Tea for 130: religious rituals and the drug war.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings; ayahuasca - Brief article

FOR 35 YEARS, the federal government has allowed Native Americans to use peyote in their religious rituals, despite the fact that the drug is otherwise banned. Yet it balked at letting American members of Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a Brazil-based religious group, use ayahuasca, a psychedelic tea made from Amazonian plants.

The inconsistency between these policies was highlighted by a February decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld an injunction protecting UDV from federal harassment. The Court concluded that UDV deserved a preliminary injunction because it was likely to win a lawsuit it flied under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act after federal agents took away its tea.

Congress passed the act in response to the Supreme Court's 1990 decision to stop scrutinizing "neutral laws of general applicability" that prevent people from practicing their religions. The act restores judicial review of such laws, requiring the government to justify their application to a particular religious practice by showing that it is the least restrictive means...