Cannabis Churches: Denver, Indiana, Hawaii and the Courts (2026)

By James Buddsey · Updated October 30, 2026

A cannabis church is a religious group that treats cannabis as a sacrament, such as the International Church of Cannabis in Denver or Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis. Members can worship freely, but courts have almost never accepted religion as a legal defense for using or distributing cannabis, and calling a group a church does not override state or federal drug law.

The idea is old. Cannabis appears in Hindu devotional practice, and Rastafari treat ganja as a sacrament, which we cover separately in our guide to cannabis and the Rastafari movement. This page covers the modern American churches built around cannabis and the court cases that tested them.

Cannabis Churches at a Glance

The Church of Reality

The Church of Reality, founded by Marc Perkel, grew from an idea he says came to him during a 1998 smoking session. It is a nontheistic religion: members call themselves Realists and commit to understanding reality as it is, through science, history and reason, rather than through scripture. The church describes cannabis as a mind-opening tool that helps members think about the world, politics, art and science, and it uses the phrase “Sacred Direction” for the likely path of human evolution.

Perkel has said he was raised in a Jewish family, disliked Hebrew school, and rejected the violent God of the Old Testament stories, preferring mathematics. The church has always been small and largely online, and it has not tested its cannabis use in court.

The International Church of Cannabis (Denver)

The best-known cannabis church opened on April 20, 2017, in a century-old former Lutheran church in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood. Co-founder Steve Berke and partners formed a nonprofit, Elevation Ministries, in 2016. Members call themselves Elevationists. The faith has no fixed doctrine or divine law, follows the Golden Rule, and calls cannabis “the sacred flower.” Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel painted the interior and American artist Kenny Scharf painted the exterior, and the building is now a tourist draw with a light-and-meditation show called “Beyond.”

The church does not sell cannabis. Because Colorado bans public consumption, ritual use happens at private, members-only gatherings, and no one under 21 can attend when cannabis is burned. On opening day a state lawmaker floated banning cannabis use in churches, but the idea was dropped amid constitutional concerns.

Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis

Bill Levin founded the First Church of Cannabis in Indianapolis in March 2015, explicitly in response to Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act. After its first service on July 1, 2015, the church sued the state and city, arguing that marijuana laws burdened its religion. A Marion County court ruled against it in 2018, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed in 2019. The church still holds weekly services, but the ruling means its members have no religious exemption from Indiana’s marijuana laws.

Roger Christie and the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry

Roger Christie ran the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, often called the THC Ministry, in Hilo, distributing cannabis to members as a sacrament. Federal agents arrested him in 2010. He and his wife were prosecuted on federal drug charges, and in 2016 the Ninth Circuit upheld their convictions, rejecting their argument under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The court said the government’s concern that the ministry’s cannabis would be diverted to non-religious use was strong enough to deny an exemption.

How Religious-Freedom Law Treats Cannabis

The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 bars the federal government from substantially burdening sincere religious exercise unless it proves a compelling interest and uses the least restrictive means. Many states have similar laws. That is a real hurdle for the government, but cannabis claimants have rarely cleared the first steps:

• Is it a religion? In United States v. Meyers (10th Cir. 1996), the court held that a defendant’s “Church of Marijuana” beliefs were not religious, and its test for what counts as religion is still cited.
• Is the belief sincere? In United States v. Quaintance (10th Cir. 2010), the court found the Church of Cognizance’s claims insincere, pointing to evidence that the defendants were trafficking for profit.
• Can the government justify the burden? In the Christie case, the Ninth Circuit found the risk of diversion was enough.

The landmark win for a religious drug user did not involve cannabis. In Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (2006), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government had not shown a compelling interest in banning a small church’s sacramental use of hoasca, a tea containing DMT. Cannabis groups have cited that case, but courts have treated their claims, often involving large quantities or sales, as different.

In practice, legality depends on where you are. In a legal state like Washington, Oregon or Colorado, adults can use cannabis privately whether or not they belong to a church; public use is still banned. In a prohibition state, joining a cannabis church does not make possession legal. See our cannabis laws hub and federal marijuana law guide.

Cannabis Church FAQ

For more on cannabis culture and history, see our history of marijuana in the U.S.

For adults 21+ in legal states. General information, not legal or medical advice.