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Rabbi Ben Gorelick is facing up to 32 years in prison for distributing psychedelics. His defense rests on the argument that tripping is a Jewish rite

John Semley
Sat 25 Jun 2022 06.00 EDT. Original story in The Guardian


On 10 January, just as the sun was setting behind the Rocky Mountains, uniformed narcotics officers raided an industrial storage facility in Denver’s north end, in a commercial strip between a coffee wholesaler and a plumbing supply store. There, they found scales, petri dishes, grow tents and multiple white miniature freezer units, jam-packed with several pounds of magic mushrooms.

The facility was linked to Benjamin Gorelick, a rabbi who leads the Sacred Tribe, a multi-faith membership-based non-profit, which Gorelick calls a “synagogue”. The Sacred Tribe counts about 270 members and Jewishness is not a precondition of membership. (According to its website, they even welcome “rascally atheists”.) The Sacred Tribe celebrates the Jewish high holidays, hosts breath-work seminars, and routinely congregates for a “sacred sacrament”, in which the mushrooms feature.