Tag: Dan and Mary Quaintance

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.

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.