Par-Tea Time
February 22, 2006 | 11 Comments
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that a religious sect which drinks a sacramental tea containing a hallucinogen may be entitled to an exemption from the Controlled Substance Act. Insofar as the lower court had found that the evidence submitted by both sides on the drug’s health risks and the potential for diversion to recreational users was virtually balanced, the Supreme Court held that the Government had failed to demonstrate a “compelling interest” to halt the practice under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
What this means is that only the religious have a Constitutional right to get high. The pleasure people get from taking drugs they think helps them see God has been declared more important than the pleasure derived by recreational users. It’s a clear case of favoring religion over non-religion. The sect can continue to use the drug so long as they show they’re using it safely. But no one else gets that chance to try it, no matter what precautions they promise to take.
Yeah, so what. But I do wonder if religious freedom includes the right to sample drugs as part of an effort to choose a religion to convert to. I’m not talking about a scam, but a sincere, hippie-like desire to find one’s inner self. There are a lot of dabblers out there, and they shouldn’t have to go to the trouble becoming official members of every sect whose truths they want to test.
February 22nd, 2006 @ 2:41 am
That’s what I figured – the “law” be damned!
February 22nd, 2006 @ 6:40 am
Similarly, don’t laws legalising ‘medicinal marijuana’ discriminate against the healthy?
February 22nd, 2006 @ 7:21 am
Once again I have to ask if there’s any way we can band together and make all these illegal things atheist “rites.” I mean, damn it, we’re a minority too.
February 22nd, 2006 @ 9:41 am
This is outrageous! It amounts to special rights for church members. Next they’ll allow church members to sacrifice people, and they’ll allow inmates to claim they need beer and pizza as their religion mandates. How hard is it to understand that we aren’t supposed to treat people ANY differently because of what their religious beliefs may be? These judges are biased asshats and they can all come over to my house and get high in a religious ceremony where they eat my shit with a side of shrooms!
February 22nd, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
I think it’s a fantastic ruling. It really is.
Now, every loser in the world will wrap himself in a cloak of religion to try to get away with whatever silly bullshit he wants to do.
Pizza and beer for inmates…..
Drugged tea for indians…..
Pot and LSD for the hippie faith….
and……
Wafers and wine for the christians….
The more people who get on this bandwagon, the more the sillyness of all of it will become apparent. Religion itself will begin to unravel as everyone becomes skeptical of the silly nonsense associated with everyone elses faith.
Its like clutching sand. The tighter you squeeze the more it slips away. The more silly religous practices people embrace, the more religion is destroyed.
I love it!!!
February 22nd, 2006 @ 3:17 pm
Its not a constitutional right. Its a right under the Religious Freedom Restoratiob Act…
So if congress repealed the act, the case would be irrelevant. Call your congressman.
February 22nd, 2006 @ 11:06 pm
I don’t think that drugs should be legalized NO MATTER WHAT ! I am a strong beliver in God and I pray for all of you who do not know him! He is your creator rather you choose to believe it or not! I am so sorry and sad for you all who feel this way, but before you choose to not believe in God I beg and I challange you all learn who HE is.. study his word(Bible)…go to a church function, (church retreats, teen retreats, etc..) talk to a BELIEVER see how their life is……after all this if you still believe that their is no God then All We CHRISTIANS can do is pray! You believe what you want and I’ll believe what I want…..BUT if you have a comment or a religious question PLEASE e-mail me and ask!! I LOVE YOU ALL IN CHRIST NAME!!!
February 24th, 2006 @ 9:40 am
Jenn, you ignorant slut…
Has it ever entered your pea-brain even for an instant that MANY of the atheists and agnostics who post were raised in religious households, and indoctrinated in various faiths? Your assumption that the only people who choose to embrace atheism are the ones who have never been exposed to your “truth” is the height of arrogance and smacks of myopia. You are the true face of ignorance and mesmerizing stupidity, and I weep for you.
In closing,
There is no god
There is no heaven
There is no hell
There is only this life
There is only today
…and yet we still pay taxes, continue to learn, grow and function in society. We love our children and most of us, myself included, are happy with what we’ve managed to achieve in our world. I think I speak for a great many of us when I say that if we appear miserable to you, It’s usually on one of the rare occasions when you run across one of us on your way to rally against some “unholy” evil, like abortion, gay rights, or that-there fancy book-lurnin’ you’ve heard about.
If this life and this existence isn’t enough for you, and you need to lie to yourself so that you can sleep at night, then do everyone a favor (yourself included) and drink some poison to prove all of us godless heathens wrong (after all, it says right there in your bible that those who believe will be able to take up serpents and drink of poison without suffering any dire consequences). Imagine the looks on all of our doomed faces when you toss back a strycchnine cocktail and then emerge unscathed!
Yeah, maybe then I’ll believe. If you really loved us like you claim, then this shouldn’t be such an unreasonable request. Then you could go back to your church group and pray your empty heads clean off your shoulders.
February 24th, 2006 @ 9:59 am
Jenn, you’re comments are misguided. Most American and European atheists are familiar with church services and the Bible. I was a confirmed Catholic before I gave up on the idea of god. Since then, I have been to several church services; sometimes because I love to hear my mother sing, and sometimes because my fiancee used to like to go, and I respected and supported that aspect of who she is. Please don’t pretend that we have chosen not to believe in god out of ignorance. Most of us let go of the idea of god when we became educated.
February 24th, 2006 @ 7:34 pm
Jenn, I know you’re a christian (perhaps even a “true christian” ) but I was wondering, do you do anal?
February 26th, 2006 @ 1:58 am
“Jenn, you ignorant slut…”
hahahaahaha