Mushroom foraging becomes ‘a spiritual journey with nature’

And anyway, he couldn’t very well have the church start supplying mushrooms and incorporating them into its sermons without trying them first. An average mushroom dose for recreational purposes ranges between one to two-and-a-half grams, and this is the range where Hodges claims that life becomes more vivid and colorful, and plants look like they’re breathing. No special education or background is required to be a trip-sitter, only a dedication to magic mushrooms. Hodges has been training one churchgoer, Christopher Tindall, for the lead trip-sitting role. Hodges resumed the live sermons several months ago as COVID rates declined, albeit cautiously. They currently take place only once per month and for a smaller group of members, at a temporary location on Livingston Street near the Oakland harbor.

Psychedelic mushrooms are among the entheogens that are being decriminalized and legalized by more cities and states around the country. In Oakland, there’s a church where ‘magic mushrooms’ are considered a sacrament. The Oakland Police Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Denver, in May, became the first city in the U.S. to allow the use of psilocybin mushrooms.

The church, which says it has held “several hundred religious services” since it opened its doors in February 2019, embraces the use of entheogenic plants like cannabis and mushrooms. Doing so gives members “a direct connection with a higher consciousness, their own eternal souls, spiritual beings and God,” according to its complaint filed earlier this month in U.S. As a growing number of localities including Oakland decriminalize magic mushrooms and other so-called entheogenic plants, lawyers tell me that conflicts over the parameters of use may become increasingly common. Zide Door is one of the few places in the United States where people can purchase mushrooms without being legally penalized or taxed, as long as they are granted membership, a process that consists of answering an online questionnaire. Among the questions is, “Do you work for law enforcement or any government agency? ” Members must also agree to accept entheogenic plants as part of the religious onboarding.

Members must first apply by filling out an application that asks whether they work for law enforcement or any other government agency, and whether they believe adults should have a safe place to use or acquire entheogenic plants. The church doesn’t limit how much sacrament a member can get, it “all depends on what they need to do their own work,” Hodges said. But the church, which views cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms as “sacrament,” has launched a novel legal fight against the City of Oakland that intertwines local zoning law grievances with constitutional allegations of religious discrimination. An Oakland church that promotes the use of psychedelic mushrooms and cannabis sues the police and the government over a police raid that happened two years ago. Though the psychedelic decriminalization movement has its critics—including from inside the drug policy reform and harm reduction movements—it is here to stay and growing stronger.

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Some offered mystical descriptions of the hallucinogens as providing spiritual healing. Featuring live company presentations, insider panels, and unmatched access to networking, the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference is where cannabis executives and entrepreneurs meet. Meet the biggest cannabis industry players and make deals that will push the industry forward.

Because a city this offbeat deserves a newsletter with some bite—a dose of arts, culture and more. Church founder Dave Hodges said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, he conducted sermons every week at the Oakland building and would pass out joints to members before the service began. He emphasized that mushrooms are intended to be taken off-site, where members won’t have to drive for at least eight hours after consumption. Surveillance footage shows firefighter receiving treatment following an August 2020 raid at the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants in Oakland. Instead, they will be shared in collectives, so there is space to have an experience.

That makes it the second U.S. city to do so – last month, Denver voters approved a similar ballot initiative that decriminalizes the “magic” mushrooms. Magic Mushrooms Effectively Decriminalized In Oakland That makes it the second U.S. city to do so – last month, Denver voters approved a ballot initiative that decriminalizes the “magic” mushrooms. “We have many mental challenges on our streets today, and it’s important to be able to freely provide whatever medicinal support we can, including the use of plants that have beneficial effects for thousands of years,” Gallo said.

The name partner at San Francisco-based Gross & Belsky and founding board member of the Psychedelic Bar Association predicts psychedelics will ultimately follow “a very similar path as with cannabis” to legalization. The plaintiffs argue that Oakland’s land use laws impose a “substantial burden” on their exercise of religion in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects churches and other religious entities from discrimination in zoning. Photograph of psilocybin mushrooms by Cannabis Pictures via Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0. While various evidence supports some of these claims, not all are universally accepted, including by some harm reduction-oriented experts. And different impacted people, obviously, have very different experiences. In November 2020, California’s neighbor to the north, Oregon, became the first US state to decriminalize all drugs.

