TUCSON - The two Southeastern Arizona founders of a church that deifies marijuana are both serving time in federal prison for illegal drug possession.

Danuel and Mary Quaintance, both in their 50s, have been unconstitutionally locked up for practicing their faith, said Daniel Jeffrey, an elder with the Church of Cognizance.

The church operates under the motto: "With good thoughts, good words and good deeds, we honor marijuana: as the teacher, the provider, the protector."

A federal judge in New Mexico sent the Quaintances to prison earlier this year after they pleaded guilty to two criminal counts related to a 2006 federal arrest - one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute 200 pounds or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana; and one count of possession with the intent to distribute 100 pounds or more of a substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana; as well as aiding and abetting.

Danuel Quaintance, a 57-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired welder, is serving a five-year sentence at a facility at the Federal Correctional Institute in Terminal Island, Calif., near Long Beach. Mary Quaintance, 54, is serving two years at the Victorville Federal Correctional Complex in Adelanto, Calif.

The Quaintances' home base is a 4-acre property in Pima, Ariz., which is about 90 miles northeast of Tucson. Their children and grandchildren still live on their property, Jeffrey said.

"Dan and Mary are the heads of their family, and it's been heartbreaking for everyone," Jeffrey said. "They are two of the nicest people, with no criminal element whatsoever. They never profiteered from the herb."

The pair had attempted to have the charges against them dismissed on the grounds that marijuana is part of their religion.

The U.S. Constitution contains no legally recognizable definition of religion, but courts still can apply a test of sincerity.

The couple thought a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision on another religious group's use of hallucinogenic tea would spare them. In that case, the nation's highest court ruled unanimously that a small religious group based in Santa Fe that combines Christianity and American Indian practices could use hallucinogenic tea in its ceremonies. The tea, called hoasca, contains dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, known for its hallucinogenic properties.

A variety of groups representing millions of members filed briefs supporting O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, or UDV, and its use of hoasca - among them the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Union for Reform Judaism. Some supporters likened banning the tea to a federal ban on sacramental wine.

But federal prosecutors said hoasca case did not apply to the Quaintances. Rather, they argued that religious freedom does not exempt the use of illegal drugs.

A U.S. District Court agreed with the prosecution, and the Quaintances said that's why they pleaded guilty - without the religion defense, they knew they'd be convicted at trial.

Still, the Quaintances expect an eventual reprieve. Danuel Quaintance has said he believes the case will one day wind up before the Supreme Court.

There's no evidence the couple ever grew their leafy, green sacrament. Rather, they said they relied on donations of it, which they picked up from church "couriers." They said that's what they were about to do when they were arrested in Lordsburg, N.M.

The pair has said they founded their Church of Cognizance in Pima in 1991. During an interview with the Arizona Daily Star in 2006, Danuel said the church had between 40 and 50 members in Arizona, and numerous others scattered throughout the country.

"Marijuana is the averter of death," he said at the time. "The energy and spirit that is in marijuana is God. You consume the plant, and you consume God. You are sacrificing your body to the deity."

Jeffrey said the couple's imprisonment has been crushing to both the church and the integrity of the First Amendment.

"Dan and Mary made a tragic mistake," Jeffrey said. "They believed there was freedom of religion in the United States."