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Heroin/Smack
A naturally occurring alkaloid derived from the peyote cactus. Mescaline has hallucinatory effects similar to LSD, and Duke and Gonzo take a lot of this drug during the course of Thompson’s book. The drug can also be harvested from a cactus known as the Peruvian torch, and Duke vaguely claims that he nearly missed his plane once in Peru, a likely reference to his mescaline use.
Mescaline Quotes in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas quotes below are all either spoken by Mescaline or refer to Mescaline. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1, Chapter 1
Quotes
The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.
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Part 2, Chapter 7
Quotes
The first session—the opening remarks—lasted most of the afternoon. We sat patiently through the first two hours, although it was clear from the start that we weren’t going to Learn anything and it was equally clear that we’d be crazy to try any Teaching. It was easy enough to sit there with a head full of mescaline and listen to hour after hour of irrelevant gibberish. . .. There was certainly no risk involved. These poor bastards didn’t know mescaline from macaroni.
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Mescaline Term Timeline in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The timeline below shows where the term Mescaline appears in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part One, Chapter 1
...on a bag of “extremely dangerous drugs,” including “two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a...
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Part One, Chapter 4: Hideous Music and the Sound of Many Shotguns…Rude Vibes on a Saturday Evening in Vegas
...time room service arrives the waiter looks only “vaguely reptilian.” They decide to take some mescaline and watch the TV news, which is coverage of the Laos Invasion. They watch as...
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Part One, Chapter 6: A Night on the Town…Confrontation at the Desert Inn…Drug Frenzy at the Circus-Circus
...out by security. Back on the Strip, they sniff some more ether and take some mescaline, and then decide to go to Circus-Circus. When they arrive, the ether is beginning to...
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...bar on a Merry-Go-Round, and as Duke and Gonzo sit and have a drink, the mescaline begins to hit them. “I hate to say this,” says Gonzo, “but this place is...
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Part Two, Chapter 4: No Refuge for Degenerates…Reflections on a Murderous Junkie
...the balcony for some fresh air. Gonzo appears, wiping vomit from his face. “This goddamn mescaline,” he says. “Why the fuck can’t they make it a little less pure?” Duke turns...
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Part Two, Chapter 5: A Terrible Experience with Extremely Dangerous Drugs
...“Adrenochrome,” he says. “You won’t need much.” Duke has heard of this drug—it “makes pure mescaline seem like ginger beer.” He dips the head of match into the bottle and licks...
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Part Two, Chapter 7: If You Don’t Know, Come to Learn…If You Know, Come to Teach
...sit quietly through the morning listening to the convention. Sitting there with a “headful of mescaline” is “easy enough” since these “poor bastards didn’t know mescaline from macaroni.” As the speakers...
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Part Two, Chapter 8: Back Door Beauty…& Finally a Bit of Serious Drag Racing on the Strip
...the only customers, which is a good thing since they have just eaten some more mescaline. The waitress looks like a “burned-out caricature of Jane Russell,” or like a “very old...
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