Plea could send Ariz. ‘Marijuana Church’ founders to prison | www.azstarnet.com ®
The founders of an Arizona church that deifies marijuana have pleaded guilty to two criminal charges and are now each facing up to 20 years in prison.

But Dan and Mary Quaintance, founders of the Church of Cognizance, remain confident that they will not end up behind bars. Although sentencing in federal court is set to take place within the next 75 days, the Quaintances are confident an appeal will keep them out of prison.

The couple on Aug. 18 pleaded guilty to two counts relating to their 2006 federal arrest — one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute 200 pounds or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana; and one count of possession with the intent to distribute 100 pounds or more of a substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana, as well as aiding and abetting.

Dan Quaintance believes freedom of religion will prevail, and predicts the case could go as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Quaintances must not have been carrying their $250 Religious Use Get-Out-of-Jail Free card.

Look, I wish Dan and Mary all the luck in the world.  I really do hope their case goes to the Supreme Court, but I strongly doubt they will hear the case (they don’t have to, they can let lower rulings stand) and even if they did, I doubt they would rule in favor of cannabis religious freedom.  Yes, they should, but this is politics we’re talking about.  This is a court that injected itself, without precedent, into the 2000 election in Florida, to decide the presidency contrary to the Constitution’s mandate of state control of elections, and then declared that the opinion in Bush v. Gore was a one-time only decision that couldn’t be construed as precedent for any cases in the future.

Do you really think that a court that will bend the most sacrosanct laws and standards to select our highest officeholder for partisan reasons is going to rule that anybody who calls their home “church” and their stash “sacrament” can smoke, grow, and possess marijuana legally?

I believe that everyone, from most devout believer to most cynical atheist (me), has the absolute natural right to make use of any plant and to put in their bodies whatever they choose.  Crafting a religious use exception doesn’t secure that right for me and millions of others; in a sense, it criminalizes non-belief.

I’ve said it before: it is insane to think that if a California cancer survivor and a Jamaican Rasta share a joint with me, you’d have a “patient”, a “believer”, and a “criminal”.  It is insane to say I don’t get the right to smoke weed because I’m too healthy and don’t worship.

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