So today i was sitting in US history and had to write about the CDV (core democratic values) and i got to the "Freedom of religion" one and it says you have the right to chose and PRACTICE your own religion. well i'm not to fond of rastafarian but i know its a religion and part of practicing rasta is smokeing herb. so if your a rastafarian it is your counstuinal right to smoke buddha right because you would only be practing your religion. so i dont know if im right or not but discuss.
i heard something about it being legal for rasta on certain occasions or something, but don't quote me on that.
Obviously you're not right, because herb is illegal. Being that there is no Rastafarian church in the US it isn't an issue of religious freedom. Anybody can make up a religion and call any drug a sacrament. There's a reason federal law clarifies the Bill of Rights. Shitty situation, but whatever. If a Rastafarian were to take it to the Supreme Court they may be able to win, just as the Santo Daime did recently for ayahuasca, and the Native American Church a few years ago for peyote.
Unfortunately the Supreme Court has repeatedly indicated (in strong terms) that Congress has the ability to regulate marijuana even if it has a sincere religious purpose. Since the marijuana laws aren't specifically targeting religion, they aren't in violation of the religious freedom clause. For example "inflammatory speech" is generally banned because it is speech that is likely to cause harm (AKA, shouting fire in a crowded theater). At this juncture most the federal judicial avenues have been exhausted, and future progress is going to require legislative progress in the states and on the federal level. To this end we should be one issue voters (nothing wrong with being a one issue voter, it's our vote we may do with it as we please), selecting candidates for federal representation who (in order of importance): 1) Favor states rights and a smaller federal government (since the federal government is THE barrier to states enacting their own varied laws) 2) Favor modifying/changing/etc federal laws & policy (as in, reducing severity, reducing enforcement, directing enforcement to dangerous drugs, etc) (they are second because the best thing the feds can do is just get out of the way) 3) At least acknowledge the clear medicinal properties of marijuana, like the American Medical Association does. They may not be to #2 yet, but they are now on the right track For the state and local level, it's much simpler to evaluate.
I've seen videos of real rastas protesting by holding up signs and stuff saying they have the right to smoke and then they lite a fat joint and the cops were standing there just waiting and then once he hit it they picked him up and took him into custody.