The Pre-print rough draft of “Vision Quest”

There is no such thing as an illegal religion. Wasn’t that the sole reason why the early settlers of our country voyaged across the Atlantic—to rid them of religious persecution? Wasn’t it later stated in the Bill of Rights in our national constitution that “Congress shall make no law-respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?” The right to freedom of religion is also protected by our state’s Bill of Rights, in Article 1, Section 6: “No human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship. But it shall be the duty of Legislature to pass such laws as necessary to protect equally every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship.”

But for many, there are exceptions to the rules. These are simply opinions brought on by yellow journalism and propaganda of decades passed. And while those journalists of old have vanished from our sights, their misinformation still lingers in our memory.

We’re told growing up that there is a gateway drug into the world of narcotics. Ask any middle school student what that drug is and the answer will more than likely be Marijuana. Public service announcements such as the Above the Influence campaign have skyrocketed since the popularization of the Showtime program Weeds became a household name.

However, the plant, this weed, this substance of abuse, has been a part of human history and religion even before the settlers came to the New World to escape religious persecution. Cannabis, as it will henceforth be known unless in a quote, has a wide history. Some scholars have even gone as far as noting that it is used in the anointing oil in Exodus 30:22-23. The term stated in most Holy Bibles suggest that it’s calamus, not cannabis; however, in theory, the original Hebrew term was kineboisin which translates to the cannabis plant. Keep in mind that this is also the same anointing oil believed to be used by Jesus as he cured the sick.

There is over 3,000 years of cannabis history used through different religions, including ones that involved the deity known as God. It has also proven to hinder some cancers and tumors when it was once believed to cause them. It has also been used to help the pain of those going through chemotherapy and who have suffered great injuries, and extends as far as curing post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and depression.

Now what if someone told you that the use of cannabis may aid you to grow closer to a creator, to heaven?

The Reverend Adam E. Zuniga, Shaman

He isn’t exactly what you expect to see when you think reverend. He’s not wearing any clericals, nor is he gray-haired. Instead, he wears a blazer over a black One T-shirt, faded jeans and orange plastic-looking shoes. Almost everything about Adam Zuniga screams college student, which he is. All but the cane, that is. Being 27 years-old, Adam needs it to support his body as he walks. This last thing is a constant reminder of his past.

Adam is what you would consider an All-American type of guy. He graduated from high school in 1999 and enlisted in the Air Force in 2000.

“I wanted to get out of here,” he says. “My recruiter suggested [that I go into] security forces, which is law enforcement. They’re considered the infantry of the Air Force. So I did that. I enlisted for six years.”

During his stint in the military, Adam was one of the few who guarded Air Force One while President Bush made a speech at Mount Rushmore. Upon hindsight, Adam realizes this may not have been the best moment in his life had he known what the administration was capable of doing throughout their stay in office.

He confesses that he wanted to make a career out of it. His great interest to learn other cultures motivated his decision. However, he was involved in a car accident and two months after his four-year mark, Adam was honorably discharged for medical reasons.

The accident altered his life, leaving him in need of a cane to get around. Suffering from PSTD, chronic pain, bi-lateral tinnitus, osteoarthritis, insomnia, social anxiety, anger management, and chronic pain, Adam’s medicine cabinet was filled with a sea of prescriptions which neither hindered the pain, nor elevated his spirits. He became divorced with the world, having never really being reestablished after the Air Force. Each pill he took was washed down with a swig of alcohol. The pain was never succumbed. He became desperate for a way out after realizing that his problem was now stemming on a pill addiction that had rendered him immune to the very medication meant to help him.

As he was trying to reestablished himself with the world, Adam realized the one thing that helped him with his confidence, his pain and his stress wasn’t something you could get over the counter, at least not in Texas.

“I knew that cannabis did something for me; it helped me. But I had never done any research.”

Adam realized that his world was filled with cannabis users, feeling that he was the only one who was using it for something other than a quick high. “I was the only one who was physically handicapped,” he states. “Later, I found a couple of [friends] suffered from IBS, general anxiety, things that you don’t see physically and cannabis helps that.”

