The California Supreme Court will hear the case of a closed cannabis church that wants to reopen

Cannabis-Related Church That Was Forced To Close Takes Its Fight To The Supreme Court Of California

(RNS) — The county of San Bernardino in Southern California shut down a cannabis church because it was running an illegal dispensary. The church is now suing the highest court in the state to get back open, saying that it uses cannabis for spiritual healing.

On Thursday, October 20, after a lower court rejected the case, attorney Matthew Pappas petitioned the California Supreme Court on behalf of April Elizabeth Mancini, a church pastor.

According to Pappas, “Religious liberties are vital and they are crucial to the followers of that church.” “I’m not certain that the California Supreme Court will reach a final decision. In my opinion, we may have to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

The Jah Healing Kemetic Temple of the Divine Church, which says it is Christian and has its main location in Big Bear, California, “believes that the fragrant cane mentioned in Exodus 30:22 is cannabis,” according to the petition.

The place of worship is a member of the Sacramental Life Churches, a group with an ecclesiastical form of administration run by a board of ministers. The petition says that it had a main place of worship, ordained pastors, regular Sunday services, “a certain way of practicing religion,” books about its ideas, and large amounts of scripture.

According to local press accounts, the history of the church has not been smooth.

The Divine Church’s Jah Healing Kemetic Temple is located in Big Bear, California.

According to The San Bernardino Sun, a code enforcement official “observed a sales room within the church” and issued it a notice of violation and ticket at a prior site. After locals raised concerns about its current location, it was also searched by San Bernardino sheriff’s officials. According to the news agency, police discovered jars filled with marijuana and candies and beverages that had been flavored with the drug.

The church was sued by the county in 2018 and closed down as a result of a judge’s permanent injunction ruling in 2020.

In contrast, the petition claims that the county “has constantly and routinely surveilled, entered-into, and interfered with the JAH church, resulting in the church’s shutdown.” The petition claims that the county has never had an issue with churches that bless wine or ayahuasca as sacraments.

Even though church members can use and have cannabis for religious reasons, the petition says that the church “could not deliver sanctified cannabis sacrament to its members even as part of its rites and ceremonies.”

And on September 13, an appeal panel found, in accordance with the petition, that the county’s actions had not “substantially burdened” the church’s freedom to practice its religion.

Pappas, in the petition, said that hundreds of Jah Healing Kemetic members have been displaced and have nowhere to worship. He also said that thousands of members of the Sacramental Life Churches were displaced when 11 of its branches closed after Mancini was ordered to serve jail time.