Synthetic Drugs of Abuse It seems that primitive man at times wished to escape his reality. He or she probably found some natural herbal drugs to facilitate this desire. In fact abuse of the coca leaf and the opium poppy has been occuring the last 3000 years, and probably longer. The mescaline containing peyote cactus has been abused by the indians for even longer. They thought it was a gift from god because they often realised profound truths when they where inebriate(at least, thats what they thought!). In the 19. century the structure of mescaline was elucidated. It was also discovered that the synthesis of N-methyl