DRUG SUSPECT SAYS EVIDENCE WAS FOR RELIGIOUS STUDY

The bitter-tasting, rust-colored tea brewed from jungle vines and leaves is
part purgative, part hallucinogen. Administered by South American shamans,
it is believed to heal the sick, bring contact with spirits and divine the
future --- amid frantic trips to the bathroom.

To Alan Thomas Shoemaker, he says it's part of a religious ritual that's
been used for centuries by Amazon Indians as a way to commune with their god.

But federal prosecutors in Atlanta view it quite differently. While the tea
may be used in sacred ceremonies, it also contains the hallucinogen DMT, an
illegal controlled substance. And because Shoemaker imported the vines and
leaves into Atlanta, he is now under indictment for illegal drug
importation and possession.

Shoemaker and his son were charged in April, a year after U.S. Customs
officials at Hartsfield International Airport came across three crates of
the vines and leaves aboard a flight from Peru. Shoemaker, his lawyer said,
wanted to use the tea in religious ceremonies in the United States.

Shoemaker, 49, is free on $50,000 bond and living with relatives in
Elizabethton, Tenn., where an electronic monitoring device lets authorities
know his whereabouts. If convicted, he faces 20 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors recently dismissed all charges against his son in exchange for
his cooperation.

A federal judge is expected to rule soon on motions to dismiss the charges
against Shoemaker. His lawyer argues Congress never intended the jungle
vines and leaves to be illegal.

Shoemaker moved to South America 10 years ago to study shaman folklore and
healing. He considers home to be Iquitos, Peru, a jungle city 600 miles
northeast of Lima and accessible only by airplane or riverboat. He's run an
art gallery and a tourist business, taking groups to Machu Pichu and into
the jungle.

When asked in a brief telephone interview whether he considers himself a
shaman, Shoemaker said he does not. "A lot of people tell me I am," he
said. "But I am forever a student."

In Peru, Shoemaker became a member of a religious order with a combination
of Amazon Indian, Catholic and African tribal beliefs. Its members drink a
sacred tea made by brewing the jungle vine ayahuasca (pronounced
eye-yuh-WAHS-cuh) with huambisa (wahm-BE-suh) leaves.

Ingesting the tea causes LSD-like hallucinations as well as heavy vomiting
and diarrhea, said to be a means of spiritual purification.

A California businessman who runs a company based on the pharmaceutical and
cosmetic potential of plants obtained a patent in 1986 for ayahuasca, which
means "vine of the soul." But three years ago, tribal shamans from the
Amazon region traveled to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,
successfully petitioning it to revoke the patent. They likened it to
patenting the Christian cross.

In recent years, ayahuasca tea has been used in religious ceremonies in
Santa Fe, N.M., by a sect known as the "Union of the Vegetable." Although
no criminal charges have been filed, federal authorities seized jungle
vines and leaves from the church. But in August, a federal judge ruled that
the church members' rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were
being violated by federal authorities and ordered the tea returned.

The only prosecution of illegal possession of the jungle vines and leaves
occurred in 1990 in Boston, where a religious leader was acquitted of all
charges.

Shoemaker's legal troubles began in January 2001 when he shipped three
crates of the jungle vines and leaves to his son in Clarkston.

Shoemaker's lawyer, Page Pate of Atlanta, said his client planned to use
the tea solely in religious ceremonies.

"This is an unwarranted extension of the so-called war on drugs to a
substance that has no use as a recreational drug and doesn't pose any real
threat or danger to American society," Pate said. "Government resources
could be best used elsewhere."

U.S. Attorney Bill Duffey stands by the charges.

"This is a very dangerous hallucinogen," he said. "We will do whatever we
can to keep it out of our district and prosecute anyone who tries to bring
it in."

David Nichols, a professor of molecular pharmacology at Purdue University,
said he thinks law enforcement views such matters too narrowly through a
"Judeo-Christian lens."

"In my opinion, if someone is sincere in his religious beliefs and using it
for that reason, I don't think the government should be interfering with
their right to do that," said Nichols, who has testified before Congress on
the dangers of other hallucinogic drugs. "If they're using it as a cover to
get high, that's another thing."

Ayahuasca tea has no commercial value, Nichols added. "I just don't think
there are that many people who would want to take this stuff," he said. "It
really makes you sick."

In the court motions pending in Atlanta, a U.S. magistrate is being asked
to dismiss the charges against Shoemaker.

The motions contend that Congress intended to outlaw only man-made DMT, not
the tea made by brewing jungle vines and leaves. Otherwise, the Controlled
Substances Act would have banned the vines and leaves with DMT, just as it
bans coca leaves along with cocaine, the motions said.

But federal prosecutors counter that DMT is a powerful hallucinogen
substance with a high potential for abuse and say the Controlled Substances
Act applies to it. They note that while the act lists synthetically made
psilocybin to be unlawful, there have been successful prosecutions of
hallucinogenic mushrooms that contain the chemical, even though they are
not specifically listed.