Drugs_Vs._Religion_

Drugs Vs. Religion: Drugs vs. Religion: The Battle Over the Legalization of Peyote Deification of peyote, a small and spineless cactus, is likely to have begun soon after its discovery by Native Americans over 10,000 years ago. Peyote, found in southern Texas and northern Mexico, causes psychotropic affects when ingested. This altering of sensory perception led Native Americans to the sacramental use of peyote and has since been a part of their native religion. With white settlement and acculturation, this so-called “peyote cult” transformed into The Native American Church, an organization based on a combination of Christian and traditional native beliefs. Officially founded in 1918, The Native American Church is an integral part of over 250,000 Native American’s lives. Through the church and peyote, natives have found a means of religious expression by which they could identify themselves and obtain a degree of personal security while being faced with the enormous variety of experiences in the white man’s world (Anderson 33). Peyotism, as it is also called, has helped to resolve the conflict of cultures through the integration of native religious practices with Anglo-Christian beliefs. Today, the Native American Church of North America has eighty chapters and members belonging to some seventy Native American Nations. peyote, native, religious, american, church, natives, americans, smith, peyotism, been, white, should, one, government, first, amendment, while, through, supreme, snake, religion, over, mexico, medicinal, freedom, effects, drug, dangerous, culture, court, controlled, ceremonies, among, alcoholism, alcohol, states