Oakland Church Sues Cops : “Psilocybin Mushrooms Are Our Sacrament”

The Psychedelic ‘Church of Ambrosia’

One such church in East Oakland, The Church of Ambrosia (COA), has been doing just that since 2019 when the city decriminalised natural psychedelics, also known as ‘entheogens’. The COA chose the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants as its local “chapel” or physical location: a refuge for parishioners to receive weed joints and magic mushrooms, while hearing the weekly sermons of church founder Dave Hodges. 

Hodges believes that about 2 million years ago, early humans were able to invent the world’s first religions after discovering magic mushrooms — and tripping out for the first time. Shrooms allow a person to pass “every dimension: heaven, hell, and everything in between”, Hodges says, which is why he takes a heroic dose regularly to visit this “space of pure light”. 

As the church founder tells the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Nothing exists but one consciousness, which is the consciousness that I call God. We do believe that this is the truest form of religion — having your own direct experience with God.”

To join the church, one must fill out an application form asking whether or not they work for law enforcement (or the government as a whole), and whether or not they believe adults should be able to use or get psychedelics in a safe place. Despite the $5 monthly fee, the church does not limit the amount of sacrament a member can get, says Hodges:

“It all depends on what they need to do their own work.”

2020 Raid by Oakland Police

In August of 2020, Oakland Police received a tip claiming that the Church of Ambrosia was “selling drugs”. This resulted in a raid of Zide Door, an easy-to-miss beige building at 1216 10th Ave. near East 12th Street. Police confiscated roughly $200,000 worth of magic mushrooms and cannabis, some cash, and computers. Their reasoning? The church was allegedly operating as a cannabis dispensary without a permit.

Was it legit? Depends on how you define “selling drugs”, which Hodges claims he doesn’t do… 

Prior to the raid, members would pay a $5 membership fee per month (plus donations) to receive the church-grown magic mushrooms or weed. Demand was so high that Hodges issued 60,000 membership cards overall — and almost 200 people visited the church on a daily basis to claim their shrooms or cannabis. 

Hodges told the newspaper:

“This is not just an excuse to sell drugs. This is what we truly believe is the origin of all religion and really what religion should be.”

Surveillance footage from the raid has around a dozen officers, some bearing firearms, coming up to the church’s entrance. The video then shows the church’s security guards walking out with their hands in the air. 

Within the church itself, firefighters can be seen using an electric saw to break into a safe. The raid had caused at least $50,000 worth of damage to the building, according to Hodges:

“We are just glad they didn’t burn down the building doing what they did.”

Hodges has still not recovered any of the magic mushrooms, cannabis, cash, or computers from the Police Department. He seeks unspecified damages and wishes to reclaim the items from the raid, not to mention attorney’s fees.

Lawsuit Filed in Federal Court

In late August of this year, the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Oakland, its Police Department, and a specific police officer over the raid two years ago. The civil rights suit claims that by discriminating against religious beliefs, the local police have violated the church’s First and 14th amendment rights. 

The litigation is still pending — meaning the city and its Police Department have not been served with the complaint yet. Nevertheless, the suit could serve as a litmus test on how far “religious freedom” can exempt a person from existing laws. Can the church be allowed to dole out cannabis joints and shrooms as ‘sacraments’ to qualified members (i.e. those who paid the $5 tithe) if it wasn’t registered as a dispensary? 

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean at UC Berkeley’s law school, says that state laws override religious beliefs in this case.

The dean explained to the San Francisco Chronicle:

“The bottom line is that a First Amendment defense is unlikely to succeed [in becoming] a state law prosecution.”

Equal Protection

According to the lawsuit, since the parishioners use magic mushrooms and cannabis as a sacrament, the raid was a direct violation of their religious freedoms. 

Oakland’s “denial of any application” for “their operations” has blocked their rights to exercise religion freely, says the complaint, thus violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Hodges argues that the church is exempt from getting the same permits as a ‘normal dispensary’, due to the First and 14th Amendments. If given the chance, though, the COA founder admitted to the newspaper that “it would be nice” to get a city permit as a dispensary — so that the cops are left with no choice but to “leave us alone.”

Sacrament or Sale? 

While Oakland is rapidly expanding its access to controlled substances, the use of shrooms and magic truffles is still illegal under state and federal law. It’s not technically allowed, legally speaking. Since early 2022, psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, has been ranked in Oakland as among the ‘lowest of priority’ in terms of offences, also known as being “decriminalised”. 

Back in 2019, the city council passed a resolution to stop arresting people who use magic mushrooms and other “entheogenic plants” — one that the church has invoked in its lawsuit against the city and its Police. 

Soon, Hodges must convince a judge that his church does use psilocybin and cannabis for religious purposes. He also hopes that the Church of Ambrosia will be granted an exemption to use the Schedule 1 substances, similar to how peyote is exempted for ritual use by the Native American Church (NAC).

However, Oakland police claim that the COA’s $5 monthly fee in exchange for the psilocybin and cannabis sacraments is the same as unlicensed drug dealing, thus making the raid valid. Hodges rebukes this claim and wrote in the lawsuit that his church and Zide Door “preach against the non-religious use of drugs and alcohol.”

“…[The church creates] a progressive and creative worship experience for its members, offering meditation, prayer and study groups,” the complaint reads. 

It adds that the “sincere, sacramental use of entheogenic plants and fungi, including cannabis and psilocybin” is “central and essential” to their religion.

Psilocybin Sermon

Hodges told the San Francisco Chronicle that the lawsuit is meant to hold Oakland Police responsible for raiding the church “illegally”, and to ask the city to respect their religion’s dogma. Who are they to say what a sacred experience is?

In his weekly sermons at the Oakland building, Hodges dressed in robes embroidered with cannabis leaves. He would then speak about his latest magic mushroom trip and “the insights” he discovered while visiting “these deep realms”. And before COVID, he parishioners would hand out joints and shrooms prior to the sermon. 

Fun fact! 

Did you know that for safety reasons, the church does not allow members to take psychedelics onsite? Instead, they are asked to take shrooms and cannabis where they won’t need to drive (or operate heavy machinery) for at least 8 hours. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? 

These days, however, the church is quiet as, well, a church mouse. Since COVID, Hodges has had only one in-person sermon, in February, with around 24 people in attendance. 

Shrooms as Religious Experience

Whether or not Hodges’s lawsuit can hold water in court remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure, however: the rise of evidence-based psychedelic research  is likely to sway a judge in their favour — or at least give it a second look. The natural antidepressant benefits of psilocybin are a godsend, now more than ever. 

Jesse Choper, Law Professor at UC Berkeley, thinks that the Church of Ambrosia may have a case if their religion truly sees magic mushrooms or cannabis as a requirement:

“If it’s not a sham business, I would say the smokers got a pretty good case.”

Here’s hoping for some of that sweet divine intervention!