Psychedelic Use Should Bar Church’s Tax-Exempt Status, IRS Says

The Iowaska Church of Healing was properly denied tax-exempt status because its use of ayahuasca was illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, the IRS told a federal appeals court.

ICH is an Iowa church whose members’ religious practice includes consuming the Sacrament of Ayahuasca, a tea containing the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine. The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should affirm that, without a religious exemption from the Drug Enforcement Agency or the courts for its use of a controlled substance, the practice is illegal and disallows the IRS from recognizing ICH as tax exempt, the agency’s Dec. 8 brief ...