Feb. 21, 2006 – The Supreme Court ruled unanimously
that a congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of
a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God. In their first
religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, the
justices moved decisively to keep the government out of a church’s
religious practice. In the decision, Roberts wrote that federal drug
agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the
Brazil-based church and that the Bush administration had failed to meet
its burden under a federal religious freedom law to show that it should
be allowed to ban “the sect’s sincere religious practice.” Link
The Hoasca tea contains dimethyltryptamine.
also known as Ayahuasca,
which the Bushite DEA purports to be in violation of the controlled
substance act. And we all know, there is ZERO tolerance from the
Federal Government, when it comes to the possession or use of any of
their listed substances.
Well, Justice Roberts now says zero tolerance is wrong, and
that the Bush Administration should have tried the least restrictive
measures, when it came to interferring with a Religous Ritual.
Either Justice Roberts is telling the administration to
better dot their p’s and q’s, lay off the Religous communities
(especially the Far Right ones), or he’s lacks any comprehension of
drug use in America today.
The Draconian enforcement of drug laws today, based on
misinformation and lies, is a direct revenge/response to the the
Culture Wars of the sixties. It was one thing, to keep the Blacks under
control in the first half of the Twentieth Century, but it’s a whole
different issue when it comes to war, and profit. These people just
never got over those dirty hippies, and their anti-war culture.
Hardly a dent has been made by the enforcers, in the availability, or
use of, Controlled Substances. If anything, by their efforts, they have
made it more available.
The dangers involved with obtaining marijuana
“on the streets”, has led directly to an enormous growth in personal
home-grown product. Further, the Youth of today are looking for newer
highs. The Globalist movement has led to many products from far off
countries being introduced to this one. In fact, so quickly are they
being brought here, there is not enough time or research to add them to
the Controlled Substance Act. Many people are “‘experimenting” with
these legal substances, not even to mention ayahuasca.
This Ruling should lead to all kinds of confusion, lawsuits,
and grounds to drop cases. There are many religous sects that have as
their sacraments, marijuana, mushroom, and other natural plants.
Of the many links available for research, there are that many more
being shut down by the government.
Main link,
Story
Link ). Be afwaid…be werry
afwaid
Google References:
ayahuasca
Sects
Disclaimer: Crossposted at my blog, that nobody reads
Is the government now going to get into the business of deciding which religious outfits have “sincere religious practice”, and so have a right to get doped up, and which are “insincere” and so get sent to the slammer? That should keep the drugwarrior pigs busy for a while.
Time to join a central american sect that uses coca leaf as a sincere religious practice. Or just say I did. I can’t imagine there will be a single drug bust whose victim doesn’t try this defense.
Roberts obviously hasn’t a clue as to the can of worms he’s just opened up, but more power to him on this one. Let chaos ring.
Now that the sacraments Peyote, Mushroom, and ayahuasca are legal to Organized Religion, I wonder how many new Church Ofs will sprout.
to declare the formation of the First Humanist Church of the Divine Cannabis wherein the private — for personal use only — cultivation of the sacred weed is our primary devotional activity. The smoking of the sacrament shall involve deep spiritual meditations and prolonged bursts of joyous laughter. Some singing, dancing and free loving may occur spontaneously.
The Church store will also sell hemp clothing, acid-free paper just like the Declaration of Independence was written upon and love beads fashioned from excess seeds which can be germinated as needed.
So if I get together with a group of folks and we pray some it’s okay to smoke some ganja? No smokin’ alone, no, no. But if we chant and beat drums and it’s about talkin’ to gawd, it’s okay? I am so going to twist my hair into dreadlocks…
Gawd, I miss that man
That’s one of my favorite songs he ever did. Great choice.
Stark this morning I started to say, if I offended I am sorry. But I’m not. I understand Rasta from having a friend from Jamaica. I’m not an expert, but I respect all religions and cultures. My comment was only to praise a great songwriter and social commentator, to which I see nothing wrong with that.
This comment (and in fact the entire thread!) is so dripping with racist disregard for religion, belief systems and practices existing outside the narrow confines of Judeo-Christian strictures, it’s not funny.
It doesn’t even dignify comment, really, and would likely require volumes to debunk and expose the racist bias present in almost every comment here.
Will you people ever realize that there is INTELLIGENT life beyond “culture” as you know it!
I am appalled…
sorry…..
I let the tremendous fun of possibly putting one over on the government run over my critical thinking.
I think that the court had to go this way because apparently Scalia has been using hallucinogenic drugs for some time. 😉
Probably the whole bush admin as well…I mean, come on, does cheney actually think that people will believe his hunting “accident” line, just to use one example. 😉
If anyone in this thread demonstrated a MODICUM of understanding for the use of “hallucinogens” in indigenous religious practice, you would understand that a couple of sessions with the peyote button would PROBABLY work wonders in terms of knocking some sense into the heads of these idiots and the drugs they are currently on (i.e., power? money? Oxycontin?).
