So much for my rant on Ayahuasca. Why bother with an obscure south American drug when you can build your church around weed?

That's the question being decided in LA, after the cops busted Temple 420, a church that claims cannabis as its central sacrament. Well... really? According to the LA Daily News...

"They were trying to set it up under the guise of a religious right and then be able to sidestep marijuana laws," [LAPD spokesperson Kevin] Maiberger said. "The deal was for a $100 initiation fee and $100 annual fee, you could buy all the pot you wanted for quote-unquote `religious purpose.'That's bull----."

Rubin, however, continues to distribute marijuana six days a week to the temple's members - there are more than 400 who have paid the initiation and annual dues - for a "requested donation" of $60 for an eighth of an ounce.

He continues to burn marijuana as a sacrament at Friday night services and preaches on the weekends - Old Testament on Saturdays, New Testament on Sundays, always at 4:20.

Sounds fishy, no? But the Rev. Craig X Rubin is making a case in court that his beliefs are protected, the same way that peyote cults and OCentro (which sacralizes Ahayuasca) are protected.

While undergoing a family crisis three years ago, Rubin began studying the Bible and, he claims, God revealed to him cannabis' status as the tree of life.

Last year, after the Supreme Court ruled on O Centro, Rubin reasoned he could openly practice his new beliefs, which he describes as "Judeo-Christian" and "Bible based."

In August, Scott Linden, a Pasadena attorney who has helped open several medical-marijuana dispensaries in the San Fernando Valley, filed paperwork with the Secretary of State's Office that registered Temple 420 as a religious corporation.

Sound far fetched? Maybe. Maybe not.


Last year, the Jewish Press published a piece by Rabbi Michael Paley, a acquaintance of mine and an executive director of the UJA-Federation of New York. He had this to say on the subject of marijuana:

One further note, perhaps best left for the linguists: Among the ingredients of the anointing oil found in Exodus (30: 23) is one called k’nei-bosem, usually translated as “sweet calamus.” Calamus is an aromatic plant, which Rashi translates literally as a “reed of spice.” Take away the final mem, run the two words together, and you’ve got something that sounds like “cannabis.” Coincidence?

A new frontier for medical marijuana??