News Archive
Professor Orentlicher Explains Hurdles Church of Cannabis Suit Likely Will Face
07/14/2015
Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis filed suit against the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Marion Superior Court on July 8, and the battle to win the case is likely to be an uphill one, Professor David Orentlicher told a reporter for the Huffington Post. The story was published July 10.
The church must demonstrate that it is a genuine church and that its members aren’t using religion as a pretext for marijuana use, Professor Orentlicher said. If the church can demonstrate that it’s planned ceremonial use of marijuana doesn’t “seriously risk diverting the substance to uses outside the church, it may have a better chance of prevailing,” Orentlicher said in the story.
Professor Orentlicher is Samuel R. Rosen Professor at IU McKinney and co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health. He also has taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School. He earned degrees in law and medicine at Harvard and specializes as well in health care law and ethics.
