The Denver district attorney’s office has dropped felony drugs charges filed against Rabbi Ben Gorelick, citing voters’ approval of a psilocybin legalization ballot measure in last month’s midterm elections. At a preliminary hearing in the case on December 8, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against Gorelick and a chemist arrested in a police raid last winter, saying the motion was filed “in the interest of justice.”

Carolyn Tyler, a Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson, said that the decision to dismiss the felony charges against the defendants was made “in light of the voters’ decision” to approve Proposition 122. Colorado voters approved the initiative measure, which legalizes psilocybin for therapeutic purposes, in the November 8 election with nearly 54% of ballots cast.

“I don’t know what everything got dismissed on or for,” Gorelick told The Denver Post. “At this point in time, what I can tell you is I’m very, very, very grateful to the DA’s office for dropping the case. It’s been a long year for the community, it’s been a long year for us, and we look forward to getting back to practicing our religion, which is what the whole point of this is.”

Gorelick is the founder of The Sacred Tribe, a religious group based in Denver that uses psilocybin and other methods as paths to spiritual enlightenment. In January, police raided a warehouse in Denver where he was allegedly growing more than 30 varieties of psychedelic mushrooms. Gorelick was arrested the following month and charged with possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance, a first-degree felony. In June, he told High Times that he intended to fight the charges, which carried a mandatory minimum sentence of at least eight years, on religious freedom grounds.

Group Ends Psychedelics Services After Raid

After the police raid earlier this year, The Sacred Tribe temporarily suspended its activities. The group has since begun meeting again for religious dinners and other events without the use of psilocybin. Elle Logan, who has been a member of the group since last year, said the case “broke the community in a lot of ways,” but added that she was not surprised when the charges against Gorelick were dropped.

“The psychedelic movement, the plant medicine movement, and with Prop 122 passing, there’s amazing momentum going into a brand new future that looks really different for a lot of people in terms of mental health and spiritual wellness,” Logan said. “Ben’s heart has been in that place from the get-go… I’ve known his heart the whole time, that’s never been in question and I’m glad the court saw it too.”

Gorelick maintains that there is a long tradition of psychedelics in Judaism, although other Jewish leaders who advocate for the use of psychedelics dispute his assertion of their history. One of those advocates, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who was ordained by an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, formed the psychedelics advocacy group Shefa and hopes that one day the powerful compounds will become an accepted part of Jewish spirituality. 

Kamenetz took part in a study that researched the effect psilocybin has on religious leaders. He supports the use of psilocybin for spiritual purposes, although he warns that until they are legalized, psychedelics should only be taken as part of approved research.

“I’m one of the very few people who can say they’ve had a legal experience with psychedelics in this country,” Kamenetz said last year. “To be able to speak freely about it without the stigma — because it’s not just people talking about doing illegal things — it’s allowed people to start having a more open conversation about it. When there’s the opportunity to hear from someone who did this in a legal environment, people will listen more.”

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It’s not common to hear from a defendant during an ongoing case, especially when involving felony drug charges. Denver-based Rabbi Ben Gorelick is bucking that norm. Instead, the 42-year-old is using the media to amplify his message about psychedelic ceremonies, as well as their connection to Judaism and numerous other religions.

Aware of the potential legal consequences, Gorelick appeared anything but fazed by the situation when he spoke with High Times in early June. Calm, friendly and confident, the Rabbi said he was ready for his day in court—whenever that may come.

A Religious Awakening Leads To Psychedelics

Religion has always been part of the Gorelick family. The first decade of Ben’s life was spent in a tight-knit Orthodox community in northern New Mexico. At 10, a move to Albuquerque saw the family join a conservative Jewish synagogue when they couldn’t find an Orthodox community nearby.

“I had a very strongly religious childhood and upbringing, which I mostly appreciate,” said Gorelick.

He credits his religious upbringing for driving home critical life lessons, including his small role in a larger society. Despite the largely positive experiences, Gorelick felt his upbringing left him naive, thinking life was fair and equal for all. That viewpoint and his connection to religion waned after moving to Alaska at 17 for college.

He always loved nature, with Alaska making the fondness stronger. Two years in, however, Gorelick’s views would be immensely tested when a close friend died in his arms during an avalanche. The experience and reading Nietzsche propelled him in a direction away from religion. He searched for life’s answers, often ending up in nature.

By 25, he had co-founded Mountain Training School, a program for aspiring mountain guides. He claims that most people can learn about the mountains with four years of training. Developing the needed personal traits to be a mountain guide is more complicated. When shaping the curriculum, Gorelick relied on his religious background—in particular, Mussar, a traditional Jewish spiritual development path for awareness, wisdom, and transformation.