City Councilman Luke Londo led the effort among council members to decriminalize entheogenic plants in Hazel Park. “Entheogenic plants and fungi are tremendous for helping to enable healing, particularly for folks who have experienced trauma in their lives,” Carlos Plazola, chair of the advocacy group Decriminalize Nature Oakland, said before the council meeting. “These plants are being recommended pretty extensively undercover, underground, by doctors and therapists.” The problem is that there are no locations zoned for the religious use of entheogenic plants, and permits are requiredd for all establishments in the city. According to his complaint, the police raid wasunlawful and violated the plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights.Nevertheless, thefocal point of the lawsuit is actually Oakland’s land use regulations. The vote makes the investigation and arrest of adults who grow, possess and use the substances as one of the lowest priorities for police.

Entheogenic substances are considered Schedule 1 drugs under the federal Controlled Substances Act, which categorizes drugs that have potential for abuse and no medical value. Last year, the California State Senate approved Senate Bill 519, which would decriminalize magic mushrooms along with other psychedelic substances. But Senator Scott Weiner, who authored the bill, pulled the bill before a vote to gather more support.

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The amended resolution also clarifies that commercial sale or manufacturing entheogens remain illegal, as does possessing or distributing them at schools and driving under the influence of them. The organization has a Michigan-based affiliate, Decriminalize Nature Michigan, which was instrumental in Detroit voters approving decriminalization last year with 61 percent support. The ordinance also directs the city administrator to come back within a year to provide the council with an assessment of the law’s community impact. Councilmember Noel Gallo, who introduced the resolution, had said decriminalizing such plants would enable Oakland police to focus on serious crime.

Greg Lake, a partner at Benouis Law Office and entheogenic church consultant, said he thinks Hodges has a strong case. “There’s a lot of good evidence to point to that this is a religion,” he said, noting courts have used a 12-factor analysis to make the call. They believe that psychedelic mushroom is the reason for the evolution of human communication and the concept of religion.

Zide Door founder Dave Hodges did not respond to my questions about the case, and the church’s lawyer, Editte Lerman of Emerald Law, did not respond to requests for comment. He’s also a musician hoping to change the world through the power of ledger lines and legislation. From the county stated that opioid-involved deaths specifically decreased 49 percent since 2015. It cited a combination of factors contributing to this fall, including better access to buprenorphine and naloxone. Plazola also claimed—citing an anonymous source—that home-growing of psilocybin for personal use has increased significantly since 2019.

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Denver;s strategy was focused on psilocybin through a voter-centered route. DNO ensured the resolution included all plant medicine because individuals should have autonomy over what plants they use to heal. We wanted to make sure people had that choice, eco sober house ma because there is a wealth of plants. Going the council route resulted in the consultation of professionals in the psychedelic space — scientists, therapists, and input from community leaders before the resolution was presented to council.

• East Oakland physician Steve Lovato, at Tuesday’s meeting, pointed out that the Johns Hopkins study only recommends that the U.S.
• Doing so gives members “a direct connection with a higher consciousness, their own eternal souls, spiritual beings and God,” according to its complaint filed earlier this month in U.S.
• The Oakland Police Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
• An East Oakland church that gives out cannabis and psychedelic plants as sacrament filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department over a 2020 police raid.
• The church’s founder, Dave Hodges, dresses and speaks very much like the computer repair technician he once was, before diving into California’s “wild west” grey-market medical cannabis industry back in 2009.

Hodges said since the ordinance was approved, Romero has led a campaign of “smash-and-grabs” on Measure Z clubs, that result in the business closing for a few weeks before reopening. Around the time the Zide Door Church was raided, Hodges said, at least four clubs had been raided. Barbara Parker said her office hasn’t yet been served with the lawsuit as of Wednesday afternoon. Local lawmakers are working to establish regulations to control how the substance is used and what potential risks are involved. A year from now, city administrators will meet again to provide City Council an assessment of how the law impacted the community.

Hodges said he is actively working with an attorney on compiling a legal case against OPD on the grounds that the department violated religious freedom laws. He now views the raid, and the pending legal challenge, as unfortunate but necessary steps in a longer-term effort to safeguard the church and its practices. Instead, said Hodges, the officers, aided by personnel from Oakland Fire Department, insisted on breaking into the church’s safe boxes with the help of rescue tools.

