On October 6 1999, Dutch police kicked down the door of a church in Holland and arrested two Ministers, Geraldine Fijneman and Hans Bogers, while they and their congregation were in the middle of a religious service. Geraldine and Hans were held by the police for three days, charged with leadership of a criminal organisation and distributing drugs.

Their crime? They were members of the Church of Santo Daime, a religious organisation not too dissimilar from Catholicism in its ceremonial aspects; the significant difference being that the Santo Daime church uses ayahuasca, the sacred 'vine of souls' of the Amazon, in its ceremonies to commune with its god.

In effect, then, the behaviour of the police in Holland was a form of religious intolerance; a situation made all the more bizarre because ayahuasca is a plant – a natural, organic, living, growing thing, not a ‘drug’ and, furthermore, there is no evidence whatsoever that it is addictive (in fact, it has been successfully used to treat addictions).

The ayahuasca in question was not being ‘trafficked’ either, but handed out as a sacrament within the church, in much the same way as Catholic communion wine - and nobody's kicked a door down over that yet.

The situation that befell the Santo Daime church was preposterous in other ways too because the active ingredient of ayahuasca is DMT - which is already present in significant quantities in the human body. Following the legal logic displayed in this ‘drug bust’, therefore, if you ever decide to make babies you will, by definition, be a drug trafficker yourself.

But perhaps the most important aspect of this case is the question it raises: what right has any authority to dictate what is or is not an acceptable form of worship? The members of the Santo Daime congregation in that church on that October evening were hurting no-one and doing nothing of an aggressive or harmful nature - indeed, they were at prayer when the door of their church was splintered. It was a question which would quickly come to occupy the minds of the police.

On November 20, just a few days after the arrests, a large crowd gathered in the centre of Amsterdam, to protest against the raid and to demand the legalisation of ayahuasca. So troubled were the prosecution lawyers at this, and so embarrassed by their raid on a church, that they made it quietly known to the Santo Daime lawyer that they would drop the case if the church would accept a warning about its drug-taking activities.

The reaction of the Santo Daime lawyer, however, was “no thanks”. In fact, hearing that the prosecution were about to drop the legal proceedings, the church itself decided to take the case to court since it wanted a clear decision on the legal status of ayahuasca to avoid similar harassment in future.

And so the defence became the prosecution and, on May 21 2001, the Ministers for the Santo Daime church were acquitted by the court. Judge Marcus ruled that the Minister, Mrs Fijneman, had indeed owned, transported and even distributed a DMT-containing substance [which she would also have done had she been pregnant and then given birth, by the way], but as there was no proof of a public health risk from ayahuasca, her constitutional right to Freedom of Religion must come first. Since ayahuasca is the holy sacrament of the Santo Daime church, he ruled, it was essential to the defendant’s faith that she be allowed to use it.

The church was also within its rights to demand the return of 17 litres of ayahuasca that had been confiscated by the police, as well as compensation for the time the defendants were in custody.

Apart from the considerations of civil liberty and the right to self-determination and individuality without State harassment, there were spiritual considerations here.

The shamanic traditions of many cultures have long used Holy plants such as ayahuasca as a means of moving out of ordinary consciousness and into non-ordinary reality where spiritual communion can take place. Used in this fashion, and in a respectful way, these plants can be exceptional allies and teachers, opening doors into other worlds and new areas of consciousness. Just about as far as you can get from ‘drug-taking’, in fact.

Ayahuasca, of course, is a plant/spirit of the Amazon. In our own culture, sacred intoxication has traditionally been provided by the magic (psilocybe) mushroom. Whether you personally believe that this plant is divine and has its own spirit, it is nonetheless, a plant, just like ayahuasca. The question therefore arises: who has the right to say that you are allowed/not allowed to consume a perfectly natural substance - plant material - for your own purposes, in circumstances that are not harmful to others or yourself?

You can, after all, write on the head of a pin the names of all the people worldwide who are injured through the ceremonial consumption of sacred substances during an average year. In the same year, there will be thousands of deaths as a result of tobacco smoking and alcohol-related accidents and disease. So why don’t we make those drugs illegal instead?

In other, perhaps better informed, cultures, mushrooms are revered, not feared or controlled in this way. In Mexico, they are known as Teonancatl (‘the flesh of the gods’) and used in sacred rituals and healing ceremonies for the sick.

Mazatec shaman and healer, Maria Sabina, tells us something about the reverence in which they are held when she remarks that: "There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby, and invisible. This is where God lives, in a world where everything has already happened and everything is known. The sacred mushroom takes me to the world where everything is known”

These plants are Holy and have been regarded as such for thousands of years. The people who may choose to take them therefore have every moral and spiritual right to do so, and they deserve better treatment than the State seems able to give.

If you are searched, questioned or arrested for carrying any controlled substance, contact RELEASE on 0207 603 8654, a charity offering free advice and assistance 24 hours a day. Say nothing to the arresting officers until you have spoken to a solicitor.

For a free information pack about sacred ayahuasca journeys to the Amazon (where ayahuasca is a wholly legal sacrament) email ross@thefourgtaes.com or visit http://www.thefourgates.com