Press Release — 23 May 2025

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Religious Exception for Cannabis

Iowa is a pecu­liar state because it has a statu­to­ry reli­gious excep­tion for pey­ote and a statu­to­ry med­ical excep­tion for cannabis.  Some­one with a reli­gious claim for cannabis would need to get a law enact­ed to pro­tect the activ­i­ty.

Last year the state enact­ed a Reli­gious Free­dom Restora­tion Act (RFRA) which autho­rizes a pri­vate cause of action against the state for vio­la­tion of reli­gious free­dom.

Carl Olsen has a reli­gious claim from 1984 when the Iowa Supreme Court found that the First Amend­ment did not pro­tect pos­ses­sion of cannabis with the intent to dis­trib­ute.  Because the court found that Mr. Olsen has a sin­cere reli­gious belief, that left Mr. Olsen with a per­ma­nent injury with­out any redress.

In Jan­u­ary 2025 Mr. Olsen sued the state under the RFRA ask­ing the Iowa dis­trict court to enjoin enforce­ment of cannabis laws against his per­son­al use of cannabis.  The state filed a motion to dis­miss claim­ing Mr. Olsen lacked an injury dif­fer­ent from the pub­lic and was pre­clud­ed from bring the claim by col­lat­er­al estop­pel.

Today the court denied the State’s motion to dis­miss, find­ing that Mr. Olsen has stand­ing to bring his claim for reli­gious use of cannabis, and that he is not pre­clud­ed by col­lat­er­al estop­pel because of his pri­or case in 1984.  Click here for a copy of the court’s deci­sion.

Mr. Olsen is pro se and does not have an attor­ney.  To the best of his knowl­edge the state will next file an answer to the com­plaint.  The case is set for jury tri­al in August of 2026, but the order says the par­ties can nego­ti­ate a set­tle­ment agree­ment or file motions for sum­ma­ry judg­ment.

It would be impos­si­ble to set­tle a com­plaint like this one, because it would require either a new statute or a court injunc­tion to rem­e­dy the injury.  Sum­ma­ry judg­ment is appro­pri­ate if no facts are in dis­pute, but the state hasn’t filed an answer yet.  Mr. Olsen does not know if the state will dis­pute any of the facts alleged in the com­plaint.

All the doc­u­ments from the case can be found at: https://carl-olsen.com/rfra/olsen-iowa-rfra.html