Less than two years after opening, San Francisco’s first and biggest magic mushroom church will close due to what its pastor described as a campaign of targeted harassment by the city.
At a press conference Wednesday on the ground floor of Zide Door’s raw, art-filled space in the South of Market neighborhood, founder and pastor Dave Hodges alleged that the city’s Department of Planning has hounded the church over violations like boarded-up windows and a second-floor “door to nowhere” that staff had already addressed. He believes the church’s high profile and controversial mission make it a target.
“We are the world’s largest entheogenic church, providing cannabis, mushrooms, and DMT as sacrament for people,” Hodges said. “We’re the first and the biggest. This is a difficult thing for the church, and we don’t have the luxury of holding out until a new mayor.”
He claimed the Church of Ambrosia, the interfaith religion for which Zide Door is the house of worship, has 120,000 members. The church opened in Oakland in 2019.
At the SoMa church, which opened in April 2023, staff have administered the anti-opioid treatment Narcan to individuals overdosing on the sidewalk and shared video footage of potential crimes with the San Francisco Police Department on request. In spite of that, permitting costs, attorneys fees, and other expenses siphoned funds away from the organization’s work, Hodges said, leaving no alternative but to close.
“The city has made it difficult to exist for a long time,” he said, stating that smashed windows have always been repaired, and boards were installed to prevent further breakage. “The city says that’s not a solution, and we have to spend hundreds of thousands to fix it.”
Clad in a striped button-down shirt — unlike the cannabis-leaf-bedecked vestments he wears when preaching or presenting at psychedelics conferences — Hodges said the structural issues long predate the church’s presence. The building, which previously housed an art gallery and an upscale furniture store, was constructed in 1922. The church rents the space from Tatiana Takaeva Shiff, who confirmed in a statement that she had no issues with the city prior to the church’s tenancy.
The Planning Department disputed Hodges’ account. “This establishment opened for business without seeking any necessary permits,” chief of staff Dan Sider said in an email. “City agencies have been working with Pastor Hodges’ representatives since the spring to help them legalize. Part of this requires compliance with the Building Code, which we believe is the source of the Pastor’s concerns about ‘structural upgrades.’”
Sider referred The Standard to the Department of Building Inspection, which did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Hodges believes the city’s enforcement efforts accelerated in the spring after the annual 420 gathering of cannabis enthusiasts at Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill. When the organizer proved unable to produce the event, Zide Door and the Haight Street Merchants Association stepped in to provide water, portable toilets, and Red Cross staff to prevent medical emergencies. This gesture, he speculates, embarrassed the city, which has sought to distance itself from 420 festivities.
Hodges said he is open to relocating elsewhere within San Francisco. “But it’s expensive, and we’ve already lost a lot of money. … For now, we’re stepping back to Oakland to think about our future.”
The Oakland Police Department raided Zide Door in 2020, seizing $200,000 in cash and plants, but relations with the city have been positive since then, Hodges said. Still, in light of state Sen. Scott Wiener’s unsuccessful efforts to decriminalize certain plant-based hallucinogens at the state level, the climate may have shifted against Zide Door’s work.
“There’s a lot of people that, for one reason for another, don’t like the idea of people using mushrooms as part of a religion,” Hodges said. “I can’t tell you what’s going through someone’s head, but to me, everything happens for a reason.”