Wednesday, April 16th, 2025 from 12:00-1:30pm PST
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Join us for an insightful discussion on the intersection of psychedelic churches and U.S. law, focusing on religious protections for ayahuasca and other plant medicines. We’ll explore whether these churches should apply for DEA exemption permits or operate without approval, the high costs of litigating against the government, and what the future holds for ayahuasca churches in the U.S. Our conversation will also address who decides what qualifies as a “sufficiently religious” practice for legal protection, the balance between practitioners’ rights and responsibilities, and how governmental interests in enforcing the Controlled Substances Act affect these religious practices. We will examine whether using multiple sacred substances in ceremonies could hinder religious exemptions and what the Jensen v. Utah County case means for religious freedom. This forum will offer valuable perspectives on how religious freedom and plant medicine practices could evolve within the current legal framework. You’ll hear from our speakers, including Martha J. Hartney, a private practice attorney and drug policy reform advocate. She is Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants Advisor and the first steward of the Religious Use Subcommittee of the Psychedelic Bar Association. Allison Hoots, an attorney advising churches on the religious use of sacraments, Chacruna’s Law and Drug Policy Reform Advisor and the lead author of Chacruna’s Guide to RFRA and Best Practices for Psychedelic Plant Medicine Churches. Lastly, William Barzee, a criminal defense attorney with extensive ayahuasca-related case experience, has secured religious freedom-based dismissals of federal charges and advocated for ayahuasca use during federal probation.
Allison Hoots is an attorney with Hoots Law Practice PLLC. She has had a diverse experience practicing law, including in the legal areas of employment, corporate, employee benefits, tax, and intellectual property and advising churches’ on operation and limiting liability in their religious use of sacraments. She is Chacruna’s Law and Drug Policy Reform Advisor and the lead author of Chacruna’s Guide to RFRA and Best Practices for Psychedelic Plant Medicine Churches. Allison is also Executive Director of Sacred Plant Alliance, Inc., a self-regulating organization and professional society of spiritual practitioners with religious communities dedicated to the advancement of the ceremonial use of psychedelic sacraments within the United States. Additionally, she is Head Legal Counsel for New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives. Since 2017, Allison has been a founding member of the Board of Trustees and officer for a nonprofit church that uses plant medicine in prayer. Allison lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her beloved musician husband, Sean, and two children, Vera and Archer.
Martha J. Hartney is a private practice attorney in Colorado. She has a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law. Her firm, Hartney Law, is a Boulder favorite, receiving the “Best of the West/Law Firm” award six years in a row. She was named a SuperLawyers Rising Star in 2020 and has published and presented on the art and science of death and dying for more than a decade. Martha is the first attorney to be graduate from the CIIS Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research program. She found plant medicines later in life—becoming a drug policy reform advocate after experiencing profound spiritual healing through our plant teachers. She champions the religious use of ayahuasca, and served on the legal team that settled the Church of the Eagle and the Condor case, permitting the first church in the U.S. to import and serve ayahuasca since the UDV in 2006 and the Santo Daime in 2009. She advocates for excellent standards of care, best practices, integration work, and weaving of modern trauma science with powerful multicultural practices taking root in the western world. She is Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants Advisor, was the first steward of the Religious Use Subcommittee of the Psychedelic Bar Association, and now serves on its Board of Directors. Martha lives with her partner and has two grown sons.
William Barzee is a criminal defense attorney in Miami Florida. He handles criminal matters throughout the United States. Mr. Barzee has handled issues related to ayahuasca in several cases and secured a dismissal of federal charges related to the possession of ayahuasca on Religious Freedom grounds. He has also successfully convinced a federal court to allow a defendant on pre-trial release to use and distribute ayahuasca for religious purposes while on federal supervised release (probation). William is a member of The Florida Bar, the Southern District of Florida, the Middle District of Florida and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He is also a panel member of the Southern District of Florida’s Federal Criminal Justice Act Panel. William is listed as a “Top Lawyer” in Criminal Defense by the South Florida Legal Guide and is rated as “Superb” by the attorney ranking website Avvo.
This talk will be recorded and immediately available for rewatch for all attendees.
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