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U.S. top court allows religious hallucinogenic tea
(James Vicini, Reuters, 21 February 2006)
U.S. followers of a small Brazilian-based religion can import and use hallucinogenic tea in their ceremonies, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a case pitting religious rights against federal drug laws. . . . The court's opinion, the first ruling on religious freedom written by new Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected the U.S. government's effort to stop the import and use of sacramental hoasca tea by the New Mexican branch of the religion, called O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal. . . . The justices upheld an appeals court ruling that the government must allow the use of the herbal hoasca tea as part of a spiritual practice because of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. . . . Roberts dismissed the government's central argument that it has a compelling interest in the uniform application of drug law and there can be no exception for using the hallucinogen to accommodate sincere religious practice. . . . "The government's argument echoes the classic rejoinder of bureaucrats throughout history: If I make an exception for you, I'll have to make one for everybody, so no exceptions," Roberts wrote in the 19-page opinion. . . . He said the government already has made an exception to the drug laws by allowing peyote use by Native American churches and there is no evidence that exception has undermined the ability to enforce the ban on peyote use by others. . . . Members of the Brazilian-based church believe the tea helps connect them to God. The brewed tea, made from two plants that grow in the Amazon, contains dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a controlled substance banned under federal law. . . . Founded in Brazil in 1961, the religion blends Christian theology and indigenous South American beliefs. It has about 8,000 members in Brazil and about 130 followers in New Mexico. . . . In 1999, U.S. Customs inspectors intercepted a shipment from Brazil to the American branch of three drums labeled "tea extract." U.S. agents then seized 30 gallons (136 litres) of the tea from the home of Jeffrey Bronfman, the head of the church's U.S. chapter. . . . Besides federal drug laws, U.S. Justice Department attorneys also cited the 1971 U.N. Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a treaty signed by the United States that bars importation of the drug in the tea. . . . Attorneys for the U.S. followers argued that the church and its members only sought to practice their beliefs and use the tea in religious ceremonies, a right they said was guaranteed by the religious freedom law. . . . A number of religious and civil liberties groups had supported the New Mexican sect.

posted by Lorenzo 9:32 AM