Category: Church of Cognizance

Church of Cognizance founders can’t escape drug charges

Church of Cognizance Dan and Mary Quaintance in 1991 founded the Church of Cognizance, organized around the principle that marijuana is a deity and a sacrament.

A federal district court in New Mexico found that the couple’s beliefs were not religious and added that they failed to show that those beliefs were sincerely held.

On appeal, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 19 affirmed the denial of the couple’s RFRA defense in United States v. Quaintance.

Judge Rejects Religious Defense for Marijuana Use

Cannabis A man isn’t entitled to use Arizona’s religious-freedom law to overturn his conviction for possessing marijuana while driving, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The unanimous ruling rejected Danny Ray Hardesty‘s argument that he was entitled to use the same defense allowed for peyote use in Native American sacramental rites.

Hardesty said he belonged to a church whose main religious sacrament is allowing individual families to establish their own modes of worship.

“Hardesty’s mode was to smoke and eat marijuana without limit as to time or place,” the court opinion noted.

Arizona Supreme Court to decide whether there is a religious right to use marijuana

Church of Cognizance Without comment, the justices agreed to hear Daniel Hardesty’s argument that the First Amendment protections of free exercise of religion entitle him to use marijuana as a “sacrament” of his church. Both a trial judge and the state Court of Appeals rejected those arguments.

If the high court decides otherwise, it would be the first time in Arizona that judges have concluded there is a legal defense for those who use marijuana.

Plea could send founders of Marijuana church to prison

Church of Cognizance The founders of an Arizona church that deifies marijuana have pleaded guilty to two criminal charges and are now each facing up to 20 years in prison.

But Dan and Mary Quaintance , founders of the Church of Cognizance, remain confident that they will not end up behind bars.

Dan Quaintance believes freedom of religion will prevail, and predicts the case could go as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arizona Ruling: No religious right to marijuana

Cannabis There is no religious right in Arizona to possess marijuana, the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, saying freedom of religion is not the same as freedom of action.

The judges rejected arguments that the First Amendment protections of free exercise of religion entitle an Arizona resident, Daniel Hardesty, to use marijuana as a “sacrament” of his church.