Hey Shroomery!
I hope your day is going fantastically fantastic.
Here's an idea. Having psilocybin mushrooms legalized or deregulated by appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada that their prohibition is a direct violation of our fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is copy and pasted from the charter.
Fundamental freedoms
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
Personally, magic mushrooms have changed my life more intimately than anything else. The lessons I've learned from mushrooms have been instrumental in making me who I am. I used to be suicidal and medicated for major depressive disorder. I didn't understand that every single human is in this life together and that we are deeply connected with each other. I especially thought there was a fundamental divide between men and women in the way they experience this life. I used to torture myself mentally, not understanding that I needed to friends with myself. It was only after my first experiences with these incredible organisms that changes started to take place in my psyche. I switched my major from business to biology, started taking courses in Buddhism, and took up daily meditation. Ingestion of these mushrooms is a very personal thing for me that I do not take lightly. It is instrumental in the practice of my spirituality.
It is my belief that the prohibition of psilocybin violates my fundamental rights as a Canadian citizen. The fact that government officials can have me locked up in a cage for this practice is, in my opinion unconstituational. I think it violates my freedoms of conscience and thought. It could be argued that it also violates my freedom of religion, though there is no recognized religion that utilizes mushrooms in Canada.
The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in article 18 that "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this includes the freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." Though this document is not legally binding, Canada has signed it. The protection of practice and observance in particular are what I would site as support for striking down prohibition.
Using this site you can search through complete archives of the Supreme Court and find cases using keywords. I've searched for pretty much every keyword I could think of relating to psilocybin mushrooms. All I've found is one where someone argued that they were innocent because they had mushrooms and only psilocybin is illegal. And others trying to have evidence in drug raids thrown out because it was obtained unconstitutionally.
I couldn't find a case where someone argued they should be allowed to use any drug because of spiritual reasons.
http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/en/nav.do See if you can find anything.
Let me know what you think. I'm not a lawyer and I don't know the inner workings of the Supreme Court. Nor do I know what exactly is defined as "freedom of conscience" or "thought" in Canadian law. But with my current information, it seems the law stands unquestioned. I think that should change.
Peace
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html
Blog post about the freedom of conscience and religion and international freedoms. http://www.rmcla.ca/blog/?p=252
-------------------- Boots and cats man. It's all just boots and cats.
|