1971

The chapter examines the downfall of psychiatrist Salvador Roquet after Mexico outlawed peyote in 1971, a ban fueled by conservative fears that non-indigenous youths were using drugs and that this signaled a civilizational crisis. Older, middle-class Mexicans often expressed disgust by lamenting that young people were becoming Indian through psychedelic use. Roquet, who disliked hippies and claimed many of his patients were former drug abusers, became a casualty of this anxiety. He continued using the banned drugs with help from government friends until 1974, when a magazine article accused him of being a drug-peddling degenerate—which Roquet called a hit-piece by jealous rivals. He was jailed for months but released without charge.

Study at a glance

Abstract

We return to Mexico in this chapter, exploring the particular fallout for the psychiatrist Salvador Roquet after peyote was outlawed in Mexico in 1971. This ban grew out of circumstances that mirrored those in the United States: a growing fear among conservatives that non-indigenous youths were increasingly consuming drugs, as well as a sense that this marked a civilizational crisis. Hippy sensibilities offended older, middle-class Mexicans, who often rendered their disgust by lamenting that Mexican youths were, in effect, becoming Indian through their embrace of psychedelics. Dr. Roquet, who was himself no fan of the hippies and who insisted that many of his patients were former drug abusers, became a victim of this anxiety. Continuing to work with these drugs after they were banned, he relied on the goodwill of friends in the government to keep his practice viable. This arrangement collapsed in 1974, after an article in the magazine Tiempo accused Roquet of being a drug-pedaling degenerate (Roquet insisted that the article was a hit-piece, placed by enemies in the psychiatric profession who were jealous of his success). Roquet would spend several months in jail after being arrested in November 1974, but he was ultimately released without charge.