In Good Faith: Navigating Mindful Practices and Legal Hurdles for Psychedelic Churches
Date: Thursday, April 16th, 2026
Time: 9am-1pm PT
Location: Cabaret at the Brava Theater
Speakers: Bia Labate, Allison Hoots, Martha Hartney and Victoria Cvitanovic
Price: $150
Limited Capacity: Only 50 tickets available
Scholarships available here
This half day workshop is an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of and recent updates to the legal right to religious exercise. We’ll consider sacramental practices, psychedelic church communities’ operations, and ethical obstacles. The boundary between legal recognition of sincere spiritual practices from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) framework and enforcement risks of the Controlled Substances Act has shifted. While the first RFRA religious-based exemption was in 2006, three of the five existing federal exemptions to churches for ayahuasca ceremonies have been granted in the last two years, including the first by DEA determination from its petition process. However, hazards remain for leaders and participants of psychedelic churches: raids and criminal charges, unintentional and intentional harms, lacking resources for churches and leaders, licensing board investigations of therapists and doctors, and loss of tax-exempt status, access to social media, and access to payment processing providers. The growing interest in—and visibility of—psychedelic churches reflects the deeply meaningful spiritual role of sacramental practices.
The workshop will map the real-world legal pathways and traps: the RFRA strict-scrutiny framework, takeaways from the latest DEA exemptions and federal and state case law, and the need for and evolving development of professional and ethical standards and accountability systems.
This workshop is aimed at anyone interested or involved in psychedelic churches, including church leadership, ceremony facilitators, seekers, and participants, licensed professionals, and attorneys. Participants will leave with a grounded understanding of how psychedelic churches can establish mindful approaches to their practices and prepare for legal hurdles.
Meet Your Instructors
Bia Labate
Dr. Bia Labate (Beatriz Caiuby Labate) is an anthropologist, educator, author, speaker, and activist, committed to the protection of sacred plants while amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the psychedelic science field. As a queer Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco, she has been profoundly influenced by her experiences with ayahuasca since 1996. Dr. Labate has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. Her work focuses on plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice. She is the Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves as a Senior Advisor for Culture and Strategy at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Additionally, she is a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and an acts as advisor for around 15 organizations, among them the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition, Soltara Healing Center, Sacred Plant Alliance and the Alaska Entheogenic Awareness Council. Dr. Labate is also a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil and the editor of its site. She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 28 books, three special-edition journals, and numerous peer-reviewed and online publications (http://www.bialabate.net).
Allison Hoots
Allison Hoots is an attorney with Hoots Law Practice PLLC. She has had a diverse experience practicing law, including in the legal areas of employment, corporate, employee benefits, tax, and intellectual property and advising churches’ on operation and limiting liability in their religious use of sacraments. She is Chacruna’s Law and Drug Policy Reform Advisor and the lead author of Chacruna’s Guide to RFRA and Best Practices for Psychedelic Plant Medicine Churches. Allison is also Executive Director of Sacred Plant Alliance, Inc., a self-regulating organization and professional society of spiritual practitioners with religious communities dedicated to the advancement of the ceremonial use of psychedelic sacraments within the United States. Additionally, she is Head Legal Counsel for New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives. Since 2017, Allison has been a founding member of the Board of Trustees and officer for a nonprofit church that uses plant medicine in prayer. Allison lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her beloved musician husband, Sean, and two children, Vera and Archer.
Martha Hartney
Martha J. Hartney is a private practice attorney in Colorado. She has a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law. Her firm, Hartney Law, is a Boulder favorite, receiving the “Best of the West/Law Firm” award six years in a row. She was named a SuperLawyers Rising Star in 2020 and has published and presented on the art and science of death and dying for more than a decade. Martha is the first attorney to be graduate from the CIIS Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research program. She found plant medicines later in life—becoming a drug policy reform advocate after experiencing profound spiritual healing through our plant teachers. She champions the religious use of ayahuasca, and served on the legal team that settled the Church of the Eagle and the Condor case, permitting the first church in the U.S. to import and serve ayahuasca since the UDV in 2006 and the Santo Daime in 2009. She advocates for excellent standards of care, best practices, integration work, and weaving of modern trauma science with powerful multicultural practices taking root in the western world. She is Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants Advisor, was the first steward of the Religious Use Subcommittee of the Psychedelic Bar Association, and now serves on its Board of Directors. Martha lives with her partner and has two grown sons.
Victoria Cvitanovic
Victoria J. Cvitanovic is a lawyer specializing in Psychedelic Medicine, Cannabis, Healthcare, Cybersecurity/Data Privacy, and Corporate Law. With the women of Rudick Law Group, PLLC, she assists healthcare practitioners and businesses navigate highly regulated industries. She is also a passionate Zen Buddhist, a patient advocate, and a person living with a disability committed to crusading for accessibility. In addition to her law practice, Victoria serves as a Member of the New Mexico Supreme Court Commission on Equity and Justice and the President of the Board for Kinship Center, a senior center offering holistic wellness programming for people over 65. Victoria is particularly proud of her role as cofounder of Sober Zen, a meditation group open to anyone interested in the intersection of sobriety and meditation, and of her CLE program, Mindfulness for Prosecutors and Victim Advocates. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.