POLICE RAID FIRES UP HEAD BUD

THE leader of a church devoted to the smoking of marijuana has been busted
by Tasmania Police's drug squad. Harry Morrow was at his home at Rosebery,
on the West Coast, when the Western District Drug Squad arrived last week
and searched the house, seizing marijuana and smoking devices.

Mr Morrow is yet to be formally charged but has said he will plead not
guilty to any charges.

He said the smoking of marijuana was an integral part of his religion.

Mr Morrow is the leader of a church known as the House of Genesis VI, and
is referred to as the Head of the House or the Head Bud.

"It [marijuana] gives me close contact with God, my beliefs, my feelings,
my emotions and coping with life's pains," Mr Morrow said.

The House of Genesis VI was incorporated in January 1999 and has a
constitution and a number of members.

Mr Morrow, 39, would not give specifics on the membership or activities,
saying only members were entitled to those details.

However, it is understood the church claims 2000 Tasmanian members, who pay
a joining fee of $25 -- or $50 for families -- and are required to donate
two cannabis plants to the church. In an unrelated matter, the Western
District Drug Bureau charged another man last week who also claimed to be a
member of the House of Genesis VI.

Mr Morrow said police had seized items from his home, including cannabis
leaf and head, smoking devices and some old, mouldy cannabis which had been
donated to the church.

He accused the police of harassing him and said his religious beliefs were
not hurting anyone.

A former miner, Mr Morrow was injured in an underground accident in 1996
and suffers chronic pain in his knee.

He receives a disability pension and is prescribed powerful pain-killing
medication.

"I was on all this medication, which was making me sick," Mr Morrow said.
"I've had operations, I was filling up with pills and tablets. Smoking
marijuana took the sharp point off the pain."

He was charged with minor drug offences last year but the charges were
dismissed by a magistrate.

Mr Morrow said he would plead not guilty to any charges brought against him
to allow the House of Genesis VI's constitution to be tested in court.

"I`ve got a colourful past, I've got nothing to hide," he said.

"There's been allegations of all sorts of things, but I am not hurting
anyone. "Why can't they [the police] leave us alone?

"They have injecting rooms in Victoria for heroin -- my people don't want
to be involved in anything like that.

"We don't go out and Bible-bash.

"We're just friends, and people who know about the church, we sit around
and have our meetings."

Mr Morrow said 15 years of research had gone into the setting up of the
House of Genesis VI.

He said he inherited the leadership about 12 months ago from a terminally
ill Tasmanian man who had established the church.

The church had been audited for tax purposes last year by the Federal
Government and passed.

"A solicitor is checking out the legality of all this," Mr Morrow said.

"I don't care what it costs. I just want to know where I stand with my faith."