Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2007
Source: cville (Charlottesville, VA)
Copyright: 2007 Portico Publications
Contact:  http://c-ville.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4536
Author: J. Tobias Beard
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/spirit.htm (Spiritual or Sacramental)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/carl+olsen (Carl Olsen)

MARIJUANA AS FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT

Rutherford Fights For Religious Pot Use

The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-based organization that 
defends civil liberties, is currently representing Carl Eric Olsen in 
his 30-year struggle for religious freedom. That in itself is not 
noteworthy, as The Rutherford Institute specializes in religious 
cases. But what is unusual is the particular religious freedom for 
which Olsen is fighting. Since the early '70s, Olsen has been a 
member of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (EZCC), a religious group 
that holds that marijuana is a sacrament, and whose members smoke it 
all day, every day.

The EZCC has existed in Jamaica since at least the 1940s, and was 
first incorporated in the United States in Miami in 1975. In the late 
'70s and early '80s, the Church was involved in several major drug 
busts, netting as much as 38,000 pounds of marijuana in one raid in 1978.

"I [have been] arrested over and over again," Olsen says from his 
home in Iowa, and over and over again he has challenged those 
arrests, losing every time.

But things may be different now. Under the Religious Freedom 
Restoration Act (RFRA), Olsen, 55, is claiming that the government is 
keeping him from practicing his religion. According to the RFRA, the 
courts must use "strict scrutiny" in cases involving religion to make 
sure that an individual's First Amendment rights have not been violated.

Enter The Rutherford Institute. Despite a seemingly straight-laced 
image, defending the right to smoke pot is not necessarily at odds 
with the Institute's mission. John Whitehead, Rutherford's founder, 
says that the issue is not drugs, but religious freedom. "The 
question," Whitehead says, "always comes down to, 'What kind of power 
does the government have?'" In the case of marijuana legislation, the 
answer for Whitehead is too much. Whole Foods, he says, used to sell 
a hemp cereal that he was particularly fond of, but "when Bush got 
into office…[the government] went crazy for a while" and pulled the 
cereal off the shelf. "I love my hemp cereal," says Whitehead.

In a 1979 case, the Florida Supreme Court wrote, "(1) the Ethiopian 
Zion Coptic Church represents a religion within the First Amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States; (2) the 'use of cannabis is 
an essential portion of the religious practice.'" Nevertheless, the 
U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in 1990 denying Olsen a 
religious exemption to smoke marijuana. That ruling meant that he 
could no longer be a practicing member of the EZCC.

"Without being able to gather with other people and smoke marijuana," 
says Olsen, "my religion does not exist."
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