UNBELIEVABLE: Roger Christie still behind bars with no bail.Posted by Mickey Martin on December 22nd, 2011

Let me just say that Roger Christie is an outright hero, and I am ashamed to live in a country that would put a person in prison with no bail for the cannabis plant. While child rapists like Jerry Sandusky are afforded bail a peaceful and caring person like Roger is held as a “danger to our society” because of his belief in the powers of cannabis. Unbelievable is an understatement. What is happening to Roger shatters the fabric of our democracy and is cruel and unusual any way one looks at it. The Judge there should be ashamed. Here is a great piece forwarded to me by cannabis writer Sharon Letts on the situation in Hawaii regarding Roger. Thank you….

Cannabis: The New Burning Bush

Hawaii’s Marijuana Minister Behind Bars

“Then God said I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit in it.” Genesis 1:29-30

By Sharon Letts

In a land founded on religious freedoms, Hawaii’s ordained and licensed Marijuana Minister, Roger Christie, has been sitting in prison without bail for more than a year, preaching the Bill of Rights’ First amendment and praying for a miracle.

Founder of The Hawai’i Cannabis Ministry, commonly known as the “THC Ministry,” Christie had been practicing out of a store front in Hilo, Hawaii for 10 years when his church and home were raided by Federal Agents last year.

His credentials to preach were acquired from the Universal Life Church, Inc. in 1972. Among his clerical documents is a license to marry, granted by the State of Hawaii in 2000. In Christie’s hand, penned under “Denomination or Sect” clearly declares, “Cannabis Sacrament.” Sacrament meaning annointing oil used in marriage ceremonies, and herb for smoking, which is also considered a spiritual rite by the Ministry.

In March of 2010, 13 of Christie’s THC Ministry followers were arrested by Federal officers and charged with manufacturing and distributing Cannabis in amounts well over Hawaii’s own seven plants per patient ordinance.

That said, there were never any ordinances governing the THC Ministry, as it is not a Medical Cannabis Dispensary or Collective, nor is Christie a Medical Cannabis patient. His strong and firm belief is that Cannabis is a plant of God and he joins those before him, historically using it for both spirituality and subsequent wellness.

Christie said he immediately informed authorities members were providing Sacrament exclusively for the congregation, by donation only. The refusal of the Federal Government to acknowledge Christie’s church as a legitimate entity promped them to brand him a danger to the community, arresting and him and taking him into custody without bail, without visitors, and myriad trial postponements to date.

A big part of his practice is based on using a Sacred Anoitment Oil in marriage ceremonies, with a universal belief in the bud that’s as old as, well, the bud itself.

Vancouver Writer and Publisher Chris Bennett, author “Cannabis and the Soma Solution” (Forbidden Fruit Publishing), said Jesus Christ and his apostles may have used a high potency Cannabis-based anointing oil referred to as “kaneh-bosem.” He said the use of this high-potency oil, which is well documented in archaeological records, was used during religious ceremonies in healing the sick and mentally ill, with ancient anointed ones literally drenched in the potent mixture.

“The first solid evidence of the Hebrew use of cannabis was established in 1936 by Sula Benet, a little known Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw,” Bennett explained. “The holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the recipe in Exodus, contained over six pounds of keneh-bosum – a substance identified by respected etymology, linguists anthropologists, botanists and other researchers as Cannabis extracted into about six quarts of olive oil along with a variety of other fragrant herbs.”

The few Cannabis cases attempting a religious defense have not passed legal criteria in this country, and while the jury is still out on whether or not Christie’s plea will be heard. One court of opinion has spoken via Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), who penned an article for High Times in November of 2010, just after Christie’s arrest.

St. Pierre summed up the store front Ministry as a “questionable business model,” adding, it’s a false hope that “the current legal system (and body politic) under cannabis prohibition will be rational enough – or fair enough – to respect diverse religious practices consistently.”

Christie’s evangelizing for the plant gained momentum after overhead spraying in Hawaii in the 1990s put Canna growers out of business, therefore fueling the fire of “ice,” or methamphetamine (meth), use in the islands and beyond, quickly replacing the smoke of choice for the islands.

“Hawai’i went from the highest per capita Cannabis use to the highest per capita meth use in the 90s,” Christie said from Honolulu County jail where he’s being held.  “We served our community with blessed Cannabis Sacraments to help counter the meth and ice epidemic, and alcoholism.”

A report from U.C. Berkeley funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, titled “Ice and other methampheptamine use” (1991 – 1994) concluded that the “marijuana eradication program” created the conditions for the meth epidemic in Hawai’i and California.”

“Taking Cannabis out of the community led to ‘meth’ – so it made sense to me that adding Cannabis back into the community would lessen the addiction to ‘meth.’  I sought to simply reverse the equation,” he explained.

His work led him to be honored as co-recipient of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii’s Ho’omaluhia “Peacemaker of the Year” Award in 2000.

“I was in a position to help, so we did help on the front lines of the epidemic.  Now I’m a ‘prisoner of the drug war,’” he said. “I’m a prisoner of conscience.”

On the mainland, Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry is the first physician in the U.S. to pass on a plea bargain, currently serving five years on Federal Charges of “manufacturing and distributing” Cannabis to her patients.

A devout Catholic, she’s writing a reference book from prison titled, “Doc Fry’s Guide to Medical & Spiritual Use of Cannabis,” with the Introduction, “God’s Medicine.”

“God’s ways are different from ours,” she writes from prison. “He gave us this good plant, I believe for both healthful reasons and spiritual ones.”

Some say Roger Christie put a proverbial store front on the business of distributing Cannabis. Others who know him have written of his good and true nature, his faith in God and the power of the plant.

“I am the most active person questioning authority over the “Marijuana Erradication Program here in Hawaii,” Christie surmizes from is cell. “I ran for Mayor twice with the intent of doing away with erradication and reducing meth use and the crime associated with it. I felt my ordainment and license from the State of Hawaii gave me the unique ability to counter the epidemic. I still feel that way. We had zero criminal intent.”

≠≠≠