It could be just this psychedelic forum (I presume you guys take pretty high doses). But from what I've read all over the internet, mescaline seems to be a more natural and overall better experience than MDMA - yet still very close to MDMA.
Perhaps I am wrong, but I was led to believe it could be used as an MDMA substitute because they are so similar. I, personally, feel that I would prefer mescaline. Although I have never tried it.
So my question is why isn't mescaline so popular?
I don't know where on the internet you're getting the idea that mescaline is all *that* close to MDMA. It's a powerful psychedelic on par with LSD and mushrooms. Yes, it produces euphoria for many people, but not the same sort of euphoria as MDMA. Taking mescaline with the intent of getting only MDMA-like effects when you don't intend to trip would be a recipe for disaster at any dose, IMO.
MDMA releases serotonin; this is the primary source of its euphoria. Mescaline does not do this. The euphoric effects of mescaline are a result of its activity at 5HT2a - the same thing that allows shrooms, acid and other psychedelics to be euphoric. If you have any significant experience with both MDMA and mescaline I think you'll get a pretty clear idea of why they aren't really comparable and CERTAINLY not interchangeable. If I really want the experience of MDMA, mescaline would be a very poor substitute.
FWIW, I personally found mescaline to be somewhat disappointing. Not much euphoria to speak of, unpleasant bodyload, tame mental space and little visual activity for me. Its 2C cousins get along with me muuuuuuch better, are not scheduled, are far more potent and can be acquired pretty easily, and in general I prefer tryptamine psychedelics anyway. MDMA is one of my all-time favorite compounds; mescaline isn't close to making the top 10. If it were available to me at similar per-dose prices to LSD, mushrooms, DMT, 2CE or just about any other psychedelic I've tried, I'd buy it rarely if ever for a change of pace. I can't imagine that any dose of mesc would produce euphoria comparable to even a fairly weak MDMA experience, based on the couple of mesc experiences I've had.
Mescaline is banned in pretty much the entire world. It's also quite hard to synthesize, and the 2C family of drugs is rather similar, much easier to synth and legal in many places. Oh, and the dosage range for mescaline is quite high - a full psychedelic dose is in the hundreds of milligrams, which would limit the price that RC vendors could expect to fetch by the gram compared to much more potent compounds. Plus, it's produced by enough plants in nature that synthesis isn't really necessary - if someone really wants to try mescaline it's not that hard for them to acquire it from a cactus.
FWIW, I personally found mescaline to be somewhat disappointing. Not much euphoria to speak of, unpleasant bodyload, tame mental space and little visual activity for me. Its 2C cousins get along with me muuuuuuch better, are not scheduled, are far more potent and can be acquired pretty easily, and in general I prefer tryptamine psychedelics anyway.
Discussion of who is selling what online is getting really close to crossing the line, methinks. I have some further comments on the vendor discussion but I'll keep 'em to myself since I don't want to push this thread closer to rules violating territory. I'll just add that I don't see that large of a market for mesc - most people who aren't really into psychs don't know much/anything about it and would rather stick to shrooms and acid, and people in the know have so many less illegal, more potent, easier to produce psychedelics to enjoy that there's not really a big market opening for mescaline on the RC scene. I just can't imagine a scenario where it could be sold cheap enough that it would appeal to that many people, especially since AFAIK there isn't anywhere in the world to sell it legally anyway. It's the same reason you won't find RC vendors selling you heroin and crack; their whole business model is to sell the (arguably) legal alternatives to these high profile illegal drugs.