It didn’t take long for the Rev. Roger Christie, founder of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, to move forward with his plan to establish a cannabis church in Colorado Springs.

Christie, who lives in Hawaii, was in the city Tuesday (June 22) to give a lecture on the spiritual implications of marijuana and to check the temperature of locals about founding a cannabis church. Only seven people showed up for his lecture. But while giving two more talks in Denver last week, Christie said, a person stepped forward offering to lead the Colorado Springs cannabis church.

Currently the only Cannabis Ministry in Colorado is in Nederland.

For more background on Christie’s Cannabis Ministry, read my Gazette story here. Additional information can be found at the ministry’s website,

Christie wouldn’t reveal the name of the future Colorado Springs church leader, but said it’s someone who has four years’ experience as a Hawaii Cannabis Ministry pastor and expertise in marijuana dispensary models. He said his reason for not revealing the man’s name is that the candidate needs more ministry training and a better public relations sensibility before talking to the press.

“He is still unpolished in the ministry,” Christie told me today, “and he is a little bit of a misguided missle right now. But he’s very trainable.”

Christie has no information yet on where the Springs church will be located. The tentative plan, he said, is to  lease space in a building and grow the ministry from there.

Medical marijuana has become a hot issue in Colorado as

more than 100 dispensaries have been established this year to sell the drug. This month, two state laws went into effect that regulate dispensaries, causing patients to fear that their marijuana supply will be cut off.

Christie says that for those people, the cannabis church may be the answer. The First Amendment protects religious belief and practice, including using marijuana as a sacrament, he said. Moreover, Article II, section 4 of the Colorado Constitution protects freedom of religion and the practitioner’s “mode of worship.”

Cannabis Ministry congregants smoke, inhale or swallow marijuanna during the service as part of the sacrament. But people are not allowed to overindulge in it, Christie said.

“The sacrament is for sincere people.”

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