Pubdate: Wed, 22 Feb 2006
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Page: A13
Copyright: 2006 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Note: Does not publish letters from outside its circulation area.
Author: L Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau
Note: the hoasca ruling 
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/04-1084.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/hoasca
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)

COURT UPHOLDS CHURCH RITE

Chief Justice Roberts Writes Opinion On Use Of Hallucinogen.

WASHINGTON - Religious worship trumped law enforcement Tuesday as a
unanimous Supreme Court permitted members of a small religious sect in
New Mexico to continue using a powerful hallucinogenic drug.

The tentative victory for the tea-drinking, Brazil-based sect
repudiates an attempted Bush administration crackdown.

It's also an endorsement of congressional protections for
out-of-the-mainstream religious practices.

"Congress recognized that laws 'neutral' toward religion may burden
religious exercise as surely as laws intended to interfere with
religious exercise," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

The 8-0 decision sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which
could consider more evidence. It was the first freedom-of-religion
opinion written by Roberts since he joined the court last fall.

For the short term, it also means members of the O Centro Espirita
Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal can keep drinking their sacramental tea,
called hoasca.

Brewed from two plants unique to the Amazon rain forest, hoasca
contains a hallucinogen called DMT, for dimethyltryptamine.

Every few weeks, members of the sect established in 1961 use the tea
in ceremonies that "facilitate the transformation of human
consciousness" and last several hours, according to the church's Web
site.

"Everyone who cares about religious freedom is going to be very, very
relieved," the sect's attorney, John Boyd, said in an interview Tuesday.

"This is part of a tradition that goes back thousands of
years."

Boyd is based in New Mexico, home to most of the estimated 130 U.S.
members of the sect.

The church's world headquarters is in Brasilia, where church leaders
proclaim their intent to "contribute to human development through the
improvement of intellectual qualities and moral and spiritual virtues." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake