Ayahuasca Church in Detroit Raided by Police
Soul Tribes International Ministries – a psychedelic church where magic mushrooms, Ayahuasca, and Iboga are offered – was raided by the Detroit Police Department recently.
Perhaps uncoincidentally, this came just days after the Metro Times published an article about them.
Shaman Shu – the Soul Tribes owner – said that 15 armed officers in masks seized more than $700,000 in psilocybin mushrooms, and ordered the church to close.
“They stole ancient sacrament,” Shu says. “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.”
On the other side, Sergeant Jordan Hall of the Detroit Police Department’s media relations team said:
“My understanding was that it was due to a lack of licensing and the amount of substances that were distributed.”
Most notably, Detroit voters approved Proposal E in November, 2021 which decriminalized the personal possession and therapeutic use of entheogenic plants and fungi like Mescaline, Ayahuasca, and Psilocybin in Detroit.
Detroit’s Prop E states that therapeutic use includes the “possession, storage, propagation, provision, transfer or sharing of Entheogenic Plants with another adult or adults with or without remuneration under the advisement or supervision of a licensed therapist, medical professional, or religious leader.”
So the Metro Times reached out to Detroit’s mayor – Mike Duggan – for comment on whether the raid violated Prop E, and received the following reply from Doug Baker, the city’s assistant corporation counsel:
“The Detroit Police Department worked in close coordination with the city’s, law department and building safety, engineering and environmental department in preparing this enforcement action.
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.
Most importantly, the city ordinance itself does not allow for the sale or distribution of psilocybin.”
Not surprisingly, Shu believes that the raid violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And so he plans to file a lawsuit against the City of Detroit and their police department, as well as re-opening the church.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to keep our ears to the ground for updates.
Update: Detroit officials have officially closed the church building, which will no doubt be contested in court.
Sources:
- Detroit ‘psychedelic church’ Soul Tribes Ministries raided by police
- At Michigan’s first psychedelic church and psilocybin dispensary, mushrooms are the holy sacrament
- Detroit, Michigan, Proposal E, Decriminalization of Entheogenic Plants Measure (November 2021)
- Detroit officials close former psychedelic church building after operations suspended