After hours of work, they succeeded in tearing open two of them, seizing $5,000 in cash and $200,000 worth of cannabis and mushrooms. After cleaning up the mess left behind by the raid, he reopened Zide Door 24 hours later. “Access to mental health in the community is an issue; mental health eco sober house rating and medical professionals in East Oakland are not calling for legalization of mushrooms as a solution,” Lovato said. Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study on how psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, can benefit those dealing with depression.

Bill to decriminalize psychedelics in California gutted by lawmakers

The Oakland measure, which gained unanimous approval, decriminalizes adult use of psychoactive plants and fungi, including mushrooms, cacti, iboga and ayahuasca. Decriminalization means the city is effectively directing law enforcement not to investigate or prosecute people for the use, sale or distribution of these plants and fungi. The city council’s vote directed law enforcement to cease investigating and prosecuting individuals for using or possessing drugs sourced from plants, cacti and – most commonly – mushrooms that contain the hallucinogen psilocybin. The decriminalization is expected to allow law enforcement to focus on more serious, high-priority crime. The City Council voted unanimously to decriminalize the adult use and possession of magic mushrooms and other entheogenic, or psychoactive, plants and fungi.

• The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies entheogenic substances as Schedule I substances, meaning that they fall into a category of drugs that have the potential for abuse and no medical value.
• As a monkey who has just seen god, you would be compelled to try to explain what you saw to another monkey.
• “Growing up in the Mexican community, this was our cure,” Gallo said, the AP reported.
• The church does not allow people to take mushrooms on-site due to safety issues and instead encourages people to take psychedelics in a place where they won’t have to drive for at least 8 hours.

Instead, church members would pay a $5 membership fee per month to receive the church’s “sacrament”, cannabis and mushrooms grown by the church. It is already rare for law enforcement to prioritize arrests and prosecution for mushrooms. But city law doesn’t prevent state or federal authorities from enforcing their own drug laws. That’s why the Oakland Community Healing Initiative calls for the state government to legally guarantee that cities allowing group healing ceremonies will not be raided. Neither does she believe that psychedelic decriminalization has created any domino effect to improve how police interact with people who use other drugs in the city where she lives.

“Since DNO believes entheogens should not be commodified, there will be no sales of entheogenic plants and fungi, and we will work closely with local communities to share resources,” Gallo wrote in a report to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. The resolution stemmed from a movement at the state level to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms; a state ballot measure failed to qualify in 2018. Activists are gathering signatures to put a measure to legalize the medical use of psilocybin mushrooms on the Oregon state ballot next year. The move means that those who possess and engage in planting and other involvement with entheogenic plants are now the lowest law enforcement priority in Hazel Park. Hazel Park on Tuesday became the third city in the state to decriminalize magic mushrooms and other psychedelic, or entheogenic, plants.

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According to the state health department, drug overdose deaths in Alameda County remained relatively stable between 2008 and 2018, rising very slightly in 10 years to about 9.6 deaths per 100,000 people. And Plazola said with pride that the reform has inspired more people in the city to learn about and work with entheogens. It’s important to note that the apparent virtual absence of entheogen arrests comes in the context of rates that were already low. Prior to decriminalization, the OPD reported only 19 cases of psilocybin confiscation in five years, but kept no data on arrests for other entheogens. Opponents of the move are concerned that it will encourage people to experiment with potentially harmful drugs, Hutson adds, while supporters see potential therapeutic effects.

On June 4, Oakland decriminalizedmagic mushroomsand other entheogenic plants after more than 30 people testified and shared how psychedelics have helped them overcomedepression,anxiety,drug addiction, andpost-traumatic stress disorder. On its website, the Zide Door Church says it follows a nondenominational, interfaith religion called The Church of Ambrosia. The Oakland church first opened its doors in 2019 after Oakland https://sober-home.org/ passed a resolution the same year that decriminalized certain natural psychedelics, including mushrooms, and instructed law enforcement to stop investigating and prosecuting people using the drugs. The resolution does not authorize commercial sales or manufacturing of the plants. The retailers listed on Bliss’ website aren’t the only locations where locals have been able to buy magic mushrooms in recent years.