Peyote

Lophophora williamsii /loʊˈfɒfərə wɪlˈjæmsiaɪ/ or peyote (/pəˈjoʊti/) is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. The English common name peyote comes from the like-spelled Spanish name, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl name peyōtl [ˈpejoːt͡ɬ], said to be derived from a root meaning "glisten" or "glistening". Native North Americans are likely to have used peyote, often for spiritual purposes, for at least 5,500 years.

Peyote is native to Mexico and southwestern Texas. It is found primarily in the Chihuahuan desert and in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi among scrub, especially where there is limestone.

Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, peyote is used worldwide as an entheogen and supplement to various transcendence practices, including meditation, psychonautics, and psychedelic psychotherapy. Peyote has a long history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous Americans. It flowers from March through May, and sometimes as late as September. The flowers are pink, with thigmotactic anthers (like Opuntia).

Moonshine

Moonshine, white lightning, mountain dew, hooch, homebrew, and white whiskey are terms used to describe high-proof distilled spirits that are generally produced illicitly. Moonshine is typically made with corn mash as the main ingredient.Liquor-control laws in the United States that prohibit moonshining, once consisting of a total ban under the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, now center primarily on evasion of revenue taxation on spiritous and/or intoxicating liquors, and are enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the United States Department of the Treasury; such enforcers of these laws are known by the often derisive nickname of "revenooers".

History

The word "moonshine" is believed to be derived from the term "moonrakers" used for early English smugglers and the clandestine nature of the operations of illegal Appalachian distillers who produced and distributed whiskey. The distillation was done at night to avoid discovery.

Moonshine was especially important to the Appalachian area. This white whiskey most likely entered the Appalachian region in the late 18th century to early 1800s. Scots-Irish immigrants from the Ulster region of Northern Ireland brought their recipe for their uisce beatha, Gaelic for "water of life". The settlers made their whiskey without aging it, and this is the same recipe that became traditional in the Appalachian area.