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Although a Native American church is allowed to use peyote during religious ceremonies, an appeals court recently determined they are not excused from federal marijuana laws. Despite the fact that peyote is a hallucinogenic and cannabis is not, both drugs are currently listed by the DEA as “dangerous” Schedule I narcotics alongside heroin and LSD.

Using cannabis during sweat lodge ceremonies, the Native American Church of Hawaii filed a complaint against the feds in 2009 after law enforcement officials seized marijuana belonging to a member of the church. According to the Native American Church of Hawaii, their cannabis use “is similar to the purpose of many other intensive religious practices – to enhance spiritual awareness or even to occasion direct experience of the divine.”

Seeking protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, the church fought to allow members to continue using cannabis during their rituals. Although federal law allows Native Americans to use, possess, or transport peyote for traditional ceremonial purposes, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the district court’s decision preventing members of the church from violating federal marijuana laws.

“It’s really disappointing,” church founder Michael Rex “Raging Bear” Mooney told the Associated Press. “Cannabis is a prayer smoke, so it’s a sacrament…through the effects of the medicine, it also helps us become closer to our creator. It puts us in a place, a state of mind, where we can actually feel the presence and an actual relationship with our creator.”