Does a religious organization have the right to use controlled substances? The question was before the Supreme Court recently. O Centro Spirit Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (UDV), New Mexico-based church is currently fighting for their First Amendment right to practice their religion freely. In the members' quest for spirtuality, they consume a cup of hoasca tea, which only grows in the Amazon River Basin, in a total of 32 ceremonies a year. The tea contains the illegal substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT is classified in the United States as a Section I illegal drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and the import of the tea is outlawed under the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. [continues 430 words]
A Civil Liberities Concern for the Black Community The Hilltop: What is the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)? Congresswoman Maxine Waters: The PIC is the result of the American prison system that has combined crime and punishment with capitalism. The PIC is a firing engine for private sector prisons and racist legislature. Select individuals are making money! TH: Could you explain the ways in which the PIC directly bolsters capitalism? MW: The PIC uses sheer exploitation through prison labor by private firms, and by private prisons. Over 10 percent of prisons are privatized. Private industry businesses make over $40 billion dollars annually from the labor of prisoners. [continues 786 words]
