Honolulu, HI: A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week to limit federal prosecutions of Rastafarians who use marijuana for sacramental purposes on federal property or in U.S. territories. The judges determined that protections granted by a 1993 federal religious-freedom law permits the personal use and possession of marijuana – but not the sale or importation of marijuana – for religious purposes.
Attorney Graham Boyd of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Drug Litigation Project, who argued the case, disputes that distinction. “It’s the equivalent to saying wine is a necessary sacrament for some Christians but you have to grow your own grapes,” he said. He intends to seek a review by the full appellate court, sitting en banc.
The case arose from Benny Toves Guerrero’s criminal prosecution in Guam for the alleged importation of five ounces of marijuana and ten grams of marijuana seeds. Guerrero asked the trial court to dismiss the indictment, claiming that the criminal statutes violated his right to freely exercise his religion under the Organic Act of Guam and under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The trial court agreed, as did the Guam Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit reviewed the Guam Supreme Court’s finding that the federal territory’s controlled substance statute substantially burdened Guerrero’s right to freely exercise his religion.
The decision applies to federal lands in nine western states and American territories.
For more information, please contact Donna Shea, NORML Foundation Legal Director, at (202) 483-8751.