“I stuck a secular skin right over the top of this very old Jewish thing,” he said, adapting portions to resonate with outdoor guide students.

Gorelick left the school In 2015 after 11 years. He claims to have done so to find more opportunities to work with introspection and human growth. To do so, he turned to rabbinical school. Instead of finding religious insights, he felt that “seminary was a law school for 4000-year-old laws.”

Deflated by the experience and other interactions with fellow Rabbis in the years since Gorelick searched for a way to create transcendent experiences. In 2018, he found his answer in Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism. The religion gained mainstream attention in the early 2000s as part of a celebrity religious wave, most notably taken up by Madonna.

Gorelick said that Kabbalah’s underpinning component is breathwork, with ecstatic sound, movement, and psilocybin sacraments playing critical roles. The sacraments reportedly marked the first time the then-38-year-old touched any prohibited drug. His first trip, going down in a friend’s apartment, brought about a life-changing experience.

“That was the very first time in my life I had felt God, like that place of oneness and openness,” he recalled. “Holy shit,” Gorelick added.

He began forming psychedelic circles with other Rabbis and cantors after realizing most of his peers had not experienced anything similar. The Sacred Tribe was formed in late 2019.

“It started out and still exists as a children’s religious school,” the Rabbi pointed out, reporting to have over 1,000 students enrolled today. Like MTS, the school uses Mussar as its model. Minors are not given psychedelic sacraments.

In 2020, an adult component was added. Gorelick said the group chose to make their ceremonies public knowledge rather than operate underground like various other groups he reports are doing so today.

COVID mostly derailed in-person interactions until late 2020. Since then, the group had picked back up, with over 260 members in the adult cohort, with the average member age hovering in the mid-40s.

From Fire Inspection To Felony Charges

By 2021, The Sacred Tribe was holding regular Friday night sacrament ceremonies, with members typically participating once a quarter, according to Gorelick. Working with 39 psilocybin strains, the community aimed to help members with various intentions, from embarking on an inner journey to sparking creativity.

Gorelick, who holds a degree in chemical engineering, said the group never intended to skirt laws. Instead, he said the focus has always been to gain federal religious exemption status via the DEA’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Following the agency’s instructions, Gorelick said there is “the caveat that at some point in time, they’re going to come knocking on your door” to prove the religious practice and ceremonies are genuine. With that day always looming, the group prepared, working with psychedelics professionals to ensure compliance with Colorado and federal laws. The community has partnered with professionals from Johns Hopkins University and various psychedelic labs along the way.

Still, they did not expect their day with the authorities to happen in January 2022.

It all went down during a fire inspection. Gorelick claims the inspector mistook him for a well-known drug dealer in the area. Hours later, a warrant was granted. Authorities searched the group’s facility, apprehending one employee and confiscating every mushroom on-site. Gorelick was arrested weeks later and charged with possession with the intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance. If found guilty, he faces a minimum of eight years in prison.

He’s since pushed back on the charges, pointing toward the group’s reputation as evidence of compliance.

“There are no complaints lodged against us,” he claimed.

He claims to follow all regulated standards and guidelines, producing every sacrament in a commercial facility.

“We’re not going to do it in Larry’s closet,” he remarked.

More so, Gorelick points towards Kabbalah’s connection to psilocybin ceremonies. Dating back thousands of years, he contends the group is within its rights and is ready to prove its exempt status. The Rabbi is prepared to demonstrate their efforts have always been spiritual, intentional, and within their rights.

“It still feels like a conversation rather than anything,” he said of the proceedings.

That feeling may come from Gorelick’s confidence or maybe from any remaining childhood naivety he carries about society. In this case, it appears more of the former than the latter. He cites federal laws dating back to the 90s that support Native American tribes using peyote and other psychedelic ceremonies. He claims Colorado law predates the federal ruling his defense may cite.

Gorelick’s court date is slated for late June but could be pushed back. Still, the Rabbi feels the legal process is moving quickly.

“As much as you feel like four months is a long time, it’s a very, very short period in the legal world,” he opined. While awaiting his day in court, a Change.org petition and a GoFundMe for his legal fight have been launched.

More than just his freedom, Gorelick hopes his case earns religious practice its place in the psychedelics conversation alongside medical and recreational use.

The Sacred Tribe continues to practice today using breathwork and dinners as keys to exploration. They continue to explore their connection and options with psychedelics. As Gorelick and The Sacred Tribe figure out their next steps, he praises the support from the Jewish and psychedelic communities. They, and the evidence he’s assembled, give him faith in the days ahead.

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