, where he runs the Seedling Sanctuary and the Seed to Ceremony program, helping NAC chapters develop their own sustainable source of sacrament.

He’s on the show to talk about peyote and the complex confluence of systemic issues that is contributing to the progressive collapse of its wild population.

Issues such as a legal system designed to protect it but has, in practice, actually made conservation harder than it should be; the land it grows on is being bulldozed for wind farms and cattle ranches; the racial blood quantum rules that determine who’s considered native enough to possess it legally; the strange way that decriminalization bills meant to help have sometimes made things worse; and how, for decades, the only legal way to supply it to the people who need it has been to pull it straight from the wild with no legal avenue for any cultivation to replace what’s taken.

Of course, we also talk about what can actually be done to help protect wild peyote from going extinct.

• Check out The Morningstar Conservancy: https://morningstarconservancy.org/
• Check Out The Peyote Lorax’s website: https://thepeyotelorax.com/
• Check Out Leo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepeyotelorax/
• Buy some art from Leo: https://morningstarconservancy.org/shop

FULL TOPICS BREAKDOWN AND VIDEO BELOW

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Episode Breakdown and Timestamps

• (00:00) Opening
• (03:45) Interview begins
• (04:51) Peyote as a desert food, not a psychedelic
• (11:02) The teepee ceremony and the fire chief
• (15:08) Leo’s early vision quest and the capsule story
• (26:20) Where peyote grows and why that matters
• (29:40) How peyote’s wild population collapsed
• (34:08) The Native American Church and the legal exemption
• (38:34) Why peyote still isn’t listed as endangered
• (46:35) The peyote carve-out in decrim bills and why it backfires
• (52:13) Ad Break: Amentara
• (54:57) The federal exemption as an exertion of dominance
• (1:02:51) The 25% Indian blood rule and who gets left out
• (1:09:28) Patreon Thanks
• (1:11:36) Would full decriminalization help or hurt wild populations?
• (1:15:42) What realistic legislative change would look like
• (1:23:39) The Peyote Lorax: how Morningstar Conservancy began
• (1:29:49) The Seed to Ceremony program
• (1:33:21) How you can support peyote conservation
• (1:44:41) Outro