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 b0red5tiff
i deliver the news
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 9,070
Loc: \m/
Last seen: 44 seconds
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 Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use
#7474268 - 10/01/07 02:31 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19124
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled against a Big Island man who claimed he had to smoke marijuana to practice his religion in what he called the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry.
The court decided in State of Hawaii v. Sunderland that Joseph Sunderland's freedom of religion didn't give him the right to smoke marijuana, but it didn't rule on whether Hawaii's strong privacy protections would have shielded him.
"The law prohibiting possession of marijuana ... applies to everyone," similar to traffic laws, said prosecuting attorney Janet Garcia. "Otherwise, you could have someone who says, 'My religious belief is that I shouldn't have to stop at a stop sign.'"
One justice, however, argued in a dissenting opinion that privacy rights guaranteed by the Hawaii Constitution should allow people to smoke marijuana in their homes.
Justice Steven Levinson wrote in a dissent to the court's split Sept. 21 decision that the framers of Hawaii's constitution intended to limit criminal punishment to cases where people are harmed.
"The issue is whether ... a fundamental right to privacy ... constrains the state from criminalizing mere possession of marijuana for personal use. My thesis is that it does," Levinson wrote in his dissent.
The case started when a Big Island police officer spotted a six-inch pipe on Sunderland's kitchen table in 2003 while the officer was looking for a missing child.
Sunderland told the officer the pipe was his, and he had a right to use it to exercise his religious beliefs. In fact, he said he had smoked marijuana from the pipe that morning.
He showed the officer a card indicating his membership in a religious organization called the "Cannabis Ministry," and he told the officer he had been practicing his religion since he was 16 years old.
Sunderland was charged with promoting a detrimental drug in the third degree for possession of the pipe and the marijuana residue inside.
"I believe that God put the holy herb onto this earth to help mankind to better understand him," Sunderland testified at trial.
He was found guilty and ordered to pay $175 in fines and fees.
His attorney, public defender Deborah Kim, said she would ask the Hawaii Supreme Court to reconsider the privacy issue.
"The court has ducked the question of whether the right to privacy prevents the police from enforcing marijuana laws when someone is using marijuana in their home for religious purposes," Kim said. "The question is still very much open."
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there is no pill, piece, puzzle, solution
pulse, reaction, inhilation, exhale, gag
fall out, retarding, pussyhole theory
you fucking dumb fuck
Get killed
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 Quake3
Total Carbohydrate
Registered: 08/31/06
Posts: 869
Loc: Relatively New York
Last seen: 20 days, 10 hours
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: b0red5tiff]
#7474390 - 10/01/07 03:04 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
"The law prohibiting possession of marijuana ... applies to everyone," similar to traffic laws, said prosecuting attorney Janet Garcia. "Otherwise, you could have someone who says, 'My religious belief is that I shouldn't have to stop at a stop sign.'"
You wouldn't have to stop at a stop sign if the stop sign is in your house, would you? Not stopping at a stop sign endangers other people. I don't see how this applies to smoking Cannabis in private. I understand that some people believe being high in public might be a problem, but I don't see how they can justify not letting him light up in his home.
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SunshineDaydream
walkin in the tall trees
Registered: 06/03/06
Posts: 551
Last seen: 19 hours, 37 minutes
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: Quake3]
#7474516 - 10/01/07 03:48 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Quake3 said:
Quote:
"The law prohibiting possession of marijuana ... applies to everyone," similar to traffic laws, said prosecuting attorney Janet Garcia. "Otherwise, you could have someone who says, 'My religious belief is that I shouldn't have to stop at a stop sign.'"
You wouldn't have to stop at a stop sign if the stop sign is in your house, would you? Not stopping at a stop sign endangers other people. I don't see how this applies to smoking Cannabis in private. I understand that some people believe being high in public might be a problem, but I don't see how they can justify not letting him light up in his home.
my thoughts, exactly.
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 myspace
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 16,759
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 1 hour, 33 minutes
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: SunshineDaydream]
#7474791 - 10/01/07 05:37 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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> I understand that some people believe being high in public might be a problem
Even then, why not worry about it on an individual basis should it become a problem. There are already laws against public intoxication, so this is really a non-issue.
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Just another spore in the wind.
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a_guy_named_ai
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 750
Last seen: 5 months, 21 days
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: Seuss]
#7475966 - 10/01/07 11:38 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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I wonder what they would think of my religious reasoning to use cannabis. (from my sig. from another forum):
Quote:
"29Then God said, ".. I have given you every plant yielding seed ..., and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; ....30and to every beast of the earth ..,I have given every green plant for food";... "
It's a plant
It grows in the ground
It's green
it has seed
When man's law and God's law contradict, Gods law prevails. Man is judging God's law. Thank God for cannabis.
How do you think it would turn out in the high court? Maybe I should start a thread about this?
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ShroomieGirl
Doh!
Registered: 05/29/07
Posts: 1,373
Last seen: 11 hours, 3 minutes
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: Quake3]
#7475977 - 10/01/07 11:41 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Quake3 said:
You wouldn't have to stop at a stop sign if the stop sign is in your house, would you? Not stopping at a stop sign endangers other people. I don't see how this applies to smoking Cannabis in private. I understand that some people believe being high in public might be a problem, but I don't see how they can justify not letting him light up in his home.
People just dont undertand about pot... they all think its some awful drug that turns you into a disease upon society, or something to be feared... I think everyone should try it once, and we all might get along much much better
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I'm ok, really.
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justin_thyme
tool
Registered: 02/28/07
Posts: 1,295
Loc: OUt partying you
Last seen: 6 hours, 44 minutes
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: ShroomieGirl]
#7489569 - 10/05/07 07:04 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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Here's his defense:
The Volstead Act
During Prohibition, wine was treated a little differently than other types of alcohol, it was as if a bottle of Cabernet slipped the government a twenty and winked in a way that meant, “shh…keep a cork on it.” This was due to the Volstead Act. Passed in the year before Prohibition began, it gave federal agents the ability to investigate and prosecute anyone caught in violation of Prohibition’s liquor laws. However, wines used for sacramental purposes were exempt under this act, allowing wine to slip through the cracks where beer was too thick to seep.
Because of this act, limited amounts of wine were able to be made both at home and in wineries. Yet, those made in wineries were only available for purchase through warehouses owned and monitored by the government. Wine was also only allowed to be purchased for use in religious ceremonies, particularly mass. However, these rules didn’t keep wine drinkers from only using wine for legal purposes: a conceptual “wine opener”, the Volstead Act provided a window of opportunity; one drinkers were quick to go through.
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We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Pandora
Mistress
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Hawai'i
Last seen: 13 days, 6 hours
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Re: Hawaii high court snuffs out man's religious arguments for pot use [Re: justin_thyme]
#7491650 - 10/06/07 02:41 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
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They arrest this man for doing something in his own home, yet I know of several places where Ice is smoked in public... Hawaii is so corrupt - Beautiful, but I guarantee he doesn't have anyone in his family associated with the police. I know I'm on a soap box, but I thought leaving Cali would add freedom - not take it away.
My tirade is over.
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them" - Joseph Brodsky
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