In this episode of Psychedelica Lex, I offer a short summary review of the 11th Circuit Court’s dismissal of Soul Quest v. DEA.
The start of December brought middling news from the 11th circuit, as Soul Quest’s pursuit of religious exemption and change in Drug Enforcement Administration policy toward religious use hit a legal snag that resulted in dismissal of soul quest’s case, not on the merits but on a procedural technicality. Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth is a church located in Orange County, Florida. The church has been distributing a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca, which contains dimethyltryptamine, a Schedule 1 drug, for religious purposes. The church applied for a religious exemption from the Drug Enforcement Administration to be able to distribute it legally, but the Drug Enforcement Administration denied that request in 2021. Soul Quest then challenged that denial in federal court by seeking a declaratory judgment, but a judge dismissed that challenge.
Despite not having the Drug Enforcement Administration exemption, Soul Quest has continued to host weekend retreats, including one that’s the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit. The Drug Enforcement Administration says that the church has been distributing the psychedelic tea illegally for six years.
In the December 2023 ruling in Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth Inc. v. Acting Administrator U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit held that the United States District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the Drug Enforcement Administration’s denial of a church’s petition for a religious exemption from the Controlled Substances Act.
The Controlled Substances Act’s control and enforcement subchapter prohibits the unauthorized handling of the controlled substances identified in the statute. For individuals and organizations who wish to handle controlled substances for religious purposes, the Controlled Substances Act conflicts with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibits a federal agency like the Drug Enforcement Administration from burdening an individual’s free exercise of sincerely-held religious beliefs unless the agency can show that the burden advances a compelling governmental interest and is carried out with the least restrictive means.
The Controlled Substances Act is a federal U.S. Drug policy that regulates the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, anabolic steroids, and other chemicals. It was passed by the 91st United States Congress as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 and signed into law by president Richard Nixon on October 27, 1970.
The Controlled Substances Act established a classification system with five schedules to identify drugs based on their potential for abuse, their applications in medicine, and their likelihood of producing dependence. The drug enforcement administration implements the Controlled Substances Act and is empowered to prosecute violators of these laws. Schedule 1 drugs are substances with no legitimate medical use. They include LSD, heroin, and cannabis. Schedule 2 drugs, among them cocaine, opium, and morphine, have legitimate medical uses but are considered to have a high potential for abuse. Schedule 3, 4, and 5 drugs all have legitimate medical uses but with decreasing potential for abuse. The Controlled Substances Act also established a mechanism that allows substances to be added to or transferred between schedules (controlled) or removed from control. Proceedings to delete, add, or alter the schedule of a drug may be initiated by the drug enforcement administration or the department of health and human services or by petition from interested parties, including drug manufacturers, medical societies or associations, local or state government agencies, public interest groups, pharmacy associations, or individual citizens. The Comprehensive Act of 1970 made it possible for the United States to satisfy the obligations set forth by international drug-control treaties. The Act remains the primary legislation for drug control in the United States.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a federal law that was enacted by the United States congress in 1993 to protect the free exercise of religion. The law was passed in response to the United States supreme court’s 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, which held that “neutral laws of general applicability” that burden the free exercise of religion do not violate the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires that strict scrutiny be applied to any law that burdens religious freedom, providing that such a law may only be justified if it is the least restrictive means of pursuing a compelling government interest. While the Religious Freedom Restoration Act initially applied to both state and federal laws, its application to state governments was held unconstitutional by the supreme court in The City of Boerne v. Flores decision in 1997, which ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is not a proper exercise of Congress’s enforcement power. However, it continues to be applied to the federal government—for instance, in Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do vegetal (2006) and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014).
Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth identifies as a spiritual learning and healing center focused on providing the community with service, education, spiritual fellowship, healing practices, and guidance. Per Soul Quest’s literature, they believe in the rights of Mother Earth and in protecting the practice of Mother Earth-based South Native American spiritual traditions ceremonies and sacred indigenous natural medicines. Soul Quest offers ceremonial ayahuasca retreats for healing and personal evolution with one of the most powerful shamanic medicines on the planet.
You can watch the episode HERE.