Soul Tribes International Ministries — billed as Detroit’s first “psychedelic church” where psilocybin mushrooms are offered as a holy sacrament — was raided by the Detroit Police Department on Friday, just days after Metro Times published a cover story about it.
DPD confirmed that a search was conducted on the 15000 block of the Southfield Freeway, but declined to give a reason for the investigation or provide further details about what was taken from the property. Metro Times obtained a copy of a search warrant issued by the Third Judicial Circuit Court on Thursday, Sept. 21 for Soul Tribes International Ministries at 15000 Southfield Freeway.
Soul Tribes opened inside Bushnell Congregational Church over Labor Day weekend with plans to host healing ceremonies with psilocybin mushrooms and other entheogenic plants like ayahuasca and iboga. The church runs a “sacrament center” which sells dried psilocybin mushrooms, capsules, and gummies.
The warrant states all narcotics including “psychedelic mushrooms” were to be seized from the “illegal dispensary inside the purported church” along with “all books, records, receipts, notes, ledgers, and other papers relating to the procurement, distribution, storage, and transportation of controlled substances.”
Soul Tribes owner Shaman Shu says 15 armed officers in masks showed up, seized more than $700,000 in psilocybin mushrooms intended for therapeutic use, 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.”
He adds, “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.”
Shu is also behind Proposal E, which voters approved in November and decriminalized the personal possession and therapeutic use of entheogenic plants and fungi like mescaline, ayahuasca, and psilocybin in Detroit. According to Proposal E, 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.”
DPD Sgt. for media relations Jordan Hall says the search and shut down may have been due to licensing issues but could not provide further details. “My understanding was that it was due to a lack of licensing and the amount of substances that were distributed,” he says.
Metro Times reached out to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s office for comment on whether the raid violates Proposal E, which Detroiters passed by 61%. “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,” says Doug Baker, the city’s assistant corporation counsel. “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.”
He adds, “Most importantly, the city ordinance itself does not allow for the sale or distribution of psilocybin.”
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Shu believes he is a religious leader and the raid violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“That’s a total religious right discrimination,” he says. “Why would you come and shut down a 100-year-old building, because there’s been a shift in belief systems? You’re saying that we’re not allowed to practice our African sciences.”
He plans to file a lawsuit against the City of Detroit and DPD and says he planned to reopen the church on Monday.
Thomas Lavigne, an attorney at Cannabis Counsel law firm, says while entheogens are decriminalized in Detroit they remain illegal under state law. He believes there may be some precedent for a lawsuit against DPD based on religious rights, but it could be tricky.
“It’s kind of difficult to overcome, but it sounds like they had an established church and some of the precedent requires that the substance be an official sacrament rather than just an afterthought of the religion,” Lavigne says. “It sounds like this one might fall along those lines.”
He adds, “On the one hand, we have the Religious Freedom Restoration Act [and] a lot of rightwingers are trying to use it to justify not supporting women and abortion decisions like the Hobby Lobby thing. And we’ve thought, ‘Well, they opened the door, let’s use that against them.’ Unfortunately, we’re seeing an inconsistency there.”
Since Soul Tribes opened, some in the psychedelic community have questioned whether someone with Shu’s criminal history should be trusted to guide plant medicine ceremonies. Shu, formerly known as Robert Shumake, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations of the Michigan Credit Services Protection Act. He also pleaded guilty, on behalf of his former business, to two felony counts of obtaining money by false pretenses for collecting upfront fees for mortgage audit services. He has since had the convictions expunged. In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him and two business associates of running a misleading crowdfunding campaign for a cannabis real estate company.
He also since changed his name to Shaman Shu, and maintains that his criminal history is in the past.
“Of course, people talk about ‘Robert Shumake’ and those things but God blessed me and gave me a different outlook on life,” Shu says. “Maybe that’s politics about something in the past, but that’s no longer who I am. I am Shaman Shu. It’s real. It’s not a plaything. It’s a spiritual context. This is our indigenous practice.”
Shu says he met with DPD before the search in an attempt to explain the church’s religious beliefs and practices. Emails obtained by Metro Times between Shu and DPD Sgt. Crystal Johns appear to show they were working to set up additional meetings the week prior to the raid.
“As you may already be aware, your ministry has definitely perked up some ears in the community,” an email from Sept. 17 reads. “Many of the questions and documented laws are above my understanding but the City’s legal team and our Police executives would like to have a conversation with you.”
In addition to religious discrimination, Shu says the DPD raid is an attack on mental health as researchers and scientists are beginning to study psilocybin’s purported mental health benefits.
“We have a Percocet crisis, we have an Oxycontin crisis, and we have a fentanyl crisis,” Shu says. “It’s been proven that the sacred plant medicine has been used to heal people from mental health [issues], and that’s what this is about.”
This article was updated with additional comment from the city.
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