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BENKE, RICHARD
JUDGE RIPS DRUG WAR, DISMISSES PEYOTE CHARGE
Associated Press, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, WI, Friday, Sept 6, 1991
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Calling the drug war a 'menacing attack' on constitutional liberty, New Mexico's chief federal judge dismissed peyote importation charges against a white member of the Native American Church. U.S. District Judge Juan Burciaga said Wednesday the fight against drug trafficking is 'a wildfire that threatens to consume those fundamental rights of the individual deliberately enshrined in our Constitution.' Lawrence R. 'Bob' Boyll, 56, of Mill Valley, Calif., was accused of mailing about eight pounds of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, from Mexico last May to his own post office box in San Cristobal, N.M., north of Taos. He was arrested near Taos by U.S. Customs agents. Boyll, the son of a Methodist minister, said be has used peyote only as a religious sacrament since becoming a member of the Native American Church in Taos nearly 10 years ago. He said the peyote obtained in May would have lasted church members at least a year. Congress exempted religious usage of peyote in 1965, but the prosecution argued that it never authorized importation. On Wednesday night he said he was glad the ordeal was at least partly over, although prosecutors say they would like to appeal. They said the decision ultimately would be made in Washington, D.C. 'It wasn't easy for me to go through this,' Boyll said in a telephone interview from Mill Valley. 'It was very humbling.' Boyll defended his use of peyote. 'It's used in conjunction with prayer,' he said. 'It's used in a very careful way ... as a remedy. And I have seen it, along with prayer, heal people who were at death's door.' 'Not only does it not do anyone any harm, I believe that when it's used in a proper way, through prayer, it can be very helpful for life.... It's something that's for life. It's not just a roller-coaster ride.' The government argued that some church chapters required that members be at least one-fourth Indian. Boyll said he's part Indian, although not one-fourth.; Several Indian witnesses testified that Boyll is a legitimate church member. Boyll said nobody in the church sought to exclude him and the government shouldn't either.
COAKLEY, TOM
Raids Allegedly Crack Top 'Angel Dust' Ring
Boston Globe, Sep 4 1990; p 48 col 5
Police and federal drug agents capped a yearlong probe with the seizure of a gallon of the psychedelic known as PCP, said to be worth at least $30,000, and the arrest of three men in a major drug distribution ring.
LAWSON, PAUL E; SCHOLES, JENNIFER
Jurisprudence, Peyote and the Native American Church
American Indian Culture and Research Journal; 1986, 10, 1, 13-27.
Because it is worshipped as a deity, peyote has been & continues to be important to the religious beliefs & practices of numerous Indian tribes throughout North & Central America. The history of legitimate peyote use by American Indians must be understood as a struggle to maintain tribal religious traditions against various repressive state & federal governmental practices aimed at eradicating Indian culture. The historical repression of peyote use experienced by Indians in the United States is chronicled, along with the Indians' responses, including the creation of the Native American Church of North America. Recent court decisions that deal with Native Americans arrested for illegal peyote possession are summarized, & linked to larger issues of religious freedom. Though much of the white opposition to Indians' peyote use has declined over recent decades, & criminal prosecution has waned, the costs to individual Indians in terms of personal religious freedom & tribal self-determination have been great.
LUCCHINI, RICCARDO
Law and Drug Dependence: The Case of Switzerland: The Application of Federal Law to Narcotics; Loi et toxicodependance: le cas de la Suisse. L'Application de la loi federale sur les stupefiants
Revue francaise des affaires sociales; 1983, 37, 3, July-Sept, 145-164.
Switzerland, like every other nation, has laws regulating the production, distribution, & consumption of narcotics. The latest major revision of these laws was adopted in 1975. The illegal consumption of drugs is perceived by the government as a type of deviant behavior that the society may punish by stigmatizing the offenders. The Swiss antidrug laws are designed to help drug abusers seek treatment & discourage abuse by those with no prior narcotics experience. The medical model of drug abuse has now been replaced by a psychosocial model. In 1980, Switzerland had 5,831 convictions for possession or consumption of hashish, 2,827 for heroin, 745 for LSD, 585 for cocaine, 257 for amphetamines, & 248 for morphine. Foreigners are relatively more frequently convicted of drug offenses than are Swiss citizens.
Mabli, Jerome; Nesbitt, Karen L; Glick, Steven; Tilbrook, Jaclyn; et al
FCI Fort Worth substance abuse evaluation: A pilot study.
