In Employment Division v. Smith, a Native American used peyote as part of a religious ritual. This is not a recreational drug that people get addicted to. Rather, it is a very strong drug that causes hallucinations. And from what I've heard, it has serious side effects. Some years ago, one of my students had tried it as part of a religious ritual. He described the ritual as meaningful, but said the peyote was extremely unpleasant, and he could not stop vomiting. But I take it as a testament to faith that people endure through a ritual, even when it has unpleasant side effects.
While most students are familiar with Smith, far fewer people remember Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal (2006). This was Chief Justice Roberts's first majority opinion on the Court. Here, a sect from the Amazon rainforest used hoasca, also known as ayahuasca, as part of a religious ritual. The group argued that under RFRA, they should receive an exemption from the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act. Hoasca is similar to the peyote at issue in Smith. Indeed, the Court found that because an exemption was granted for peyote, a similar exemption should be grated for hoasca.
Everything the Government says about the DMT in hoasca—that, as a Schedule I substance, Congress has determined that it "has a high potential for abuse," "has no currently accepted medical use," and has "a lack of accepted safety for use … under medical supervision," 21 U.S.C. § 812(b)(1)—applies in equal measure to the mescaline in peyote, yet both the Executive and Congress itself have decreed an exception from the Controlled Substances Act for Native American religious use of peyote. If such use is permitted in the face of the congressional findings in § 812(b)(1) for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans practicing their faith, it is difficult to see how those same findings alone can preclude any consideration of a similar exception for the 130 or so American members of the UDV who want to practice theirs.
