{"id":81131,"date":"2025-04-30T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/04\/30\/army-pilot-claims-he-distributed-lsd-for-religious-reasons\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:53:17","slug":"army-pilot-claims-he-distributed-lsd-for-religious-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2025\/04\/30\/army-pilot-claims-he-distributed-lsd-for-religious-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Army pilot claims he distributed LSD for religious reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Army Black Hawk pilot who was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly distributing LSD argued in court he has the religious right to consume the psychedelic drug as a sacrament and sell it on the dark web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal prosecutors accused 1st Lt. Kyle Norton Riester of conspiring with others to distribute 10 grams or more of LSD, according to an indictment filed April 24 by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their own lawsuit, Riester\u2018s attorneys acknowledged he distributed LSD online but countered that he did so in a sacramental form and only to other individuals who used it for religious reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riester and his attorneys are attempting to fight his prosecution on religious freedom grounds. They sued \u2014 unsuccessfully \u2014 to receive an emergency injunction that aimed to block the government from indicting him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lawsuit, Riester\u2018s attorneys said he has a sincerely held belief that LSD is a sacrament, which allows him to commune with God and is \u201cnecessary for his continued spiritual growth and development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He \u201calso believes Bitcoin to be sacred,\u201d the lawsuit said, because it allows him to distribute allegedly sacramental LSD to others who share his beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case turns a spotlight on the entheogenic movement, the adherents of which use psychoactive substances like hallucinogenic mushrooms, ayahuasca or other psychedelics as part of religious rituals or to achieve a meditative or spiritual state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing concerns about LSD<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The federal government classified LSD as a Schedule I drug, meaning the substance is not recognized as serving an accepted medical use and is labeled as having a high potential for abuse. <\/b>The government has in recent years conducted studies on the potential therapeutic uses<\/a> of other drugs, such as MDMA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSD is barred in the military. Its use was once rare enough among troops that in 2006, the Pentagon\u2019s former top counternarcotics official cut testing for it from the Defense Department\u2019s standard drug-testing panel. In a memo announcing the change <\/b>at the time, former defense official Richard Douglas said that over a three-year period, only four drug tests out of more than two million<\/a> had tested positive for LSD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But over the past decade, a series of embarrassing incidents involving LSD prompted the Pentagon to pay more attention to service members\u2019 illicit use of the drug. <\/p>\n\n\n\t