Religious group fights to use banned substance in US

The government has appealed against a ruling by a lower court allowing a small Brazil-based church to import a hallucinogenic tea that is central to its religious rituals, reports The New York Times. The tea, known as hoasca, is made from plants that grow in the Amazon and that produce a chemical listed as a controlled substance. The case raises the broader question of how the court will interpret, in the context of an illegal drug, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that ordinarily requires the federal government to refrain to the maximum extent possible from interfering with religious practices. Full report in The New York Times