A new faith group based in Utah that uses "psychedelic mushrooms" landed a legal victory this week under the state's religious freedom law.
Lee Jensen - founder of the non-profit known as Singularism - sued the city of Provo and Utah County in December claiming violations of protections under the U.S. Constitution, state constitution and the Utah Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The complaint says Jensen, Singularism and the faith group's for-profit arm, Psyche Healing and Bridging LLC dba Psychedelic Therapy Journey, "utilize sacramental psilocybin tea to access the divine, open spiritual pathways, and alleviate human suffering by weaving together centuries of entheogenic religious practice with what Plaintiffs view as illuminated approaches of modern mental health clinicians."
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Court documents say law enforcement searched Singularism's spiritual center, seized items including "the sacramental psilocybin used in Singularism's ceremonies," and threatened the landlord to evict Singularism from the property.
The lawsuit said Jensen "now faces impending criminal charges related to psilocybin, and Singularism, a small minority religious group, risks being evicted and otherwise wiped off the map by overzealous authorities."
U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish - an appointee of former President Barack Obama - on Monday granted the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction, saying the county imposed a "substantial burden" on sincere religious freedom.
"The irreparable injury to Plaintiffs is not merely theoretical," Parrish wrote. "Based on the record in this case, the court notes once again its finding that the prosecution was brought in bad faith as part of a larger effort to harass Plaintiffs for their entheogenic religious practices and in hopes of giving the government a second opportunity to litigate the free-exercise issues presented squarely in this case."
"The prosecution has already caused Singularism to lose many of its practitioners and affiliates, and forcing Plaintiffs to wait until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings to secure their free-exercise rights would be the equivalent of issuing a death warrant for their nascent religion," the judge continued. "For these reasons, the court grants Plaintiffs' motion for an anti-suit injunction pending final judgment in this court enjoining further proceedings in the state criminal case against Mr. Jensen insofar as that case prosecutes him for violating the Utah Controlled Substances Act's prohibitions on psilocybin."
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Psilocybin is illegal in Utah under most circumstances and is considered a classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under state law, placing it in the same category as substances like heroin and LSD. A state pilot program, legalized in March 2024, allows two of the state's main hospital systems to use psilocybin and MDMA therapy to treat behavorial health problems under strict regulations for patients 18 and older.
The judge noted that defendants "argue the medical psilocybin exemption does not differentiate based on religion because it applies to all licensed healthcare providers regardless of their religious beliefs or affiliations."
"Their observation, although correct, misses the point. The Free Exercise Clause is concerned not just with evenhandedness among religions but also evenhandedness between religion and nonreligion," Parrish wrote. "A specific, secular exemption for
psilocybin without an accompanying religious exemption indicates that the law is not evenhanded as between religion and nonreligion because it 'prohibits religious conduct while permitting secular conduct that undermines the government's asserted interests in a similar way.'"
Utah is considered one of the most religious states in the U.S., largely due to the strong influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.
The state law known as the Utah Religious Freedom Restoration Act took effect in May 2024 and expands protections and establishes legal standards for when the government can intervene in religious exercises. It specifically "prohibits a government entity from substantially burdening a person's free exercise of religion, unless the burden is essential to furthering a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest."
Jensen welcomed the court win on Monday, though the final judgment on the case remains pending.
"The judge has recognized this for what it is. It's retaliatory charges that came in bad faith," the faith group's founder told KTVX. "When you protect the religious freedoms of one religion, you protect the freedoms of all of them."
