The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.
Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision.
The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies. - nytimes.com
More Reasons To Reduce P
A recent study of 19,000 men in Los Angles showed that new H.I.V. infections were three times higher among methamphetamine users than among nonusers. Further, drug abuse experts and some law enforcement officials in New York say they fear that the drug could follow the trajectory of another stimulant that spread violent crime, death and the dissolution of communities across New York City a generation ago: crack cocaine.
Dr. Richard Rawson, a researcher at University of California, Los Angeles, who has been studying the drug for two decades. says the appeal of meth is even greater than crack: methamphetamine, which can be smoked, snorted or injected, is just as cheap but packs a more potent and prolonged high. And unlike crack cocaine, whose raw materials are imported from South America, methamphetamine can be made locally from widely available ingredients. - nytimes.com
Did You Know?
35% of born-again Christians in America have divorced, almost the same as the 37% of agnostics and atheists who have divorced - and 23% of born-again Christians have divorced twice. Among Pentecostals the divorce rate is more than 40%. And the region with the highest is the Bible Belt.
Perhaps it should be called the Intolerance Belt.
The Latest Thing In Porn
"In some of our martial arts adult videos, the female stars don't even take their clothes off and there are no climax scenes. What you do get, though, is big girls using all their might to pound little guys, put them into strangleholds and generally beat them, which provides all the excitement masochistic men need to find sexual satisfaction."
We don't get it off, you do? Sounds like a more fun sort of role than Bimbo #2.
Reading: - Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
Just Read: - Every Breath You Take - Ann Rule
"new H.I.V. infections were three times higher among methamphetamine users than among nonusers"
I think you could well have a cause/effect inversion there. People who use meth are highly likely to be the sort of reckless individuals who might indulge in unprotected sex or intravenous drug abuse. I'm no expert, but I'd suggest that smoking meth, while by no means a good idea, is unlikely to cause HIV infection.