Federal Probation; 1985 Sep Vol 49(3) 40-45
Evaluated the effectiveness of a holistic group counseling rehabilitative technique for drug abusers by testing 47 male prisoners (mean age 33.4 yrs) both before and after 6 mo of programming. The counseling was aimed at cognitively restructuring the Ss' attitudes concerning drug usage, and covered topics such as stress management, Narcotics Anonymous, self-awareness, and relaxation therapy. Drugs most often used by Ss were heroin (38%), cocaine (20%), and marihuana (15%). Over 50% of the Ss had histories of polydrug abuse. Ss were administered an attitude scale, a risk scale, the Profile of Mood States, and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Results indicate a slight tendency toward greater risk-taking that was not significant, improved depression levels, improvements in fatigue, and a perception of greater dangerousness of barbiturates. However, the percentages of 'great risk' responses tended to decrease in response to questions on the 'regular' use of cocaine, LSD, and amphetamines. (10 ref)
Oepen, G; Fuenfgeld, M; Harrington, A; Hermle, L; et al
Right hemisphere involvement in mescaline-induced psychosis. First International Symposium: Imaging the brain in psychiatry and related fields (1988, Wurzburg, Federal Republic of Germany).
Psychiatry Research; 1989 Sep Vol 29(3) 335-336
In 6 healthy adult men, ingestion of mescaline sulfate led to a florid psychedelic experience and changes in hemispheric dynamic balance, as assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and a face/nonface decision task in a visual half-field. Mescaline seems to selectively increase neuronal activity, especially in the striatolimbic system of the right hemisphere (as in schizophrenia).
SHULGIN AT.
THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT: A resource manual of the current status of the federal drug laws.
383 pp. published in Lafayette, California 94549 April 1988. 154 (1988.)
SHULGIN AT
THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT: A resource manual of the current status of the federal drug laws.
383 pp. published in Lafayette, California 94549 April 1988. (1988) [#154]
[No Abstract]
The Controlled Substance Act: A Resource Manual of the Current Status of the Federal Drug Laws. Alexander T. Shulgin. April 1, 1988. photocopy of original privately-printed spiral-bound edition. (velobound with "Psychotropic Drugs and Related Compounds".383 pages. [box v1]
| The Entheogen Law Reporter Issue No. Eight - Fall 1995 pp.70-80:
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| The Entheogen Law Reporter Issue No. One - Winter 1993 pp.1-6:
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| The Entheogen Law Reporter Issue No. Two - Spring 1994 pp.7-15:
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| Federal Anti-Drug Laws May Violate Commerce Clause excerpt from: The Entheogen Law Reporter - Issue Eight, Fall 1995, Page 72 |
| The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 is the law that established the federal scheduling system for "narcotic" or "dangerous drugs. In enacting the federal law, Congress asserted that it was acting entirely within its power to regulate interstate commerce. (See TELR #6, page 57 for a verbatim quote from the Act itself explaining Congress' weak reasoning in this regard.) Previous legal attacks aimed at showing that the federal drugs law was not authorized by the Commerce Clause have all been rejected under Supreme Court precedent which has historically permitted Congress broad powers in this area [1]. However, [...] "the law" is ever changing and presents few bright lines. A new case can entirely dismantle decades of line-drawing and statutory or constitutional interpretation. Just such a case was recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, calling into question the constitutionality of the federal anti-drug law. In United States v. Lopez[2], decided on April 26, 1995, the Supreme Court struck down the federal law which made it a crime to possess a gun within 1000 feet of a school [3].This was the Supreme Court directly telling the Congress that it had overstepped it's powers. The gun law, said the Court, was only tangentially related to interstate commerce and, hence, would not be justified under the Commerce Clause. Interstate commerce, found the Court, was not "substantially affected" by someone possessing a gun near a school. Commenting on the Lopez decision, constitutional law scholar, Erwin Chemerinsky, recently questioned whether many federal drug laws might be vulnerable to a renewed attack on the ground that they do not fall withing the Commerce Clause and, hence, are outside Congress' regulatory power. Discussing the potential wide-spread ramifications of Lopez, Professor Chemerinsky explained: The majority's narrow definition of Congress' powers gives the Court a basis for striking down countless federal laws. For example, many federal drug laws might be vulnerable because they regulate activities that are only tangentially related to interstate commerce. Likewise Lopez can be used to challenge federal RICO prosecutions where there is not a strong relationship between the activity and interstate commerce.... The Lopez decision opens a door to constitutional challenges that appeared to have been closed almost 60 years ago. [4] Notes: [1] In a 1964 opinion, the Court stated, "the authority of Congress to keep the channels of interstate commerce free from immoral and injurious uses had been frequently sustained, and is no longer open to question." Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S. (1964) 379 U.S.241,256[85 S.Ct.348,13,L.Ed.2d 258].) [2]U.S. v Lopez (1995) 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 636. [3]Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990; 18 U.S.C. sec 992(q)(1)(a) & 921(a)(25). [4]Chemerinsky, E. "Interpreting the Constitution: A Dramatic Conservative Turn" in August 9-16, 1995 Res Ipsa 11. |
| Sacred Mushrooms And The Law by Richard Glen Boire, Esq. Spectral Mindustries - Dossier Series TABLE OF CONTENTS
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