It is his use of cannabis that allows Adam to self-label himself a shaman. And why not? The definition does fit—one who uses herbs and plants, as well as, spiritual abilities to heal the sick.

As Adam grew into realizing this power, long ignored by this country and its officials, that this plant held, he began researching how he could use it legally.

Shemshem—what?!

“This is my research, right here. Everything I know is in here,” Adam says handing over a white binder with a symbol that is all too familiar in websites supporting the Cantheist Code. He explains that it is the Egyptian hieroglyph for the letter H.

“For hemp. That’s the rope. It’s the cordage of the hemp rope.”

With the binder, Adam slides over a list of supporters and statements taken from Marijuana Policy Project and the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, a brief bio of himself from Cannabis Consumers Campaign, and an article from High Times on Roger Christie.

“The accident led me to the ministry [of] Roger,” he says.

Like most people who use cannabis, Adam fell into the trap of dealing and using, or what he calls the black market of cannabis while living in San Marcos after he was put on medical retirement. He was having trouble making ends meet, and the market was mistakenly the answer to his prayers. However, as he realized the circumstances and consequences of the black market, he decided that life in prison wasn’t worth it. That is when he came across an article in High Times on Temple 420.

The temple was founded by Craig X. Rubin who played himself as the Bodhi Sativa’s manager in the Showtime network’s Weeds. This was the key into the world of Christie’s the Hawai’i Cannabis (THC) Ministry. The key difference between Temple 420 and THC Ministry was the fact that Roger Christie stated that no reverend, shaman, minister, or the like, could make any profit off the sacrament, cannabis.

“You are a caregiver, spiritually, and if people that you care for want to give you a donation, then [their] moral choice,” Adam explains.

One cannot ask for a donation in exchange for the cannabis, as a priest does not expect a donation in order to give the Eucharist or wine.

Roger Christie began his adult life much like Adam did, by enlisting into the arm forces. In 1970, Christie was trained by the US Army to be a G2 Intelligence Analyst when he learned the real reason for the country going to war with Vietnam. Afterwards, Christie found it hard to follow orders from higher powers that had deceived not only him, but the entire country. Two years later, he found an ad in the back of Rolling Stones magazine from the Universal Life Church, a recognized religion in the United States. Thinking it was something to have in the long run, Christie sent for his ordainment. Nearly thirty years later, he put his credentials of ministry to work as he was ordain into the Religion of Jesus, a church known for its use of cannabis as sacrament. The same year, he was ordained legally to wed people as a Cannabis Sacrament minister. It was then that he established THC Ministry.

And like Christie, Adam sent off for his credentials of ministry and established the South Texas Chapter of the THC Ministry, known as the Shemshemet Ministry—he pronounces it shim-shim-et.

It’s not what you think, however. In the stigma that has been instill in us through higher authorities, people come to the conclusion that those who smoke “weed” are nothing but lazy dope-fiends looking for a way around the legal system.

“For starters,” says Adam, “I don’t use certain terms because they were born out of propaganda. It’s either herb, sacrament, cannabis.”

It’s the same for members of his ministry.

“That’s part of what shows the legitimate use, the sincerity.”

What Adam states here is that everyone must show that they’re smoking the sacrament for religious purposes, or to hinder their physical/emotional pain. In court cases against those who were caught using the substance, it is called the Andrews test, which stemmed out of the Hawaiian case, State v. Andrews, 65 Haw. 289, 291, 651 P.2d 473, 474 (1982). This states that the religion the defendant is a part of must be a recognized religion; the religion must mention that the substance (in this case, cannabis) must be a part of the religious ritual and not just an option.

Coupled with the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by President Clinton and the Supreme Court case, Gonzalez, Attorney General, et al. v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal et al., which recognized the importance of hoasca tea in a religious practice, Adam has a plethora of defense.

The ministry only allows people twenty-one years and older, and does not advocate the use of cannabis as a recreational drug to minors. In fact, the only way a minor can get into the THC Ministry, as per Christie’s rules, is to be completely independent of your parents, or with parental permission.

