article_snippet.sent: A tea used by a Brazilian faith is to Luke Goodrich, Soto's attorney who's with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty like wine used by Catholics at communion, but U.S. agents considered the brew an illegal drug.
article_snippet.sent: The religious organization O Centro
article_snippet.sent: Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal uses a sacramental tea called hoasca, made from two plants native to the Amazon that contains dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogen, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
article_snippet.sent: The religion is a Christian spiritist faith that originated in Brazil and includes Amazonian and indigenous spiritual traditions.
article_snippet.sent: About 140 members of the church live in the United States and use the tea in a sacred communion.
article_snippet.sent: In May 1999, U.S. Customs agents entered the church headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and seized all of its hoasca.
article_snippet.sent: The Uniao do Vegetal, which means "the union of the plants," cited that federal law in suing the federal government.