The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) regulates manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of substances deemed harmful or liable for potential abuse, on a five-degree scale or ‘Schedule’.
In 1993, the United States Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) recognizing that the religious freedom of certain pre-conquest indigenous peoples is limited by criminalizing of psychoactive plants used as a sacrament in their rituals and has particular relevance to the Native American Church (NAC) and its peyote sacrament. To qualify for this exemption, a candidate must demonstrate ethnic purity.
In 2006, the United States Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower court of New Mexico which restricted the access of the Centro Espirita Beneficente União do Vegetal (UDV Church) to hoasca tea or ayahuasca—a psychoactive sacrament combining two Amazonian plants, usually Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. The Church of Santo Daime has the same sacrament so supported the UDV in its appeal.
Prohibition Poster
The Controlled Substances Act has proven largely unenforceable and stimulated the growth of organized crime—much as Prohibition did.