Few people know that peyote is completely legal in Canada, as it has always been.
This disparity came about in the mid 70's, when Canada was about to sign the international Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Although peyote does not grow naturally in Canada, native tribes in Alberta and Saskatchewan had been importing peyote buttons from Arizona and other arid locales in the American Southwest, and using them in peyote ceremonies, for at least a few hundred years. Some believe peyote has been imported into Canada for thousands of years. Federal officials were surprisingly sympathetic to the peyotists' plea not to ban their sacred plant, and so decided to only ban the extracted active ingredient, mescaline. Internal government memos obtained by Cannabis Culture reveal that the bureaucrats considered banning peyote, but with a special exemption for religious users only.