DENVER — A federal appeals court on Nov. 12 upheld a lower court's ruling that temporarily stops the government from preventing a New Mexico church from using a hallucinogenic tea.

The U.S. attorney general, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other government agencies are trying to stop the Brazil-based O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal from using hoasca tea, which is brewed from plants found only in the Amazon River Basin.

Last year, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's ruling granting the church a preliminary injunction, blocking the government from stopping the use of the tea while the church sues the government. The district court said use of the tea was likely protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The government then asked the full 10th Circuit to consider the appeal, arguing that permitting the tea violates a 1971 treaty on psychotropic drugs. A majority of the 13-judge panel agreed in O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal v. Ashcroft that the district court's preliminary injunction should be upheld, but some judges objected.

Judge Michael Murphy pointed out that before the church's Santa Fe office was raided in 1999, leaders concealed the use of the tea and told customs agents it was an herbal extract to be used as a health supplement.

"It is odd, indeed, to assume that (the church) thought its actions were entirely lawful and protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment, in light of the fact that all of its actions were taken in secret," he wrote.

Jeffrey Bronfman, president of the church, sued the Justice Department after U.S. Customs agents seized 30 gallons of hoasca tea in 1999. No one was arrested.

The church's U.S. operations are based in Santa Fe. About 130 people, many of them Brazilian citizens, are members of the U.S. branch, according to court documents.