The First Church of Cannabis will challenge Indiana’s new religious freedom law by holding a pot smoking worship service on July 1, the same day the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act formally becomes law.

Marijuana is currently illegal for medical or recreational use in Indiana. However, the First Church of Cannabis plans to get around the law by invoking the state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which limits the government from intervening with a person’s exercise of religion and sincerely held religious beliefs.

Church founder Bill Levin says the July 1 worship service will fill the sanctuary with smoke of burning marijuana, while U.S. News reports the service will offer a bold test of the new religious freedom law’s ban on government burdens on the free exercise of religion.

The First Church of Cannabis’ Facebook page explains that members of the church believe that marijuana is a holy sacrament:

It brings us closer to ourselves and others. It is our fountain of health, our love, curing us from illness and depression. We embrace it with our whole heart and spirit, individually and as a group.

According to attorney Abdul-Hakim Shabazz “as long as you can show that reefer is part of your religious practices” you should be legally protected under Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act:

What ‘compelling interest’ would the state of Indiana have to prohibit me from using marijuana as part of my religious practice? I would argue marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and wine used in religious ceremonies. Marijuana isn’t anymore ‘addictive’ than alcohol and wine is used in some religious ceremonies. And marijuana isn’t any more of a ‘gateway’ drug than the wine used in a religious ceremony will make you go out any buy hard liquor. (At least not on Sunday.)

Indiana isn’t the only state where individuals are flirting with the idea of a legal justification for the use of cannabis based on religious grounds. In Texas, a Republican lawmaker is making the “Christian case” for cannabis.

Texas state legislator David Simpson claims marijuana “comes from God,” and his bill that would legalize marijuana based on religious grounds was approved last week by a Texas House committee.

Bottom line: While the First Church of Cannabis and the pending legislation in Texas are interesting experiments in liberty, people should be free to smoke marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes without joining a church or making appeals to some non-existent deity.