Psychedelics
Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit About Religious Use of Hallucinogenic Tea to Move Forward
Parties exchanged legal barbs over religious freedom and the Controlled Substances Act.
The post Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit About Religious Use of Hallucinogenic…
A U.S. federal judge ruled that a lawsuit by an Arizona religious group seeking legal approval to use a hallucinogenic tea in its rituals can proceed.
The Arizona Yage Assembly claims the federal government seized four shipments of ayahuasca tea, which contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), from Peru. DMT is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under U.S. law, making it generally illegal to manufacture, distribute, or possess.
According to Law360, the group, which was founded in 2020, asserts that its religious use of ayahuasca should not be seen as a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
However, the federal government moved for dismissal, arguing that AYA failed to state a claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This law prohibits the government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a universally applied rule.
U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver ruled AYA’s claim – that it either has to abandon its religious principles or risk criminal prosecution – was sufficient to proceed under the RFRA.
Silver also dismissed the government’s challenge to AYA’s legal standing to sue. The government argued the group had not shown a specific threat of prosecution or past federal prosecutions for violations of the Controlled Substances Act related to ayahuasca use.
Silver rejected this claim, citing AYA’s reports of four separate seizures of ayahuasca shipments by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a warning letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Hancock. In his letter, Hancock stated any future imports of Schedule I controlled substances like ayahuasca would be seized and forfeited unless a permit for lawful importation had been issued.
According to Silver, these allegations sufficiently show that the Controlled Substances Act has been and will continue to be enforced against the group.
Silver also denied the government’s request for a stay to allow AYA to seek an exemption from the Act, a move the Ninth Circuit has previously rejected in regards to the RFRA.
The post Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit About Religious Use of Hallucinogenic Tea to Move Forward appeared first on Green Market Report.
ayahuasca dmt dimethyltryptamine hallucinogenic controlled substances act
Compass Pathways and Journey Clinical Establish Research Collaboration Agreement To Inform the Training of Healthcare Providers and Delivery Model for COMP360 Psilocybin Treatment, If Approved for Treatment-Resistant Depression
Cybin to Participate at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference
-
Psilocybin6 days agoPassover Perspectives: Psychedelics, Moses, and the Burning Bush
-
Psychedelics1 week agoPsychedelics Can Offer More Than Therapy On Its Own
-
Psychedelics5 days agoAlgernon NeuroScience and the Centre for Human Drug Research to Present DMT Phase 1 Stroke Clinical Data at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research June 6 – 8th, 2024
-
Psychedelics6 days agoRevive Therapeutics Announces Type C Meeting Request Granted by FDA for Clinical Study of Bucillamine to Treat Long COVID
-
Psychedelics5 days agoatai Life Sciences Announces Dosing of First Patient in Part 2 of Beckley Psytech’s Phase 2a Study Exploring BPL-003 Adjunctive to SSRIs in Patients with Treatment Resistant Depression
-
Law & Regulation5 days agoTryp Therapeutics merger with Exopharm approved by shareholders
-
Psychedelics6 days agoSilo Pharma Announces Positive Results for Intranasal PTSD Treatment
-
Psychedelics6 days agoOptimi Health and Kwantlen Polytechnic University Applied Genomics Centre Partner to Advance Mushroom Science and Research