The Sentinel Online : News : Local
Of his arrest with a quarter-pound of marijuana in 1984, Robert George Henry said, “I pleaded guilty because it was the easy way out.”But when he was stopped in Cumberland County on Oct. 10, 2007, the 48-year-old Franklin County resident decided not to take that route. Instead, he appeared before Cumberland County President Judge Edgar Bayley Wednesday, testifying that smoking marijuana was part of his religion.
His attempt to have the charges against him dismissed did not succeed.
“I come to the belief that me smoking cannabis helps me connect with my Lord and what he wants me to do with my life,” Henry said. He starts every day with pot and prayer, he said.
Henry said he learned about The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, which claims the sacramental use of cannabis as a cornerstone of its religion, in December 2007 and became a member on Jan. 14, 2008.
On Jan. 15, he said, he was ordained as a minister of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, Calif., which he said gives him “the ability to start my own church.”
Part of his religion, he said, involved growing his own marijuana organically. He had just picked up the last of his own marijuana and smoked a pipe before police stopped him in October, he said, but the arrest put an end to all that.
But Henry’s attorney, George N. Marros, said he had expected the decision.
“No common pleas court judge would rule on such a serious issue like this,” Marros said. At Henry’s pre-trial conference on May 6, he said, he plans to ask for a bench trial on the case, then take it to the Superior Court.
“That’s what the Superior Court is there for,” he said.
There are many people out there who are sincerely using cannabis for spiritual purposes, as humans have done since the beginnings of civilization. The government tries to pigeonhole sacramental cannabis users as being “insincere” and decisions about religious use of drugs are often biased and contradictory. Members of certain indigenous tribes may use certain hallucinogens under 1st Amendment religious protections, but your everyday American who meditates or prays with marijuana isn’t afforded the same protection.
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James Flaming Eagle Mooney has a story of how marijuana became legal in Utah via a supreme court decision.
I made a video about the varying court opinions on this topic..
Use the following as you will, it most likely needs editing, would like to see something like this be sent to DC (en mass) PEACE! (even if we have to fight for it)
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF CANNABAS USERS
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.
Whereas for too long now it has been observed that disregard and contempt for human rights has been allowed to exist in the body of politically motivated law that outlaws the possession, cultivation and use of Cannibas by adults. The signatories of this Declaratioin wish to live in peace in this society, have been engaged in constant communication with their elected represenitaves individually or as part of groups. The actions of the government in this regards demonstrates continued contempt and disregard that we the undersigned feel that we have NO RECOURSE but to regard our government and some of our fellow citizens as hostile towards our declared rights and indifferent to the tyranny, oppression and terrorisim that we have too long had to deal with.
Whereas by this declaration we provide the opportunity and impudence to engage with represenitives in good faith negotiations which will lead to peaceful co-exisistance.
Whereas we the undersigned do hereby declare that IT IS OUR RIGHT to cultivate, possess and use Cannibas AND that any law that says otherwise will be treated by us as the tool of tyranny.
Whereas we the undersigned in declaring our desire to realize our liberties and our desire to live in peace also recognize that the point is near where our rights and liberties will have to be defended.
Whereas we the undersigned are willing to do all we can to avoid conflict we hope that this WARNING also provides our fellow citizens and our represenitives the impudence to also seek peace and understanding within our society.
[...] Robert George Henry became a member of THC Ministry in 2008 (four months after he was arrested) and that defense got him 9-23 months in prison in Pennsylvania. (http://stash.norml.org/man-claims-religious-use-of-cannabis-court-disagrees) [...]
[...] Even if Judge Earp did allow Swallick’s religious testimony, if wouldn’t work and hasn’t worked for plenty who have tried. I wonder how much of Swallick’s and [...]
Dear All,
There is no wrongful use of the drug itself, because it has never been recorded that a man has died of its use. A potatoe overdose is 4 times more likely then cannabis’s LD50. I must say Protect,Grow and Preserve Salvia and Herbs. I want to stay quite but it is a religion and noone can judge your beliefs because it is constitutional to our rights. The way is there and if you must be judged explain the truth to them.
There is one underlying issue that no one will address that is frustrating peoples right to religious and medical use. That is the TREASON involved in the “WAR” on Drugs. Their word. Not ours. But it is a paramilitary civil war and a Constitutionally defined act of treason. The laws will not be properly adjucated until the issue of Treason against “Them” is resolved. Even if you vow and declare that “them” only applies to teh states. The federal government is not at war with California over the medical use. They should respond to the federal governments inteference with their state sovereignty but charging the federal government with treason. Going all the way back to anslinger and Nixon. They always said “war like.” This was because it was considered to be treason for the government and it’s officials to issue the word war to We The People. It’s really that simple.
although I completely agree with russ the UDHR doesn’t and I feel that being a free country with suposed freedom of religious practice should at least acknowledge nato’s article as a logical attempt to uphold the rights of the people and to do otherwise is contradictary to every thing the US claims to stand for.
NORML does support the religious use of cannabis. NORML supports any responsible adult’s personal use of cannabis for whatever reason — spiritual, medical, industrial, or social.
What we do not support is selling people a kit for $250 that claims to provide a “get out of jail free card” for American cannabis consumers, under the guise that this certified religious use is going to keep them unprosecuted and out of an American state or federal prison, when all precedent and evidence suggest otherwise.
Speaking for myself (and not NORML), I find it ridiculous that one cannabis consumer should be exempted for use because he believes in unprovable cosmological assertions, but the cannabis consumer who prefers to stick to the rational, provable cosmological assertions should be jailed. If cannabis use is a religious right, then it is an inherent human right to alter consciousness, regardless of one’s particular belief in creation myths.
According to international law, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Cannabis use for religious/spiritual reasons IS legal. See Art. 18 UDHR. The use for Spiritual reasons is well documented all over the world and dates back for thousands of years, every cultural anthropologist with expertise on this issue can testify to that. It is not new, it has always been there in most cultures including most of the the European cultures, the American ancestors. NORML should support religious use and demand that the laws are obeyed by the US government. Cannabis for religious use IS legal!
WHAT MAKES THIS SO? As an American with the supposed right to religion why must you be from a tribe? I believe in cannabis for medical and spiritual purposes and who is to tell me i am insincere? no one but the GOD i worship can judge me and if I was taken to a court of MANS LAW I would say so even if i was found to be guilty in the EYES OF MAN I would never let it lye! as all children of ” CREATOR ” who use the herb would support this and would not stand for it with the internet how long do you think it would take to start a revolution ? Im serious ! YOU ALL SIT BEHIND YOUR DESKS and judge us according to your lawsas you PAVE THE PATH TO HELL! But MOTHER EARTH will have her say in the end and father time will be no more, you can not put my soul behind bars only my physical body TILL I DIE AND RETURN TO HE ORIGINAL DREAMER I BELIEVE IN THE PLANTS CREATOR MADE AS YOU AL TEAR THEM DOWN AND TURN YOUR HEA TO WHAT THEY CAN DO. LIES LIES LIES LIEs is what you spread to get the tax act and WHOMEVER believes this does not hear the the voice of GOD ITS All about money to you! MURDER of WITCHES for using HERBS to heal was a sin and you walk in the blood you spilt and stand for. In the end we will be judged by the weight of a feather and so shall you fall to your knees as you support the destructive nature of this EARTH! I am a tribe of my own in modern society who are you to say what is real to me in my heart? I AM AMERICAN, MY FAMILY CAME BY WAGON. I SEE CREATOR IN NATURE AND WILL NOT FALL TO MAN!