HAMILTON, Ontario (RNS) Two self-styled ministers who say that smoking marijuana is a church sacrament have lost their bid to use and distribute marijuana while they are free on bail and appealing their drug convictions.
Michael Baldasaro, 59, was sentenced to two years, and Walter Tucker, 75, received a one-year sentence, after they were convicted in late 2007 of trafficking marijuana; they sold $70 worth of pot to a plainclothes police officer.
The two men from Hamilton, located 60 miles northwest of Buffalo, N.Y., describe themselves as reverend brothers in the Church of the Universe, where they worship the Tree of Life: marijuana.
The Supreme Court of Canada on April 23 declined to hear their appeal of any restrictions on their religious freedoms. As is its custom, the court did not give a reason for its decision.
The government also seized and sold the church headquarters, a house with an estimated value of $98,000 Cdn ($80,000 U.S.).
The judge who convicted the men dismissed their religious argument, calling their operation “a marijuana convenience store that operates for profit like a Prohibition-era speak-easy, but disguised as a church.”
Baldasaro told the Hamilton Spectator newspaper he and his fellow cleric were undeterred.
“This is not the end of the church, `cause, like when they nailed the Lord to the cross, this is only the beginning,” he said, adding that, like the early Christians, the church will now worship in secret. “We will meet in homes and fields.”
On the church’s Web site, Tucker explained the basis for considering pot a sacrament: “When I want to calm my world, the immediate habitation of my soul, marijuana has a calming influence. And when I want to direct my thoughts internally, it has the ability to allow me to direct my thoughts where I want to without interference from negative forces.”
In 2002, Canada adopted a system to regulate medicinal use of marijuana but despite calls to decriminalize the drug, it continues to be covered by the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
