Today's Arizona Daily Star reports that the federal court trial of a couple charged with possessing 172 pounds of marijuana that they claim is for religious use is scheduled to begin July 18 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. A revised complaint adds charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and includes two more defendants. The couple, Dan and Mary Quaintance, are founders of the Church of Cognizance, whose members eat or drink marijuana daily as a way of becoming more spiritually enlightened. The Church says it has 72 monasteries around the country in members' homes. Its motto is: "With good thoughts, good words and good deeds, we honor marijuana; as the teacher, the provider, the protector."
The Quaintances are relying on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision earlier this year in the UDV case to support their free exercise claims. However Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, says the federal government is in a stronger position to win against the religious use of marijuana than it was for the hallucinogenic tea involved in UDV because of the prevalence of marijuana and the federal government's concern about a marijuana drug problem.
