First time taking Cacti from the "wild" and was wondering if these were an active kind. Thank you.

hmm no assistance. I'll have to go get some books from the library or something

i used to see that shit all over the place when i lived in new mexico. busting out of fences and stuff like that, was there a ton of them on the other side?

theres a huge twenty foot one on the corner

So it doesn't really look active. It's definitely not a bridgesii (would have bigger spikes). I would have said it's a Pachanoi (San Pedro), because the spikes resemble that, but it's too ribbed. Although it's tough to differentiate fully, typically a San Pedro will be five-six ribs that do not go in too deep. Here is what a typical San Pedro would look like: http://www.hear.org/starr/images/full/s ... 0-5799.jpg.

I'd say look for Pedro's, depending on where you are they are easier to find. Also, there's less half-breeds of them then Peruvian torches. If you give up all hope, there's always the internet.

I swear I have no idea. What about just consuming a few inches?

If it's San Pedro, there's growing for about a few hundred bucks.

I'm probably going to harvest some and cook it up into a few shots and giving it a whirl. At worst I'll throw up, but I think I'd live.

The threshold effect is lethargy, you should be in able to notice from just 2 or 3 inch.

This is Cereus (peruvianus ?) with flat ribs, with NO mescaline in it !
San Pedro Cacti (like Trichocereus peruvianus) have rounded ribs, and contain mescaline !

Even Ratsch in his book "Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen" shows a picture which is .....
Cereus peruvianus like the pictures above in this topic, but with the name Trichocereus peruvianus.

The flowers of Trichocereus species have dark brown hairs, those of Cereus species don't have hairs.
So wait until it flowers this summer.

So please let this cactus grow !

Testing for Mescaline : Mescaline Cacti have a bitter taste !

I agree with earlier poster that most of the specimens that can be seen easily in the photo are of the "regular" Cereus genus, not the often-psychoactive Trichocereus. Tip off: very thin ribs...almost like the angle at the top of the rib is acute, whereas on plump or fat-tipped ribbed Trich's the angle would be better described as obtuse. The two would look similar to the untrained eye, but you can see a very common T. Pachanoi in Home Depot garden department (or Wal Mart or Target or Lowes, etc) and figure it out.

ah ok, thanks you two for the very helpful replies, saved me time and unpleasant experiences! I'll keep searching for this wonder plant and one day I will be successful.

What about buying it online from an online vendor?