related link - What Roger Christie says about us  

HILO, HI (TNA) — On Columbus Day in 1986, Roger Christie arrived in Hilo, Hawaii, from Colorado via Maui, renting a room at the old Lanikai Motel. The receptionist, holding a baby, didn't blink an eye as she brushed aside marijuana leaves atop a guest book and told him, "Sign here."

Christie remembers thinking "I'm home" as he penned his name. "It was quite the cannabis welcome,” he said.

Christie's ministry is by no means underground. The 58-year-old regularly testifies against county funds being used for marijuana eradication and meets with police administrators to advocate marijuana as a "sacrament."

He rents a second story office space in Downtown Hilo adjacent to one of the town’s busiest intersections, and hangs a banner advocating his ministry out the window. He regularly submits announcements for the Hawaii Tribune Herald’s religion page, and they get printed.

The November-December 2006 issue of Cannabis Culture describes Christie as "probably the greatest modern exponent on the use of holy oil," referring to Christie's marijuana concoction with heated olive oil (1 cup), myrrh (30 drops), cinnamon (15 drops), cassia (30 drops), and marijuana (1/4 ounce).

"We almost never smoke. We're about vapor and tincture and holy anointing oil and eating hemp seed," Christie said. “Smoking is an important part of cannabis spirituality, but it’s just one avenue to Heaven, to the Holy Spirit. There are many other roads to getting there.”
 
It was about a week after Christie showed up and got a VW Westfalia to camp in that Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) announced that spraying would replace hand-cutting to step-up on marijuana eradication.

"I really thought marijuana eradication was insanity to start with, but to spray poison on the soil it's grown in is insanity to the second power," he said.

Christie started speaking out against marijuana eradication and found he was not just in the minority, but was the "lone voice" showing up to public hearings.

"I noticed that very few people were speaking about this horrible program. Even though I just got off the boat, I was the newest pilgrim in town, and I was going to say something,” Christie said. “I thought it was really weird nobody was saying anything about it, yet [marijuana[ was an enormous financial asset in the community, with buds about $100 an ounce... Marijuana in those days was estimated to be a billion-dollar economy here. The good thing that happened for me is I found a church."

His church — or haven to protect his right to use cannabis religiously — is a combination of metaphysics, which he first learned about at a Church of Religious Science prosperity workshop, and cannabis sacrament, which he learned from the Religion of Jesus Church founded by Maui-based Jim Kimmel.

In 1987, Christie formed the Marijuana Political Action Committee that held up a banner at the Coors Classic Bike Race through Downtown Hilo reading, "Marijuana Political Action Committee Welcomes Coors. Pakaloha."

In 1989, he and his associate Aaron Anderson formed the Hawaii Hemp Council. Then Christie, Anderson, and Dwight Kondo created the Pahoa-based Hawaiian Hemp Company, which Christie claims was one of the first hemp retail businesses in the world. Their mission was to advocate the legalization of industrial hemp. It is currently illegal by federal statute to grow hemp in the U.S. without a Drug Enforcement Agency permit.

"We were the hit thing in town for a couple of years," Christie says, "smoking herb, wearing hemp, and having a ball."

But the good life was short lived.

Christie and Anderson went to a hemp seed banquet in San Francisco in 1991 and were so impressed that Anderson decided to order a quarter-ton of hemp seed. "We decided to experiment with hemp food," Christie says.

A quarter ton of sterilized hemp seed was to be shipped slow freight. In advance, 25 pounds were shipped via Federal Express. A drug-sniffing dog hounded out the package addressed to Anderson and Christie with the Hawaii Hemp Council. At the Federal Express, authorities stuck a ballpoint pen in the box and hemp seeds came pouring out.

"We were arrested in a very celebrated, famous case here," says Christie. Ten years after their 1991 arrest, Hawaii County awarded Christie and Anderson $75,000 for the settlement of a selective prosecution case.

Christie and Anderson were arrested and indicted for "a legal product," Christie insists. "We had the Drug Enforcement Agency on our side. It was weird — just bizarre from start to finish."

Christie was an advocate for marijuana long before he got religious about it. "It grew on me slowly. I didn't embrace it right away," he confides about the notion of cannabis as sacrament.

In June 2000, he was ordained in the Religion of Jesus Church and took the steps necessary to become a Department of Health-licensed reverend.  

"This made all the difference. The state government approved my cannabis ministry. I created The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry," Christie said.

Many of his members are strangers who sign up at www.thc-ministry.org. The cards and plant tags he sends them read, "We use cannabis religiously and you can, too," listing his Hawaii Department of Health certificate that also allows him to perform a marriage ceremony.

At his space in the Moses Building overlooking Hilo Bay, visitors wash their hands with Dr. Bronner's Hemp Soap. Then they are offered a glass of hemp milk, made with half a cup of shelled hemp seeds and two quarts of filtered water mixed in a machine designed to make soy milk.

After the refreshment, visitors are taught about cannabis spirituality and their rights under the First Amendment – as Christie sees them – to enjoy cannabis. Once the visitor becomes a member of the ministry, he or she receives a sacrament – a few drops of Christie-concocted anointing oil.    

"It's the holy oil of Moses and the christening oil of Jesus," Christie says, pointing to a stack of Bibles and Hebrew dictionaries.

Christie asserts marijuana was the primary ingredient for both the holy oil and christening oil. He notes that cannabis was the original sacrament for not only Christians and Jews, but also Shintoists, Hindus, and Rastafarians. “The Bible says it is the Tree of Life, which will heal all the nations, and I find that to be true. You can be an Atheist and still enjoy cannabis as sacrament.”

Christie came to the Big Island via San Francisco, where he worked in public relations for Nomad Productions Scenic Studios, which boasts having built stage and touring sets for Madonna, Crosby, Stills & Nash and other acts.

Prior to the Bay Area, Christie resided in Denver, and ran Accurate Parking Marking. "I got so tired of just working for money," he said.

Although marijuana use is illegal under Federal law, Christie has what he considers to be an excellent relationship with Hawaiian law enforcement officials. He credits this to taking his proactive approach.

“I make appointments with them to discuss how we can best work together,” he said.

Although the Hilo Police Department was contacted to discuss Christie’s marijuana ministry, a spokeswoman declined comment except to say the department supports his right to free speech.

Currently, Christie is working with the Department of Justice on its latest initiative to protect religious liberty, The First Freedom Project. Christie is planning to host and sponsor a seminar in Hawaii this fall using DOJ materials meant to educate communities about the laws protecting religious freedom.

Christie sees The First Freedom Project as the ideal opportunity to educate authorities about his and other non-traditional religions that embrace cannabis spirituality. He has invited Hawaii County police to speak at the upcoming seminar.

"The First Amendment is a beautiful thing. We're exercising it and celebrating it every day by celebrating cannabis liberty,” Christie said.

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