Someone (sorry can't remember who, I trashed my digest before I had a
chance to reply) said that they had tried pulque in Mexico and had not
experienced any narcotic effects.  That modern pulque may not have been
prepared in such a way as to extract the alkaloids from the maguey root--
otherwise Mexican officials would probably have taken a dim view of it
being sold in the market ;-)  (Similarly "chicha" is a drink traditionally
made in the Amazon region of South America by the eldest women who chew the
ingredients, predominantly corn, and then spit the slurry into containers
where it is allowed to ferment into a mildly intoxicating brew-- but I have
sampled only the modern equivalent that is prepared in a blender and served
immediately-- that protocol runs into less hassles with the health code ;-)
The maguey agave is also used in the preparation of tequila but I'm not
sure if the juice is from the root or, more likely, from the pulp of the
succulent leaves-- the "gusano de maguey" is a caterpillar that subsists
exclusively on this agave and that is why the caterpillar is put into finer
brands of the stuff-- as an indicator that real agave was used in the
preparation.
 
Anyway to get back to pulque, even it had its own god, Acan.
 
For those interested, the modern derivatives of ancient Mayan ceremony
surrounding the keeping of the native stingless bees is described in:
 
Weaver, Nevin and Weaver, Elizabeth C.  "Beekeeping with the Stingless Bee
Melipona beecheii, by the Yucatecan Maya," Bee World, 1981.  Vol. 62(1),
pp. 7-18
 
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