Detroit police raid psilocybin church after newspaper story

A church that allegedly uses entheogenic plants such as psilocybin mushrooms as a holy sacrament was raided by Detroit Police Department officers on Friday, just two days after a newspaper article about it was published in the Detroit Metro Times.

According to a follow-up article in the Detroit Metro Times, officers seized about $700,000 in psilocybin mushroom products as well as ayahuasca and iboga from Soul Tribes International Ministries on Friday at 15000 Southfield Freeway in Detroit, according to a follow-up article in the Detroit Metro Times. Officials with the Detroit Police Department confirmed to Metro Times that the raid took place, but did not comment on the actions or further details about what happened there.

Soul Tribes owner “Shaman Shu” (formerly Robert Shumake) said 15 DPD officers showed up armed and masked, confiscated the mushroom products and ordered the church closed. Shu told the outlet he believes the actions taken by police were a violation of Proposal E, a 2021 city initiative that decriminalized the use of psychedelic plants and mushrooms such as psilocybin.

“They stole the ancient sacrament. It was prayed and meditated on. It is a healing sacrament… They blocked my property without due process. That’s not possible,” Shu told Metro Times. “They think we’re not a church. But that’s why the federal government was created, to separate church and state so that cities wouldn’t have an opinion about what churches were [and] what ministries are. We are a ministry and a religious organization.”

The original article stated that Soul Tribes operated a “sacrament center” within the church where they sold dried psilocybin fruit, capsules and gummies to church members, based on language in Proposal E that allowed therapeutic use of psilocybin under the supervision of religious leaders, although this remains illegal under Michigan state law.

Regardless, Proposition E did not allow the sale of entheogenic plants and mushrooms, which likely led to Soul Tribes getting into trouble with the police. Metro Times reached out to the Detroit mayor’s office for comment on the raid and whether or not DPD’s actions were approved by the city. They then received the following comment from Doug Baker, the city’s deputy business consultant:

“The Detroit Police Department worked closely with the city’s Law Department and the Department of Building Safety, Engineering and Environment in preparing this enforcement action,” Baker said. “It is the position of the Legal Department that this local ordinance, despite its intent, does not override state law that deems psilocybin a controlled substance. Most importantly, the city ordinance itself does not permit the sale or distribution of psilocybin.”

DPD Media Relations Sgt. Jordan Hall told the outlet, “My understanding was that [the raid] This was due to a lack of licenses and the volume of substances distributed.”

Soul Tribes operates out of a long-vacant church on Detroit’s west side in a 60,000-square-foot campus that Shu purchased about three months before the raid. The church’s official opening was scheduled for November, but the Sacrament Center opened on Labor Day weekend and Shu told the outlet that all products came from mushrooms he grew himself, citing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as his legal defense for it.

“We have a right to our sacrament. We have a right to our belief system,” Shu told Metro Times before he was searched. “We are a small indigenous belief system that believes we can heal the world with these techniques and our plants. You become a member of our church, just as you would in any church, temple or mosque. We are no different.”

Shu had actually been in discussions with DPD before the raid, and emails the branch reportedly received showed they were working on arranging a meeting just the week before.

“As you may already know, your service has definitely caused a stir in the community,” Sergeant Crystal Johns said in an email to Shaman Shu on Sept. 17. “Many of the questions and documented laws are beyond my understanding, but the city’s legal department and our law enforcement officers would like to have a conversation with you.”

No arrests appear to have been made and it was not immediately clear whether Shaman Shu had legal recourse to sue, although a Detroit attorney told Metro Times that Shu may have precedent for his case. Shu claimed to the press that he was fulfilling his obligations as a religious leader and had a legal right to do what he was doing.

“We have a Percocet crisis, we have an Oxycontin crisis and we have a fentanyl crisis,” Shu said. “It has been proven that the sacred medicinal plant is used to cure mental illnesses in people [issues]and that’s what this is about.”