Marijuana and Religion

Lightkeeper · #1 (**permalink**) 11th November 2007, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Religion founder sentenced for possession of marijuana
By LILA FUJIMOTO, Staff Writer
WAILUKU – The founder of a religion that requires its members to use marijuana was ordered not to sell, use or possess illegal drugs, as he was placed on probation Tuesday for possessing more than 3 pounds of marijuana found at a Paia house last year.

James Kimmel, 72, of Kula, has maintained he was smoking the marijuana and providing it to others in conjunction with the Religion of Jesus Church, which he founded in 1969 in Sonoma, Calif.

“I’m not a criminal,” Kimmel said in court Tuesday. “I don’t consider what I’m doing to be wrong. I have no intent whatsoever of breaking the law, be it man’s or God’s.”

While Kimmel was spared a jail term Tuesday, 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza warned the defendant that he faced more serious consequences if he doesn’t follow the law.

“You need to understand you have some important choices to make,” Cardoza said. “If you don’t make the right ones, you’re going to go to prison.”

Kimmel was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine as part of his five years’ probation.

He was arrested Feb. 22, 2006, after police officers making undercover narcotics purchases in Paia were led to Kimmel’s Ulumalu Place residence as the source of the marijuana, Cardoza noted.

Kimmel was found with 3.37 pounds of marijuana, as well as $1,000 on him and another $5,000 in his room, said Deputy Prosecutor Timothy Tate.

Based on a police purchase of a quarter-ounce of marijuana for $120 earlier that day, Kimmel’s marijuana stash had an estimated street value of more than $20,000, Tate said.

“By his own admission, he’s selling on average $1,500 worth of marijuana a day,” Tate said. “It’s not just to people within his religion.

“When you look at the wide-scale enterprise he’s engaging in, it’s beyond his personal use. He’s benefiting from it, and he’s distributing it just like any other person selling drugs.”

Tate recommended a one-year jail term as part of probation for Kimmel.

But his attorney, Michael Glenn of Honolulu, argued that Kimmel shouldn’t be punished for exercising his religion and for providing marijuana to people allowed to use the drug for medical reasons.

Incarcerating Kimmel would have “zero legitimate purpose,” Glenn said.

“There’s no victim,” he said. “No one was harmed. There’s no one here to speak out against Reverend Kimmel today.”

While noting he wasn’t sentencing Kimmel for drug sales, Cardoza told Kimmel: “Your conduct reaches out into the community and does have an impact on the community.”

After unsuccessfully challenging the drug charges based on freedom of religion, Kimmel had pleaded no contest to second-degree commercial promotion of marijuana and possessing drug paraphernalia.

He has indicated that he will pursue an appeal of his case.

Cardoza ordered Kimmel not to sell, possess or use alcohol and illegal drugs as a requirement of his probation.

“You have indicated that that’s contrary to your personal views, but that’s the law,” the judge said.

When Glenn asked whether Kimmel could use marijuana for therapeutic reasons, Cardoza said: “If he’s authorized by law to use it as medical marijuana and follows all of those requirements, that would not violate the condition.”

http://www.mauinews.com/news/2007/11/7/07relf1106.html

Should marijuana be legalized for religious purposes? Can drugs enhance spiritual experiences just enable altered states?

**Rev. Kelly** · #2 (**permalink**) 12th November 2007, 12:14 AM

If you are willing to accept any consequence for you actions, you can use drugs in religious practice. But there is the question of where do we draw the line in religious practice? If we legalize pot,then do we have to legalize heroine or coke or meth? What is considered to be safe to use for religious reasons and what would be considered too dangerous?

vivamis123 · #3 (**permalink**) 12th November 2007, 02:11 AM

Since being druged is not our natural state, how can we assume an induced spiritual experience is "real". I don't know why anyone would settle for anything lesser than "the real thing". I prefer Coca-cola over pepsi : )

**Wendy Tall One** · #4 (**permalink**) 14th November 2007, 02:24 AM

a side question not meant in malice....but a meditative trance isn't necessarily our 'natural' state either, does that mean that since those aren't natural states that we shouldn't be engrossed in prayer or mantras either?

As far as pot goes, it is far less destructive and processed than meth or heroine are. Of course, this argument does open the door for opium and 'shrooms.

As for religious practice, in general one does not get drunk on sacred wine and commit a dui.
Peyote smokers of the mid/south west stay in one spot in meditation and prayer while hallucinating(a vision quest of sorts).

aged hippy · #5 (**permalink**) 14th November 2007, 11:25 PM

I think that some natural (ie not chemically processed, as - for example PCP and Ecstacy) psychoactive chemicals can produce genuinely spiritual experiences in many people - as Wendy Tall One pointed out, peyote is used in religious settings to produce visionary experiences, as are many other plants, fungi.... the list goes on.
Ayahuasca, for instance, is comprised of the leaves of a bush, which is boiled with the bark of a vine to produce a hallucinogenic experience.
The hallucinogen itself is a obtained from one of the plants, but it is neutralised by an enzyme in the stomach, however, the other plant provides a substance which neutralises the action of the enzyme, and visions/hallucinations are the result.
In many cases, these visions are shared by the group who are undertaking the ritual.

If you ask the shaman how it was originally discovered that the combination of those two particular plants (among several thousand species in the Amazonian forests) was needed, you will be told that the plant told them (presumably, several thousand years ago).

Many people use Salvia Divinorum and meet the 'Spirit' of the plant, i have used it on occasion, but my experience wasn't spiritual, and took me completely by surprise.

I don't see a problem with people using psychoactive chemicals in the pursuit of spiritual experiences, if the ego is too tightly in control, maybe all it needs is something to relax it's grip slightly.

Edited to add:
.... eventually addressing the original question

The reasons for marihuana to be illegal are dubious in the extreme, i think that any psychoactive substance which produces spiritual experiences should be legal, with reservations, obviously.

Peace, Love, & Light

**angeleyes** · #6 (**permalink**) 16th November 2007, 01:19 AM

I'm in agreement with Wendy and Hippy - if natural substances are better understood and there is a purposeful and controlled environment, the expansion of one's consciousness could be helpful...... that is IF (and that is a big IF) people are willing to be totally responsible about it. That would mean total honesty about one's motivation, expectations, etc., behind using any mind-altering substance. I think we have some distance to go yet, however, before pot should be readily available. I think we need to work on the medical availability first and establish a good track record.

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