US Supreme Court Allows DMT Tea on the Basis of Religious Freedom

Some groovy news for all the psychonauts out there. The US Supreme Court delivered a pretty substantial victory for the supporters of entheogens. The Supreme Court, which has recently become a lot more conservative, has actually unanimously (8-0, with Alito absent from the court) ruled in favour of allowing a small Christian/Native Brazilian sect use the DMT laced tea in their religious rituals. The South American Christian sect, O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, uses hoasca tea, which contains a moderate amount of DMT, in order to 'understand God' on bimonthly basis. The court essentially ruled that the government was unable to prove that the tea was harmful enough to warrant a restriction on religious freedoms.

You can get more information about the case here. (The link predates the court ruling though)

One of the most interesting aspects of the case was that the Brazilian Christian sect garnered support from a variety of powerful religious groups including Catholics, Jews, Baptists, and Evangelicals. It's strange to see that crowd help preserve Native American traditions of drug-induced reverie. I guess these groups are more concerned with keeping up their cultural 'firewall' than 'correcting' the practices of a small religious sect (less than 200 in the US).

Maybe some creative hippy/new-agers out there will be able to use to their advantage? How about a new religion requiring the use of mushrooms, LSD, DMT, and heck just about any other hallucinogen that God put on the Earth to assist us in grasping the infinite ;-) Actually, I would be surprised if there won't be some new-age group out their that actively challenges the US governments ban on hallucinogens based on this new precedent. A word of advice to those entheogen-popping new-agers: Say you're a sect of some major religion, and whatever you do don't claim Timothy Leary as one of your prophets. Only time will tell I suppose. One thing is for certain, Joe Rogan should be happy to hear the news.