US top court allows religious hallucinogenic tea

U.S. followers of a small Brazilian-based religion can import and use hallucinogenic tea in their ceremonies, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a case pitting religious freedom against federal drug laws.

The top court in an opinion written by new Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the U.S. government’s effort to stop the importation and use of sacramental hoasca tea by the New Mexican branch of the religion called O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal.

The justices upheld a U.S. appeals court ruling that the government must allow the use of the herbal hoasca tea as part of a spiritual practice because of a 1993 religious freedom law.

Members of the religion believe the tea is sacred and that it helps connects them to God. The brewed tea, made from two plants that grow in the Amazon, contains dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a controlled substance banned under federal drug laws.

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