Couple in drug case say marijuana is sacrament

Associated Press
Aug. 25, 2006 09:00 AM


ALBUQUERQUE - A couple from Pima, Ariz., arrested in a car that contained 172 pounds of marijuana say the drug is a sacrament in their religion. The U.S. attorney's office contends they're trying to use religion as a cover for a drug organization.

<snip>

The Quaintances contend they have a right to marijuana as the central focus of the Church of Cognizance, founded by Danuel Quaintance in 1991 and registered as a religious organization in Arizona in 1994.

The couple say the church, which has about 130 adherents nationwide, functions largely through "individual orthodox member monasteries."

They cited a February ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving a small Santa Fe-based church to bolster their arguments. In that case, the court ruled that O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal may use a hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God. Hoasca tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to the Brazilian-based religion.

Read the article

But officer it's just for personal use. :smoke:

But more power to ya if it helps legalise it. Personally I'd prefer our government just use common sense when it comes to drug legislation. But thats probably asking way too much.

and they're the ones who are fighting against the demon marijuana. They're the stiff kids who may have tried it once and gotten paranoid and panicky. Now they're looking at their own innocent bay bees and recoiling in horror at the thought that their bay bees may repeat the experience and LIKE IT.

The only thing that will overturn these stupid laws is wholesale civil disobedience, and I don't see that happening.

For assault against his wife and destruction of property. This morning I talked to his next door neighbor and asked her what drugs she suspects he uses (I suspect crack or meth), they suspected POT! "I don't know what pot smells like, but I bet that's what he does". I had to give them the short course on soft vs. hardcore drugs. The guy is as far from a typical pothead as is possible.

Apparently some people still think pot makes you beat up your wife and go crazy in general.

That shit drives me nuts. I smoke pot every day and I havent been in a fight or hit anyone in I dont know how many years. Sometimes the degree of ignorance in some people completely astonishes me. :eyes:

Its like those dumbass anti-pot commercials. Absolutly no point. Just insinuations that lead you to assumptions. They never actually provide a single fact. EVER. Jebus it makes me sick how easily some people can be brainwashed.

I love the new ads claiming if I smoke pot my money is going to support terrorists. For the life of me I can't figure out how growing a couple plants in my closet is supporting terrorists but who am I to argue with the War On Terror. They need to all get on the same page, according to O'Reilly I'm just a stoner who sits around eating Cheetos and watching The Daily Show. So which is it? Am I a terrorist enabler or the guy who is propping up Frito-Lay?

they're spewing it. Unfortunatly.

I must admit, I have had some very spiritual moments while on pot. It works as a hypnotic. It allows you to sit still and let things happen. That's an important ingredient in attaining insight.

I was able to understand something about jazz. It is the messing with time that hits you on a visceral level. Jazz is not to be understood soley on an intellectual level, it has to be felt. From that I realized that the feeling side is the truth. The mind can deceive, but the body doesn't lie. So from sitting down, getting high and listening to Herbie Mann I was able to make a series of connections that led me to listen to my body and believe it when it reacts to a situation.

Later I came to a realization that I have learned good lessons from pot, but that it can only take me so far. I set it aside except for occasional use for my arthritis. It removes the anxiety associated with chronic pain.

You really describe it well.

The body knows when the mind is getting bonkers and a good stone gets in touch, i really
like your description.

Indeed, for liquid spiritual experiences, given that life is a spiritual experience,
perhaps drugs have simply granted us the excuse to have that long unspent time with
a profound godhead; to shut up our ego-chatter for a moment and commune; whatever that takes.

It's the same with a therapist or guru. They can only take you so far, the rest it up to you.

the sat-guru (ultimate guru) is within, not without, and yet we have many gurus over
a lifetime, and one of those gurus has been the cannabis flower for many an hour,
just because years past that process in one's own life, it is no longer part of
religious evolution and process.

It is my hope and prayer in decriminalization and legallization that people get over
weed and treat it as something with a place on the path, just not an alter.

172 pounds is any person's right under the constitution, just rather persecuted
by the religous tyrants and inquisitors of the white racist new republicana.

It has nothing to do with law and order.

then the beast must die.

Actually I believe in massive civil disobedience. The difficulty is getting people on the same page.

a lot of praying..... Must of had a hell of religious experience with that much bud....

"whatever it takes" camp.

"Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luis Martinez and Amanda Gould argue that the defendants are drawing from "a hodgepodge of unsupported speculations for most of their assertions ... in an effort to cloak themselves in a religious mantel."

What does this wanker think religion is?, science? All religions on earth are "a hodgepodge of
unsupported speculations" and i can't believe that this fool attorney actually believes that he
can prove that something is "not" a religion. That assholes on thin ice and i hope the state loses,
or freedom of religion is at risk, given the new definitions the secular state is putting forward,
all religious practices are now being made war on by the new maoists.

video SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON?
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8714482344821425610

If so, I can't see anyone wanting to use it for recreational reasons; the side effects are miserable. But it does seem to have some interesting spiritual connections...

(The video takes forever to download as it is an hour long, but it is well worth the wait and the time to watch it.)

when you are familiar with being stoned, materialism
can never have the same hold over you again.

And you lose any fear of god, and of "eternal damnation",
because you can feel the lies of fear-based religion.

And how can "they" control you then?

Besides, the CIA really needs to hang onto its monopoly
in the importation of drugs..