There are some cultures that still know how to USE these substances without immediately falling into the habitual and rampant abuse of these same substances.
The use of Tobacco in Native American culture is just one case in point.
These comments are so offensive.
I suggest y’all do some research before you go blathering on about this stuff, attempting to fit these religious practices into the framework of a world in which anything that is of USE to anyone immediately becomes subject to rampant ABUSE, most often leading to addiction.
Kinda like oil that way, you know?
But…You are just itching for an argument
nobody is disrespecting anyone, except the war by anti-drug radicals on
1.the religious use of natural plants
2.anyone who decides for themselves what to ingest
3.personal freedoms
I for one, of Native American extraction, child of the sixties, lefty of lefties, curmudgeon, and all out just pissed off person, take offense at your pretentious stand. You have no sense of Humor, nor understanding of whose side you are on, nor who really is your enemy.
I didn’t preview my comments…here they are edited…
You are just itching for an argument.
Nobody is disrespecting anyone, except the war by anti-drug radicals on
I for one, of Native American extraction, child of the sixties, lefty of lefties, curmudgeon, and all out just pissed off person, take offense at your pretentious stand. You have no sense of Humor, nor understanding of whose side you are on, nor who really is your enemy.
Well, your edit did nothing to change my original stance. As far as “pretense” is concerned, without knowing exactly who you are, I would put money on the fact that my “credentials” and “experience”–in particular on the subject of “indigenous drum traditions”–affords me the right to reserve that measure of “pretense” on that subject.
See links provided in first response to this post.
“You have no sense of Humor, nor understanding of whose side you are on, nor who really is your enemy.”
Now, that is a funny statement.
I stand by what I said–esp the crap in the Rasta-mun comment. If it was supposed to be funny (esp the part about ‘beating the drums’), it was not–at least not to someone who has invested (at great personal expense) an entire lifetime in seeking to dismantle precisely these ‘preconceived’ notions about drums and drumming
Maybe y’all see it as “cute” and “snarky”, but for someone who has seen the amount of cultural and psychic damage (with the attendant economic ramifications) that this kind of thinking–so widespread in this white wonder bread stripmall culture–has done, it’s not funny. It’s perverse.
If it was supposed to be funny, perhaps a few links should have been included in the comments to clarify the “joke”.
I’m sorry, it must be those years of ‘beating’ the drums that have just made me so dumb that I don’t get the joke.
The problem for me begins with the very notion of “beating” the drum: fyi, it’s not about beating the drum, it’s about drumming the beat. Thank god my six-and-8 yr old students get that–I’ve had very little success driving that point home to the adult population of this country.
credentials…credentials?…WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN CREDENTIALS
I refuse to use the words, I would speak to you face to face.
Suffice it to say, as an old man, who has lived the experiences of the old and new world, you are a pimple on the arse of political correctness.
That’s exactly the kind of shit we’re up against.
Credentials? Naw. We don’t need none. We’re all equal here–we all have the same level of knowledge, especially about these foreign cultures and cultural traditions, you know, those wild savage Africans randomly beating out any old thing on any old resonant body, “chanting” a bunch of mumbo jumbo (which we refuse to acknowledge as a sophisticated foreign language that actually has meaning to the people who speak and SING it.)
No specialized understanding whatsoever required. Anyone can just pick up a bucket or grab some pots and pans and be engaged in the same thing that these indigenous people have developed over thousands of years. Just bang that thing man! BOOM!
Anyway, you just keep believing that shit…I’m off to go “chant” with a bunch of 6th graders who do now understand that we’re dealing with sophisticated, highly developed traditions which must be preserved at all costs and cannot be preserved unless there are “experts” who can provide concrete accurate knowledge about them.
Sounds to me like you’re probably better off doing what most people do: just pull any old thing out your hat, call it “drumming”, call it “chanting” , call it “mumbo jumbo” if you will, whatever, just don’t take the time to inform yourself. For god’s sakes, don’t do that.
Your drum chanting, yuppie ways have nothing to do with the real world of Supreme court decisions, Ancient Tribal Beliefs, nor modern political activism.
Try explaining a drum circle to the voters we need in the next election. They’ll stick their fingers in their ears, and go nanananana.
On the other hand, I CAN explain how 700,000+ people are in jail today, for long term prison sentences, for in most cases, merely possession.
I CAN explain to the redneck down the street, how voting republican can endanger his personal freedom, for smoking a joint, while he DRUMS on his Ford 150.
I CAN explain how having a sense of humor is good for your Heart..
Peace out…I have to deliver the Precinct Meeting Minutes to my local Vice-Chair. That may seem of no consequence to a man of your credentials, but it is the life blood of who I am.
Obviously, you are either a very bad reader or you didn’t bother to read any of the links I provided you.
Don’t even GO there and/or begin lecturing ME on “ancient tribal beliefs”
….as far as sense of humor is concerned: to each his own.
As I said from the onset, I’m obviously just too damn dumb to get your sense of humor. Happily so.
Link