DRUG ARREST RAISES LEGAL QUESTIONS ABOUT WHO CAN PRACTICE PEYOTE RELIGION

OGDEN --The followers of Flowing Moose gather in a towering tepee for
an all-night prayer session beside the Ogden River.

Some of the churchgoers crying in the tepee sell cars or are
successful in other professions. Other conflicted souls claim to be
drug addicts, child molesters and even murderers. Each comes to Nick
Stark -- a medicine man in the Native American Church -- to eat peyote
and drink a tea made from the hallucinogenic plant.

The believers say the peyote helps purge their souls of a dark and
torturous past. "This is like a truth serum," says Dianne Sanders, a
member of Stark's church. "It shows you where you are in life. It
takes you closer to God."

While Stark and his disciples claim the twice-a-month meetings in his
backyard are religious ceremonies protected under the freedom of
religion clauses in the U.S. and Utah constitutions, police suspect
the members are recreational drug users, consuming peyote illegally.

Authorities arrested Stark at his home in Ogden Canyon on July 8,
confiscating $11,000 in cash and 3,500 of the quarter-size peyote
buttons, which come from cactuses harvested in southern Texas. The
49-year-old Stark will be charged with distributing peyote, a
second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, said Lt.
Wayne Tarwater of the Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force.

Officers began investigating Stark after a woman reported she had been
held against her will at his home and forced to consume peyote. Stark
denies her allegations and contends he is legally authorized to use
and administer peyote, an all-natural drug.

He told police he is one-quarter Iroquois Indian and a member of the
Oklevueha Earth Walks Native American Indian Church in Benjamin, just
south of Spanish Fork. "It ain't about training," Stark said. "It's
something you're either born to do or not."

James Mooney, the church's president, confirmed Stark is empowered by
the church to carry out spiritual ceremonies using peyote as its Ogden
chapter leader and is a church-authorized medicine man.

But the question of Stark's legal authority to use peyote is unclear.
Under Utah law, peyote is a drug equivalent to heroin or LSD, with a
high potential for abuse and no acceptable medical uses, said Tracey
Tabet, deputy chief of staff for Utah Attorney General Jan Graham.
Tabet said attorneys in his office "knew of no exceptions for use of
peyote."

But federal law allows American Indians to consume peyote during
religious rituals, a tradition that dates back thousands of years.

Don Mandrella, a Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA] agent in Salt
Lake City, said peyote can be distributed only by a medicine man. The
drug can be consumed only by parishioners whose bloodline is at least
25 percent American Indian, he added.

But the medicine man criterion creates a perplexing question for
police as they seek charges against Stark: What documentation does
someone provide to prove he is a medicine man, not a con man?

"Nobody's really clear on that," Mandrella said. "It sounds like you
can self-proclaim that you are a medicine man."

Also unclear, Mandrella said, is the reason Native American Church
members with no American Indian blood cannot legally partake in the
same peyote ceremonies as American Indian churchgoers. "That's a good
question we have to answer," Mandrella said.

National officials of the Native American Church could not be reached
for comment.

Most of the people who attend Stark's backyard gatherings are not
American Indians. Stark says anyone over age 18 can attend his
sessions, which he has held since 1997. Guests are asked to pay at
least $200, although Stark frequently allows people to partake without
charge.

At their first meeting, attendees instantly become members of his
church, which Stark contends endows them with the legal privilege to
consume peyote.

It was a first-time parishioner who complained to Ogden police about
Stark. Jackquelyn Nicole Burnett, 24, of Salt Lake City, said she
voluntarily joined 26 others in the tepee on the evening of July 7
because she was "curious about Native American religion." Burnett and
the group ate dinner together at around 8 p.m.

What happened during the next 16 hours, however, is disputed. Burnett
told police Stark yelled at her and forced her to eat peyote against
her will, wielding a 6-foot-long stick. After taking the drug, Burnett
began sobbing and told Stark she wanted to leave, she said. She claims
Stark refused.

Burnett said she was disturbed by "a lot of confessions going on"
inside the tepee.

"Some guy admitted that he had molested a neighbor," Burnett told The
Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday. "He said the boy was 6 and he was
asking for forgiveness from the medicine."

Others in attendance sought psychic healing, said Burnett. "Somebody
had been raped, [another] girl was bulimic. . . . I felt like I was
around a bunch of crazy people, and I wanted to get out."

Stark admits yelling at Burnett, refusing to let her leave and telling
her if she did he would be "obligated to call the police and let them
know you're on the loose on a controlled substance." But Stark and
others who were at the ceremony deny Burnett was compelled to swallow
peyote, which has a foul and bitter taste. Church rules, they contend,
require each person at the ceremony to stand in front of the group and
profess that they are there of their own free will and state, "Nick,
give me the medicine."

"We have to ask Nick to give it to us," said 26-year-old Andrea
Kalvesmaki of Salt Lake City, who said she has been attending the
church for about seven months. Burnett said she was able to leave
after noon July 8, when she left Stark's house on the pretense of
having a cigarette outside.

She ran halfway down Ogden Canyon and flagged down a police officer.
About 15 officers later arrived at Stark's house, where he showed them
his peyote. He was arrested and released the next day, later producing
papers he said prove he is authorized by the church to use and
distribute peyote.

Mooney, meanwhile, said Stark violated proper ceremonial protocol last
weekend, but declined to say what Stark had done wrong. Mooney said he
will likely reprimand Stark, which may include a probationary period
during which Stark can neither use peyote during ceremonies nor act as
a medicine man.

Stark, who credits peyote with helping him overcome past addictions to
heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and an abusive childhood, said he will
have each church member sign a legal waiver if he is allowed to
practice his medicine again.

"I need to be more careful about who I let in here, obviously," he
said. "I'm going to do a more thorough screening process to avoid this
kind of situation."

Tribune reporter Kevin Cantera contributed to this report.