Detroit Psychedelic Church Raided by Police

Detroit Police last week raided the city’s first “psychedelic church,” operated by Soul Tribes, which offers psilocybin mushrooms as a holy sacrament, the Detroit Metro Times reports. The raid came days after the Metro Times published a cover story about the church. 

Owner Shaman Shu believes the raid violates Proposal E, which was approved by voters last year and decriminalized the possession of entheogenic plants and fungi, including psilocybin mushrooms, in the city. The church includes a “sacrament center” which sells dried psilocybin mushrooms, capsules, and gummies. 

According to a search warrant obtained by the Metro Times, the action included the seizure of all narcotics, including “psychedelic mushrooms” from the “illegal dispensary inside the purported church” along with “all books, records, receipts, notes, ledgers, and other papers relating to the procurement, distribution, storage, and transportation of controlled substances.” 

Shu told the Metro Times that officers seized more than $700,000 in psilocybin mushrooms intended for therapeutic use and ordered the church’s closure. Under Proposal E, therapeutic use of entheogenic plants and fungi was also decriminalized 

“They stole ancient sacrament. It was prayed over and meditated over. It’s a healing sacrament… They blocked my property down without due process. You can’t do that. … They think we’re not a church. But that’s why the federal government was created, to separate church and state so that cities do not opine on what churches are [and] what ministries are. We’re a ministry and a religious organization.” — Shu to the Metro Tims 

Detroit Police Department Sgt. for Media Relations Jordan Hall told the Metro Times that the raid “was due to a lack of licensing and the amount of substances that were distributed.” 

Mayor Mike Duggan’s office told the Metro Times that “It is the law department’s position that this local ordinance, despite its intent, does not override state law, which considers psilocybin to be a controlled substance” and that “the city ordinance itself does not allow for the sale or distribution of psilocybin.”