Native American church, known for using peyote and marijuana, to open branches in former O.C. pot shops

Marla and David James, of Huntington Beach are members of Oklevueha Native American Church, which is set to open soon in Huntington Beach. Sergio Sandoval and Patrick McNeal of the Law Office of Matthew Pappas stand in background in front of the proposed church. ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

By JORDAN GRAHAM

About the Oklevueha Native American Church

Oklevueha Native American Church founder James Mooney was born in Grass Valley, north of Sacramento, in 1944, to a half-Seminole father and a one-eighth Native American mother. Mooney claims that at age 4 he was beaten to death by a group of boys in the Missouri Ozarks and resurrected by his Seminole grandmother, who blessed him to become a medicine man one day.

He joined the Mormon Church at age 27, but when his wife died of cancer 16 years later, Mooney began partaking in Native American peyote ceremonies, saying they were more helpful than the massive doses of lithium he had been prescribed. Six years later he had fully embraced his Seminole ancestry and had been named the official medicine man for the Oklevueha Band of Seminole Indians and the vice president of the Native American Church's Salt Lake City branch.

But Mooney soon had a falling out with the Native American Church over his desire to invite Salt Lake City's white residents to peyote ceremonies. When the church wouldn't budge, he formed his own church.

In 2000, Utah County sheriff's deputies raided Mooney's church, confiscating 12,000 peyote buttons. Mooney was charged with multiple felony counts of "engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise ... by possessing and distributing peyote." He was convicted at the district court level, but the Utah Supreme Court reversed the decision, stating that the Mooneys were exempt from prosecution because they used "peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies."

Federal prosecutors later filed charges, but dropped the case following a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
– Jordan Graham

A national Native American church that courts have allowed to possess and distribute peyote will soon open branches in three former Orange County pot shops, where they plan to use and dispense marijuana and other illegal drugs as part of religious ceremonies.

What’s more, church members say almost anyone can join the religion and partake in its hallucinogenic sacraments, regardless of whether they have Native American heritage.

Representatives from the Oklevueha Native American Church, which claims over 200 branches nationwide, said they recently signed leases in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Westminster, targeting former marijuana dispensary storefronts where landlords don’t mind having pot on the premises.

And as much as those cities have fought to boot the church’s pot shop predecessors – conducting a police raid on one last week in Costa Mesa and receiving a court order Wednesday for another to shut down in Huntington Beach – several federal court rulings might make the cities powerless in preventing the church from storing and distributing drugs at those same locations.

Matthew Pappas, the church’s attorney and a Long Beach-based medical marijuana lawyer, said his client’s legal grounds to keep and dispense drugs derive from a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing another Native American church to use hallucinogenic tea and a 2000 federal law banning local zoning from burdening religious practices.

“It is not up to other people to determine the subjective legitimacy of any religion,” Pappas said. “This religion at its very core is that it is the earth that gives us sacraments and everything that we need to heal.”

In 2005, after the church had been raided by authorities, the Utah Supreme Court ruled church members who used peyote were exempt from prosecution because they used it “in bona fide religious ceremonies.”

“I want to bring these healing medicines to the masses,” church founder James Mooney said. “We don’t knock on doors and tell everyone we have the answers. ... We come from a society that derives from Christian-Judeo beliefs. So it’s hard to get beyond that religion is what they say it is.”

But Orange County cities said they might not let the church operate freely, especially if it plans to sell the sacramental drugs.

“Whatever they call themselves, that’s a violation of our ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries,” Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero said. “We’re going to enforce our ordinance regardless.”

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the city’s response might depend on how the church operates once in town.

“Although the state and federal governments give different treatment to this issue, the city’s ability to regulate these businesses based on land use has not changed,” Gates said.

“If it is a normal medical marijuana dispensary, as retail and distribution, claiming to be a church, that would be problematic,” Gates said. “I don’t think the law, including the State Supreme Court, would support that. If it’s a church and not a retail distribution center, that would be a different case.”

If those cities take legal action against the church, Pappas said his client would not hesitate to sue them. In November, Pappas and the church filed a federal lawsuit against Sonoma County after sheriff’s deputies raided a church branch there and destroyed marijuana plants.

The three Orange County locations are still transitioning from pot shops to churches, and Mooney said he’ll be visiting the new branches within the month to bless them and make them holy so the sacramental healing can begin in Orange County.