“One officer openly referred to the religious operation as a ‘loophole’ and laughed when corrected. He also said ‘look how stupid they are, they wrote it all down.’”
By Alixel Cabrera, Utah News Dispatch
Months after Utah’s ban on flavored vapes, Blackhouse, a former Sugar House vape shop, became a sanctuary and a safe haven for those searching to get flavored cartridges—for spiritual and religious practices.
The electronic cigarettes joined other sacraments that have been at the center of religious legal challenges in the state like psychedelic mushrooms and cannabis. But, after Utah law enforcement agencies raided the Sugar House location, as well as the Salt City Sanctuary in South Salt Lake in August, all of these sacraments have been put into legal question, with the Sugarleaf Church, the institution overseeing both sanctuaries, initiating a lawsuit to keep them.
“Officers arrived using riot gear, AR-15s, pry bars, and battering rams, forcibly entered both sanctuaries, and immediately began disabling the security systems and surveillance cameras with a crow bar,” the church said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City in August.
During the raids officers confiscated cannabis and psilocybin products, which the church called “sacramental property,” as well as thousands of flavored vape cartridges, blank checkbooks, waivers, clergy rosters, cash donations, tablets and membership records.
The church is asking a judge to order law enforcement to stop interfering with members’ free exercise of religion and to award compensatory damages. The institution is also asking the South Salt Lake Police Department and the Utah State Bureau of Investigation to undergo mandatory religious sensitivity training and for the immediate return of property.
At Salt City Sanctuary the agents seized “4.24 kilograms of packaged marijuana flower; over a kilogram of ‘fresh flower’ marijuana; 956 1-gram pre-rolled marijuana joints, 8 display jars of marijuana flower, 152.5 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, mushroom gummies and sample packs, numerous edibles with THC, and rolling papers,” according to a motion to dismiss filed by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
At Blackhouse, officers confiscated “significant quantities of raw marijuana; psilocybin mushrooms; THC vapes, cookies, gummies, candies, syrups, oils, and similar products; psilocybin cookies, gummies, and similar products; and over 3,000 flavored vape cartridges and order receipts,” the district attorney’s office said in its motion.
Joshua Robers, a church reverend, was also arrested and booked into Salt Lake County Jail during the Salt City Sanctuary raid. He faces multiple charges in 3rd District Court, including possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a third-degree felony.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit this month and declined to comment because the litigation is ongoing.
The church
The Sugarleaf Church is a non-denominational church with branches in nine states and Mexico that uses psychoactive substances for sacraments, including cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms. Members have to sign an agreement committing to following the church’s code of conduct.
“These are not casual practices,” the church wrote in its lawsuit, “they are intentional, structured, and rooted in decades of education, experience and legal precedent.”
The church cited protections under the U.S. Constitution and federal law that guards religious freedom in the filing. It also mentioned a federal judge’s recent decision siding with a small Provo-based faith group that uses psilocybin mushrooms as part of its practice and ordering Utah County to temporarily stop criminal proceedings against the organization and its founder.
The Provo case partially hinged on a 2024 state law that made it easier to sue government entities if they restrict a person’s right to exercise their religion.
The Sugarleaf raids came a day after that decision, the church said. According to a sanctuary volunteer’s statement, officers refused to read waivers, doctrinal statements and clergy notices. They also “mocked the religious affiliation.”
“One officer openly referred to the religious operation as a ