Utah High Court OKs Non-Indian Peyote Use

[Khephra]

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that non-American Indian members of the Native American Church can use peyote in religious ceremonies.

In a unanimous decision, the court found in favor of a couple charged in 2000 with drug distribution for providing peyote to members and visitors at their church in Benjamin, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Officers confiscated about 12,000 peyote buttons from the six-acre complex that serves as home to the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church.

James and Linda Mooney were charged with more than 10 first-degree felony counts of operating a controlled-substance criminal enterprise and one second-degree count of racketeering. They were never tried, and Tuesday's ruling stemmed from a defense request to dismiss the case.

more..........

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-peyote-prosecution,0,7451042.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[4morewars]

1. Let's end the silly war on drugs !!!

Shall we ????

[mike_c]

3. amen, brother....

[Sporadicus]

6. Leads to...

[struggle4progress]

5. It costs too much, and it doesn't accomplish anything. eom

[Fenris]

2. Mescaline! Mescaline! Mescaline!

:D

[TheWizardOfMudd]

4. Hurrah for Utah!!!!

Leave the people alone.

[dweller]

7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.plumebleue.ch/pages/discs_pages/chant.htm

STILLNESS: The journey within
#7

peace,
dp

[4morewars]

11. that gave me chills

real nice, thanks:hippie: :yourock:

[2cents]

8. Precedent for Rastafarians?

Or reasonable facsimiles. :)

[shanti]

9. we can dream

can't we?;-)

[Kali]

10. here's a related article

A Trip Down Peyote Way

This Southern Arizona church flouts federal law by offering peyote to all--for a price

By GLENN WEYANT



Dust devils are swirling on the distant horizon as photographer Hugh Dougherty and I bump down a dirt road near Klondike in an open-air Jeep. We're potentially lost, looking for the Peyote Way Church of God, in a desolate landscape where you're more likely to meet a cow than a person.
.......
Shaking off the road dust, we're greeted by a bevy of sage-looking dogs. In their wake is Peyote Way Church Apostle Reverend Anne Zapf. Zapf is a lean woman in her early 50s who wears her graying hair pulled tightly back. She greets us with a warm, yet suspiciously tolerant smile.

"Come on," she says, cutting to the chase after a brief introduction, "I'll show you the peyote."

Inside a shed known as the Peyote House, every bit of available space on the floor--and even a wall--is covered with earth-filled boxes. Within these boxes, a miniature city of plump, sea-green and spineless peyote cactus-buttons thrives.

interesting article:

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:57371