Nov. 13, 1962 - An Indian’s right to eat vision-inducing cactus buds in half-Christian, half-pagan ceremonies was defended in California today by the American Civil Liberties Union as a matter of religious freedom. The issue came up in San Bernardino Superior Court in the latest round of decades of nationwide litigation about worship involving peyote. In its chemistry and effects, this stimulant resembles drugs employed in modern psychiatry. Three Navajos arrested in a peyote ceremonial near Needles last April went on trial on charges of violating California narcotics laws. These list peyote along with marijuana and heroin as a noxious drug. California is one of the few states that bans the use of peyote. Peyote induces mild, short-lived visual hallucinations in which the user retains awareness of where he is and what he is doing. The hallucinations range from elaborate kaleidoscopic patterns of vivid color to visions of personal encounters and a feeling of “looking-at-oneself” detachment. In this respect, peyote resembles modern compounds involving mescaline, which can be distilled from peyote. Peyote is not habit-forming. It has a bitter taste, often causing nausea. The defendants in the trial are three Arizona Navajos who have been working for the Santa Fe Railroad at Needles — Jack Woody, 29 (left); Dan Dee Nez, 25 (center), and Leon B. Anderson, 44 (right). They were among 30 participants in a peyote service in a hogan (an igloo-like dwelling) built of railroad ties. Their defense counsel argued that peyote could not be properly classified as a narcotic and that prohibiting its use in the ceremonies of the Native American Church violated the religious liberty guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The defendants have been at liberty on $1,000 bail each. They observed the courtroom proceedings through a Navajo interpreter.
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