Psychedelic tea: drugs and religious freedom.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings

NEVER MIND the nausea and vomiting. For members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, drinking ayahuasca, a psychedelic tea brewed from two Amazonian plants, involves four hours of recitation, chanting, questions and answers, and religious instruction. That may help explain why the church has only 13O or so followers in the U.S., despite the drug trips at the center of its rituals.

But the federal government does not want to take the chance that Uniao do Vegetal, a synthesis of Christianity and indigenous South American beliefs that originated in Brazil, will do for ayahuasca what Timothy Leary did for LSD. So in 1999, after intercepting a shipment of ayahuasca extract bound for Uniao do Vegetal's U.S. headquarters in Santa Fe, customs agents searched the home of the group's president, seizing 30 gallons of the tea and triggering a lawsuit that may force the government to back off.

The Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration say ayahuasca is illegal because it contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT),which is banned by the Controlled Substances Act. Uniao do Vegetal members argue that their use of ayahuasca is protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration...