Church of the Holy Light of the Queen background.pdf

These documents relate to the landmark case in which the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen (CHLQ; the Santo Daime Church in Oregon) filed suit in Federal court against the United States government, represented by Attorney General Robert Mukasey, United States Attorney for Oregon Karin Immergut, and the Federal Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. The CHLQ sought relief from the Controlled Substances Act, which was being used by the United States government to prevent the Church from using Daime tea in the practice of their religion. Daime tea contains several psychoactive substances, including N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmala alkaloids. The CHLQ claimed that the United States government's restriction on Daime tea violated the Church's freedom to practice their religion under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The trial started on January 21, 2009. On March 18, 2009, United States District Judge Owen M. Panner rendered his decision. He found that the Church's rights were indeed being violated by the government and that the Church must be permitted to use the Daime tea in their religious services. This marks the first time in United States history that the government has lost an actual court trial involving the use of psychoactive substances for religious purposes (note that the União do Vegetal case of 2006 was not a trial per se but an upholding of a preliminary injunction). I participated in the trial as an expert witness on behalf of the CHLQ. I wrote and testified about the pharmacology and toxicology of Daime tea.