First-Ever US Religious Cannabis Permit
Issued by National Park Service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Alan Gordon 401-304-6020 judges1412@gmail.com
New England Cannabist Anti-Discrimination Taskforce (NECAT)
Anne Armstrong 401-304-6543 annearmstrongri@gmail.com
The Healing Church
1st May 2015, Providence, Rhode Island -- Across the US, Canada and England today, religious activists known as “Cannabists” are celebrating an apparent legal victory, upon early reports that a US federal religious cannabis use permit has been issued by the National Park Service.
Anne Armstrong of The Healing Church says her Bible instructs her to use the ancient Hebrew plant “Kaneh-Bos” as sacred matter, and on March 25th 2015, she applied for a religious cannabis use gathering permit at the birthplace of US religious freedom, Roger Williams National Memorial, managed by the National Park Service.
After a series of emailed procedural questions from Roger Williams Memorial site manager Jennifer Smith, a permit was issued April 30th 2015 for the gathering, although its terms and conditions seemed to prohibit any otherwise impermissible use of “controlled substances.” End of story? Hardly.
When Armstrong and her co-applicant Alan Gordon (a legal researcher with the New England Cannabist Anti-Discrimination Taskforce, or NECAT) sought clarification, they received a cautiously-worded letter indicating that the normal ban on cannabis was exempted in the circumstances, as protected free expression and religious freedom not even requiring a permit unless it hindered others’ access to Park facilities or caused a public spectacle.
“To be accurate, the permit is just so we can have a sizable gathering, as it has been made clear that mere cannabis use does not require a permit if religious in nature,” says Armstrong, adding “even if we share from a vessel containing the Kaneh-Bos-based Anointing Oil recipe from Exodus 30:23.”
Gordon, a UK law graduate and unconditionally Pardoned Georgia (USA) felon cannabis grower who has used religious cannabis since 1993, says that due to vicious oppression of Cannabists in the past “I was initially much more cautious than Anne about such an overt federal declaration of our Cannabist faith.”
Gordon says this made him overeager to answer the Park Service’s demand for assurances about safe dosage, limits for bystanders, and driving safety. “Anne told me we didn’t even need to answer to those concerns, though, since the Park Service allows Catholic churches to serve wine to 16 and 17 year-old drivers in Grand Canyon National Park, with no government supervision, and not even any internal Church protocols other than the honour system before God,” says Gordon. “She was right.”
Armstrong and Gordon are currently researching under what, if any, conditions, any other State or Federal Government agency could ever again interfere with their Constitutionally-protected religious practices.
Both Armstrong and Gordon have a long history of faith-based activism, both having previously been arrested for religious activity.
Anne Armstrong and Alan Gordon Cannabissing it up,
at Roger Williams this past Palm Sunday
Alan Gordon plants cannabis in front of dozens of police officers, May 01 1997.
May 2nd 1997, The Daily Red and Black, Athens, Georgia.
