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Owners of medical marijuana or medical cannabis collectives, dispensaries, or cooperatives gain advantages by hiring medical marijuana ministers or medical cannabis ministers, as well as current employees and workers becoming medical marijuana ministers or medical cannabis ministers.

The biggest advantage is that if the workers are legally protected from imprisonment, they have very little incentive to testify against the owners (and may even have a legitimate religious privilege allowing them to refuse to testify).

The classic law enforcement model is to arrest the “little fish” and then make a deal to get them to testify against the “big fish”.

Workers at medical marijuana and medical cannabis collectives, dispensaries, and cooperatives may protect themselves from imprisonment by the U.S. government by being medical cannabis ministers (or medical marijuana ministers).

This legal protection from inprisonment is easiest applied to the DEA and other federal agencies because of explicit Congressional law (RFRA) and related Supreme Court ayahuasca decision. A skilled lawyer should also be able to mount a religious defense in California state courts using the 1964 and 1965 peyote cases. The federal government recently used the federal Religious Land Use and Institutalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) to block the use of local zoning laws that interferred with religious beliefs.

Courts have upheld the right of Native Americans to use the hallucinogenic plant peyote in religious rituals, e.g., State v. Whittington, 19 Ariz. App. 27, 504 P.2d 950 (1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 946, 94 S.Ct. 3071 (1974); People v. Woody, 61 Cal.2d 716, 394 P.2d 813, 40 Cal. Rptr. 69 (1964); Whitehorn v. State, 561 P.2d 539 (0kl. Crim. App. 1977); contra State v. Big Sheep, 75 Mont. 219, 243 P. 1067 (1926); State v. Soto, 21 Or. App. 794, 537 P.2d 142 (1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 955, 96 S.Ct. 1431 (1976).

Los Angeles, California, is currently sending out eight man teams of undercover narcotics agents, backed by SWAT and other police officers, to arrest owners and workers at medical marijuana collectives, dispensaries, and cooperatives.

Ministers (including medical marijuana ministers and medical cannabis ministers) have a religious right to refuse to betray religious confidences to authorities such as law enforcement, prosecutors, and even judges. Some places may have legal limits on this right.

Even a public defender should be able to assert a medical marijuana minister’s and medical cannabis minister’s rights to practice a medical marijuana ministry or medical cannabis ministry. Combined with the right to keep religious confidences, the medical marijuana minister or medical cannabis minister has little incentive to participate in a wrongful prosecution of the owner of a medical marijuana collective, dispensary, or cooperative.

Ministers can legally be paid less than the minimum wage for religious ministry work. A living wage is recommended, but an owner is not bound by that recommendation.

Having a minister or several ministers on the payroll handling the distribution of medical marijuana or medical cannabis for religious purposes (possibly collecting donations) helps establish a non-profit atmosphere. A strong non-profit atmosphere may discourage federal, state, or local law enforcement from investigations and arrests (this is not guaranteed).

The owner of a medical marijuana collective, dispensary, or cooperative can easily become a high priest or high priestess in the Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) religion because this was traditionally a position more involved in running operations than conducting religious services.

A medical marijauan collective, dispensary, or cooperative can be organized as a church, gaining stronger legal protection. The Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) religion has a long well-established record of welcoming persons from all religions without any requirements to convert and even going so far as to incorporate ideas, beliefs, and deities from other religions.

Further, being organized as a church clearly shows in court that local zoning laws forbidding medical marijuana dispensaries, collectives, and cooperatives from being close to churches are not religion neutral (and therefore unconstitutional), especially as that kind of zoning law regulates what religious activities a non-Christian church is allowed. The case of unconstitutional religious interference becomes even stronger in cities that have officially posted “In God We Trust” in their city council meeting rooms, as the ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) religion includes Goddess, which they have specifically discirminated against with their official acts..

The accompanying blog provides almost daily information on honing and improving the quality of a religious medical marijuana ministry.

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The courts have already ruled in multiple cases that a person who starts preparing a religious defense (including gathering certificates and other paperwork) after arrest loses all chance to use the late religious defense. It is essential that you prepare your defense before you are arrested. Adequate preparation may even prevent arrest.

This website is concerned with religious matters and only obliquely discusses the law. I strongly recommend that medical marijuana ministers rely on a high quality lawyer.

I (Milo) use my own religion as an example, because this is the religion I know well. I strongly urge people to get together with their lawyer and prepare a similar discussion for their own religion. Again, my religion is only an example.

Good news: Many people over the years have successfully used Pr Ntr Kmt religious cannabis certificates. The author of this website has personally several times over more than a decade shown various police Pr Ntr Kmt documentation and the police have politely returned the religious cannabis. There are at least two Pr Ntr Kmt cannabis ministers who have been released after the police discovered several pounds of religious cannabis (although the police kept the cannabis). There are numerous real world successes.

Reality: If the government decides it wants to “get you”, then your only chance is if you can afford a really, really good lawyer.

The rights you heard about in grade school only apply if you can afford a great lawyer. Public defenders are under-budgeted and only want to process paperwork for plea bargains. They simply don’t have the time or money for trials.

We don’t want to discourage anyone from worshiping with cannabis, but we do want to strongly warn everyone that you have a significant risk of long term imprisonment or worse, especially outside of major industrialized nations.

Please act responsibly. Please hire a lawyer if you can possibly afford to do so.

These web pages contain religious advice. These web pages are not professional legal or medical advice. Nothing on this website should be considered as a substitute or replacement for professional medical, health, or legal advice. All persons should seek the advice of qualified medical, health, or legal providers.

If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please contact Milo at PO Box 1361, Tustin, Calif, 92781, USA.


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