Rhode Island Church Fighting State to Use Marijuana for Religious Purposes

The legitimacy of a Rhode Island church is questioned as it attempts to claim that it has the right to use marijuana for religious reasons. Healing Church is co-founded by Anne Armstrong, who was arrested along with church member Alan Gordon for growing marijuana.

While searching Gordon’s residence, 12 pounds of marijuana and 10 pounds of hash oil were found by police The Daily Beast reports. The police also counted 57 marijuana plants. The operation was considered to be a “large marijuana cultivation operation.” Both church members received charges of marijuana possession and intent to deliver and manufacture.

Both were held in jail for two weeks but are now back at home. The pair is now preparing to represent themselves in court. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects their freedom to grown and use marijuana, and it is their chief argument.

In order to win their case, a potentially historic case, a judge would have to agree that the Controlled Substances Act is an “undue burden on their religious freedom.” Armstrong said, “My religion is cannabis. They’re not carding people coming to get wine if they’re not 21. Why would they interfere with our adult communion of God, when it’s proven to be safer?”

The belief of The Healing Church is that marijuana is the giver of life. The church is only one year old. The followers of this church believe that marijuana is holy.

At a demonstration in 2015, a church follower said, “We’re supposed to have religious freedom. We believe that this was in the Bible and we need to do this as a sacrifice.”

Armstrong and Gordon have completed a 37-page document, A Bible Full of Cannabis, which will be submitted as evidence in support of their argument. According to Armstrong, a recipe in Exodus 30:23 for “holy anointing oil” contains cannabis.

In the 37-page document, it states, “As St. John prophesied, the Tree of Life would one day grow in cities with glass streets and glowing multi-colored gems. This sounds startlingly like an ancient mystic’s frantic attempt to describe his vision of a future greenhouse supplemented by LED grow lights, in the era before glass windows or electricity by which he could have understood what he saw.”

Armstrong and Gordon also filed a lawsuit citing religious discrimination, which was dismissed in December. Their hearing regarding their right to use marijuana for religious reasons will be heard sometime this fall by a Rhode Island judge.