Changing gods

It’s a constant reminder from Adam Zuniga that he does not ask members to cast aside their religions of choice, but to replace their Eucharist with his. The Shemshemet Ministry fails to be the conventional religion when it comes to what each member believes. Adam, himself, has a wide knowledge of different religions and making a combination to suit his daily needs.

“I don’t want to say I’m Catholic, or Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu,” he says. “I want to take a piece of them all [and find] what works best for me.”

Create your own creation myth, as Adam explains it, is solely up to each individual. Not only does he preach the use of cannabis as a sacrament, but he suggests that a person let go of his inhibitions, these traditions that shackle us to blind faith. The idea stems from Terence Mckenna who stated that culture and ideology are not your friends, suggesting that people should leave behind the conventional ways of life and move at their own pace, with their own original ideas.

“Just keep in mind what the Dali Lama says, ‘Buddhism isn’t perfect for everyone, but it’s perfect for me,” Adam quotes.

While the THC Ministry and Shemshemet Ministry may work for someone like Adam in a certain way, doesn’t mean that it’ll work for all people in the same way. This leaves the door open for you to decide what works and what doesn’t.

“If it’s so good, then why is it still illegal?”

There is very little information for the true reason why cannabis was made illegal throughout the United States. Most of them can be found on online forums and in books that are independently published because of the facts that are printed within the page. However, words lie. For instance, we all know the popular saying that not everything on the internet is factual. And because of freedom of speech, anything can be published and sold—how many conspiracy theorists have books dealing with 9/11 and the Kennedy assassination?

For the most part, it is believed, and often noted, that one of the reasons why cannabis is illegal is because of racism. When the Jazz culture made an impact on the country, many of the musicians, mostly African-Americans, used the drug.

In a 1934 news editorial stated that “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at white women twice.”

Even on the Texas Senate floor, it was stated that “All Mexicans are crazy, and [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”

It slowly became the national norm to shun the plant. Movies like Reefer Madness, now a cult classic, were meant to instill the negative stereotype of those who use the drug. But nothing in the movie held facts. The characters became incoherent, sexual deviants who hit a pedestrian while driving under the influence.

But the name all research turns to is a man named Harry J. Anslinger, who held a position in the Bureau of Narcotics. He was often quoted of cannabis ill intent on people, using racial stereotypes, as well as cultural ones.

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from their marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to see sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

Along with newspaper owner, William Randolf Hearst, Anslinger was able to push a cannabis prohibition throughout the nation.

President Nixon was next in line to finally put a damper on the use of cannabis by appointing 13 members of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse Shafer who agreed with his position on the drug. After a long study of the cannabis, they realized that it had some useful aspects. However, this was ignored by the government.

The same thing happened in 1982 when the National Academy of Sciences reissued the fact; this time it was President Reagan who turned a deaf ear.

Adam Zuniga, however, states it all has to do with control. The government knows, or at least should know, that cannabis can be used for a laundry list of things. Natural hemp would put a damper on DuPont’s business.

Decisions to make

“You have to do a lot of soul searching,” Adam states. “Cannabis has shown me that.”

He stresses that his ministry isn’t a conventional religion. One must be willing to accept the responsibility of deciding what is right. If smoking cannabis as sacrament is right for you to gain a connection with a higher power, then practice it. He’s not advocating the use of the plant for recreational purposes—those who do not show the sincerity have no place in the ministry.

“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, I found a church that I could use this stuff and get away with it.’ No, it doesn’t work that way. You have to learn the rhetoric. You have to learn your civil rights. You have to learn your Bill of Rights.”

Adam is completely open about his use of cannabis and his spiritual belief. He understands the vibe he gives others and accepts it. In a place located so close to the border, he has an understanding why people are uneasy. The black market smuggles cannabis, as well as other drugs, illegally thought the Mexican border.

“People can call me what they want and they probably will and probably do,” he says, adjusting in his seat. “[But] I just want to help people realize that it’s just an emotion that can be controlled. That’s all it is. You control yourself and no one else.”

Rev. Adam Zuniga can be contacted at <removed from blog>. For more information on The Hawai’i Cannabis Ministry, visit the website at www.thc-ministry.org.