This story by Faith Miller appeared on Colorado Newsline on July 15, 2022. We are sharing it in two parts.
Rabbi Ben Gorelick is facing a felony drug charge, but he’s not too worried. For one, Gorelick’s Kabbalistic Jewish community, the Sacred Tribe, is located in Denver, where voters moved in 2019 to make the possession and use of psilocybin mushrooms law enforcement’s lowest priority.
For another, Gorelick argues that his organization’s use of the psychedelic ‘shrooms during religious ceremony is constitutionally protected — and he’s optimistic the charge will be dismissed.
“One of the choices that we made at the very beginning of Sacred Tribe was that what we’re doing is absolutely legal in this country … We don’t need to be scared of the legal system,” Gorelick said. “I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t have anything to fear. I don’t have anything to worry about in that sense.”
But while the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion, state and local laws on psilocybin haven’t been tested in this way before. And if Gorelick is convicted, he would face eight to 32 years in prison.
The national backdrop further obscures the Sacred Tribe’s future. Gorelick’s case is playing out as several states and cities consider shifting their approach to substances like “magic mushrooms,” ibogaine, mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.
That includes Colorado.
Gorelick’s next court date is scheduled for September 1 — almost seven months after he turned himself in to the Denver Police Department, and just over two months before Colorado voters will probably get to weigh in on whether criminal penalties for using and possessing plant-based psychedelic substances should be removed from state law.
The groups behind two separate statewide ballot initiatives — one that submitted signatures now under review by the secretary of state, and another that’s still collecting signatures — would take different approaches to easing access to drugs that remain illegal under federal law but which are showing promising applications for conditions such as depression, PTSD and end-of-life anxiety.
Neither explicitly address the religious use of psychedelics, which is a problem for Gorelick.
“In many ways, I don’t have a strong opinion on how psychedelics are placed in the secular world,” Gorelick said. “What I’m concerned about, what I want to make sure, is that there is still religious access to these thousands-of-years-old traditions.”
Ancient roots
The Sacred Tribe was founded in the spirit of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism that emerged in the 12th century. Some Jewish scholars and community leaders believe psychedelics such as DMT — a powerful drug found in a variety of animal and plant species, including the acacia tree — have played a role in Judaism since ancient times.
Gorelick says he’s part of the latest resurgence of this form of Kabbalah, which also appeared in the 1960s with the use of breathwork and psychedelics during religious ceremonies. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 banned the use of many psychedelic drugs, forcing their use largely underground.
While Gorelick views mushrooms as a sacrament that facilitates deeper connection with God, self and others, the Sacred Tribe isn’t all about psychedelic use. Gorelick interviews potential new members to make sure they’re willing to be spiritually introspective and regularly interact with other members. The organization also cultivates its own mushrooms — in fact, it requested a fire inspection at its grow facility, which led to the arrests of Gorelick and another member — and screens members for health conditions that could impact their experience.
When interviewing new members, Gorelick seeks to answer the question, “Why us?”
“There are massively easier access points for mushrooms in this world,” Gorelick said. “Psychedelics are actually not hard to get a hold of, and also, there are a number of other religious communities out there. If you’re looking for traditional Judaism, there are five synagogues in a 10-block radius.”
Most people who are drawn to Sacred Tribe grew up with a strong religious background but at some point drifted away from that, feeling challenged by the structure and dogma of organized religion, Gorelick said. “They’re looking to have a spiritual exploration where they don’t have to trade conformity for belonging — conformity for community,” he explained.
Not everyone consumes the sacrament every ceremony, Gorelick said. Taking mushrooms about once a quarter, he noted, gives most people enough time to properly integrate the experience into their daily lives.
‘Healing centers’
Gorelick isn’t sure whether or how the Sacred Tribe would fit in to the framework proposed by a ballot initiative in Colorado. Initiative 58, known as the Natural Medicines Health Act, would direct the state to set up licensing programs for “healing centers” where people could access drugs like mushrooms, DMT and mescaline with the help of a trained facilitator.
Natural Medicine Colorado, the group behind Initiative 58, turned in signatures to the secretary of state’s office on June 27. The secretary of state’s office is reviewing the signatures to make sure they’re valid, and, if so, voters statewide will decide this fall whether to approve the “healing center” framework. If the measure passes, many of the specifics about how to qualify as a healing center or facilitator would be worked out by the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies with the help of an advisory board.
While Initiative 58 would remove penalties for personal use or possession of plant-based psychedelics, it doesn’t explicitly mention their use by religious groups. Proponents purposely left out peyote, a plant with traditional importance to certain Native American tribes, from the list of substances that would be accessible under the ballot measure.
Kevin Matthews, co-proponent of Initiative 58, described the religious use question as “a federal issue.”
“The work that Rabbi Ben was doing, you know, I think he was providing a safe container for people,” Matthews added. “In our measure, we do talk about under personal use. We talk about spiritual use, which is similar. But in terms of exemptions for religious use for natural medicines, that’s a different conversation than creating a state-regulated model.”
Proponents say their goal in setting up a regulatory framework is to create pathways for people who might not have experience using psychedelics to safely access them.
“We believe that most Coloradans — if they want to be able to access this medicine or use it to heal — that most folks are going to want to, at least at first, use this medicine in supervised settings with trained facilitators and people who just really know how to create a safe container,” Matthews said.
Such a framework would “expand the benefits of these therapies outside of the bubble of people who might be willing to access them outside a regulated system,” added Natural Medicine Colorado spokesperson Taylor West.
Initiative 58 is backed by the New Approach Political Action Committee, a national organization that has spent millions advocating for marijuana legalization measures in the last several election cycles, according to OpenSecrets.org, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance. The New Approach PAC’s largest contributors have included the van Ameringen Foundation, a private foundation that advocates for LGBTQ issues; Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a California-based company whose CEO is a vocal supporter of psychedelic decriminalization; and Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm that invests in the cannabis industry.
With the passage of Initiative 58, Colorado could be one of the first states to allow adults 21 and older legal, regulated access to multiple Schedule I psychedelics. Like marijuana, the drugs would remain federally illegal without action by Congress, which probably won’t happen anytime soon. Oregon is on track to become the first state allowing regulated access to magic mushrooms. Voters approved a ballot measure to do that in 2020, and the program is set to roll out next year.