SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco “psychedelic church” that gained nationwide consideration for its adherence to the “spiritual power” of psilocybin mushrooms shall be closing its doorways by the top of the yr. Zide Door will shut its location within the metropolis’s SOMA neighborhood with its pastor citing harassment from the San Francisco Planning Division.
The church, in keeping with a press launch, was the “victim of a city planning department bent on expelling the institution,” in keeping with Pastor Dave Hodges.
Zide Door was opened by the Church of Ambrosia in April of 2023. The church will keep its founding web site in Oakland the place it would proceed to serve its 120,000 members, in keeping with Pastor Hodges.
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“The Oakland church showcases an impressive mural and other significant psychedelic art,” the information launch mentioned.
Based on Hodges, SF Planning Division officers have focused the church with “mandates for structural updates,” a few of which weren’t required when the church opened. Hodges additionally cited a “political climate for psychedelics” he mentioned has deteriorated since State Sen. Scott Wiener’s “magic mushroom bill” SB1012 stalled in committee.
The invoice would have allowed psychedelic-assisted remedy in California “in keeping with the growing national interest in psilocybin’s beneficial uses,” the church mentioned, including that the legislative setback “dampened local efforts to achieve a more favorable environment for psychedelic sacraments.”
The church additionally accused the planning division of criticizing the church within the media. Hodges mentioned that he’s involved that the Planning Division’s “targeting” of the church may represent spiritual discrimination.
“It’s obviously hostility from people in the Planning Department,” Hodges mentioned.
The structural fixes levied on the church by the planning division are within the six-figure worth vary, in keeping with the church. Hodges went on to say that if “tolerance toward the church improves,” Zide Door could possibly be reopened in San Francisco.
