Boulder ministry lets you buy, smoke marijuana

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Oh Heavenly Weed; Boulder ministry lets you buy, smoke marijuana

Heidi Hemmat KDVR Investigative Reporter
FOX 31 KDVR.com | 9:31 PM MST, November 12, 2009


Oh Heavenly Weed; Boulder ministry lets you buy, smoke marijuana
BOULDER, Colo. - You've heard about people taking advantage of Colorado's medical marijuana laws by faking an illness, getting a doctor's prescription and getting licensed to smoke pot. But now there's a ministry where you can get higher than the heavens, smoke your sacrament, without any license required.

And you'll find it right in the heart of Boulder, Colorado.

The THC Ministry sells pot to pretty much anyone who agrees to use it for spiritual purposes.

We took a hidden camera to the Boulder office to find out what it would take to buy religious marijuana. As it turns out, it was easy.

All you need is $50 dollars in cash, a valid identification, and the "Cannabis Minister" who owns the business, or Ministry, will make you an "Ordained Cannabis Minister."

After that, you can buy as much marijuana from him as you can smoke. No license, no doctor's prescription, no problem.

I asked, "So this works not just in Boulder, but Denver too?"

The minster replied, "It is international."

Heidi: "What do I say if (a police officer) pulls me over?"

Minister: "You are an ordained Cannabis Minister."

The Minister says marijuana use for religious purposes is a constitutional right, guaranteed by the first Amendment, which protects the freedom of religion.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, however, disagrees.

"The guy wants to make money selling drugs and he's adopted this as a defensive front," Suthers said. "I would suggest he's breaking the law."

And when I tried to use my Cannabis Ministries certificate to buy marijuana from a medical marijuana dispensary, I was quickly turned away.

Still, the minister selling the marijuana says it's "legal." And he says if you're caught with religious marijuana, you can fight it in court.

He may be right about that, a federal court recently ruled Rastafarians have the right to smoke marijuana for religious purposes.