PROPOSED POT RULES HAVE RELIGION BIAS, OPPONENTS SAY

Police To Let Courts Decide If Religious Use Of Pot Is Legitimate

KAILUA-KONA) Proposed Hawaii County Police rules on marijuana
investigations fail to protect the rights of religious users of the drug,
opponents contend.

Police will take testimony at the main Kona police station starting at 10
a.m. tomorrow on a second draft of rules dealing with eradication and
medical marijuana.

But attention is expected to focus on new wording on religious use, which
says police shall make an arrest if they have good cause, and the arresting
officers should not try to decide the validity of the arrested person's
religion. That would be left to the courts.

The Rev. Dennis Shields of the Religion of Jesus Church said that contrasts
with proposed rules dealing with medical use, which say officers should
check whether a person is a registered medical marijuana user before making
an arrest.

In effect, the medical user gets the benefit of the doubt but the religious
user does not, Shields said.

Jerry Rothstein, a practitioner of the YnitedCannabist religion, said there
is no cause to arrest religious users because the U.S. Constitution
protects religious freedom.

In February, the Hawaii County Council directed police to write marijuana
rules as a condition for receiving federal eradication money. The directive
included consideration of marijuana possession, "which may be protected" by
laws and the Constitution.

Rothstein said the proposed rules reverse that directive by calling for an
arrest first and review of rights afterwards.

Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, who agrees with the proposed rules,
said that religion is a defense.

"Whether that is a legitimate defense is not up to police to determine,"
she said.