POT'S NOT PART OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, OREGON COURT SAYS

----SALEM, Ore. Constitutional freedom of religion doesn't include the right to grow marijuana, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The court, upholding the drug conviction of a Josephine County man, based its decision on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Oregon case earlier this year.

The case in the Court of Appeals involved Alan Charles Venet, a resident of the Williams area who was convicted of manufacturing a controlled substance.

Police seized 28 marijuana plants from Venet's property after spotting them from an airplane and obtaining a search warrant.

Venet submitted evidence that he is an ordained minister of the Universal Industrial Church of the New World Comforter, and state lawyers said they assumed that his beliefs are sincerely held.

Venet said use of marijuana is a sacrament of his church and thus should be constitutionally protected.

But the appeals court said Venet's conviction didn't violate his rights because of the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation's highest court ruled in April that American Indians aren't protected by the U.S. Constitution when they use the peyote in religious ceremonies. The Supreme Court said such use of the illegal drug isn't protected by the free exercise of religion provisions in the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court said state laws against drugs can be enforced in spite of the religious freedom clause. The Supreme Court also said, however, that the federal government and 23 states have exempted religious use of peyote from criminal sanctions.

A measure is expected to be considered in the 1991 Oregon Legislature to exempt religious use of peyote from criminal laws.