Pot, Prayer, Politics and Privacy: The Right to Cut Your Own Throat in Your Own Way

Abstract

The constitutional freedoms of religion and expression have been persistently urged as defenses to charges for violation of the drug laws. These efforts to expand the symbolic dimension of first amendment protection have been for the most part unsuccessful. The authors question the failure to recognize the defenses forwarded in these cases. To attempt a resolution of the issue, they consider the principles of liberty and procedural due process as they apply to the police power and individual rights under the Constitution. Focusing principally on the freedom of expression and its underlying rationale, they propose an analysis which logically includes drug use within the scope of the first amendment.