By Reverend Nancy Harris
Greetings in the Name of Haile Selassie I,
As you probably know, I have been facing criminal charges for quite some time. My feeling about the situation is this: I am being charged for being the president of the board of Sacred Truth Mission, a church which recognizes the Holy Cannabis plant as sacrament.
This all started with an intrusion on church property that happened on February 15, 2007. The intruders claimed to be police but showed no identification to Christopher Carpenter, who was the only member present when they barged into our Sacred Sanctuary. He called me, and I called 911, because calling 911 is what you’re supposed to do when you’re being trespassed upon. I headed to the church, but the 911 officer got there first.
The intruders turned out to be infamous rogue cop John Weber and his cronies, who showed identification after being confronted by the 911 officer. John Weber and crew searched the property, arrested me, got a search warrant, gathered evidence and trashed the church. In that order. Six months later, on the testimony of John Weber, I was indicted for commercial promotion of marijuana, paraphernalia, and possession. The claims were enormously inflated, of course, and carry huge penalties. The sentence for “commercial promotion of marijuana” is 20 years in prison.
In the four and a half years since the raid, quite a number of rights that I had been taught to believe I am entitled to as an American citizen have been violated. From the Bill of Rights, the 1st–the right to my religious practice and free speech and freedom of assembly, 2nd–the right to bear arms (although this one is moot for me personally); 4th–the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, 5th–the right to due process of law; 6th–the right to speedy trial and to confront witnesses, 8th–the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, 9th–inalienable rights; and 10th–the rights retained by the people; have all been violated during the pre-trial process.
Read complete article here:
http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/08/rev-nancy-harris-my-religious-use-of-marijuana-trial-starts-monday-in-hilo/