MAPS freedom of religion

[SONN]

Quite obviously, psychedelic drugs are often used as a sacrament or with some sort of spiritual intention. In the past, plenty of religions have been formed around the usage of psychedelics, but essentially the only religious groups that have received any sort of legal sanction are ones that have existed for hundreds of years.

Considering Americans are supposed to be born with the right to practice any religion they choose, it isn't a very unconventional idea to try and impose more government sanctions on other traditional psychedelic sacraments that have been used in organized religions for hundreds of years.

My proposal is to create a modern Mazatec based religion that uses psilocybin mushrooms and/or morning glory seeds as it's sacrament. Native Americans have proven to be successful in their efforts to protect their religious beliefs so far. It is extremely likely that there were native tribes who used psilocybin mushrooms religiously in regions where they grow naturally such as northern florida. Is it that outlandish to suggest that the government might respect their right to freedom of religion and allow them to use psilocybin mushrooms as a sacrament?

My initial idea was to base the religion off the teachings of Maria Sabina, where mushrooms are used both in religious ceremonies as a sacrament and as a medicine prescribed by the elders. The fact that native americans smoke a lot of cigarettes and psilocybin mushrooms have proven to be the most effective smoking cessation aid ever tested should support the idea that mushrooms can be used as a medicine.

Any thoughts? I personally know some native americans who religiously use peyote so I will certainly be discussing this with them.

 

[Foreigner]

Bottom line, if you're a bunch of white people getting together to create a religion and do drugs, the government isn't going to give your church an exclusion.

You have to be all ethnic and shit, with a real lineage that pre-dates colonization.

 

[tokezu]

You have to be all ethnic and shit, with a real lineage that pre-dates colonization.

Didn't Santo Daime recently win a courtcase to use ayahuasca in the US? They are a new syncretic religion and afaik not exclusive to indigenious people. I know that concerning peyote the US-governments position is that only "real indians" are allowed to use it, but I really don't see how that argument would hold up in court.

I think I once heard or read someone (might have been Rick Doblin) talk about, why they thought it is not worth persuing this route: The religious freedom granted by the constitution only applies to groups of people, not individuals. To be granted an exemption from the drug laws you need to be a group of people who use these drugs in a ritualistic manner and the use of the drug has to be an essential part of the religion itself. So some weirdo taking mushrooms without being part of a tradition, like Maria Sabina, wouldn't be enough.

I, myself, would rather argue with "freedom of thought" than "freedom of religion", because it leaves the possibility to use psychedelics on your own, be it for religious practice, for introspection or just to have fun.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

What if you're not religious or spiritual at all, but still want to do drugs? WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR SOULS?

 

[LucidSDreamr]

What if you're not religious or spiritual at all, but still want to do drugs? WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR SOULS?

this is what I always say. If you're into consciousness exploration, self improvement and just enjoying life but don't believe in magic (which in my opinion make you more sane and capable to do drugs) why cant we do drugs?

If someone believes in god....and they hallucinate while tripping that god is telling them to hack up their entire family...or bomb a school....thats dangerious because they actually believe god wants them to do this....if someone has such a hallucination that doesn't believe in god,,,,they will just chalk it up to tripping and forget about it because they realize its fucked up when they come down.

I'm not that angry about people believing in relgiion....but when they get more rights than I do I get really angry.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Bottom line, if you're a bunch of white people getting together to create a religion and do drugs, the government isn't going to give your church an exclusion.

You have to be all ethnic and shit, with a real lineage that pre-dates colonization.

A church in warrior alambama that is mostly white people (and led by whites) but based off of native americans....just one the right to smoke pot eat peyote and mushrooms from the FEDS.

no if you're a successful professional and get caught with pot or peyote....kiss your career and freedom goodbye. I guess if we ever wnat the right to use drugs legally we have to pretend that we believe in magic.

medical reasons don't even qualifiy you to use cacti....but insanity does I guess

 

[ayruss]

Thanks, Nixon.