CHURCH SPARS WITH AUTHORITIES OVER DRUG TEA

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court sided Friday with a New Mexico
church that wants to use hallucinogenic tea as part of its services this
Christmas by lifting a temporary stay the government had won last week.

The U.S. administration contends the hoasca tea is illegal and dangerous.

Nancy Hollander, the lawyer for the Brazil-based O Centro Espirita
Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, told justices in a filing that hoasca is not
only safe, but to members it "is sacred and their sacramental use of hoasca
connects them to God."

The government and the church have been tied up in a legal fight since
federal agents raided a church leader's office in Santa Fe in 1999 and
seized more than 100 litres of the tea, which contains DMT, a controlled
substance.Hollander told justices that members have since not been able to
receive communion to commemorate Jesus's birth during the church's Holy Days.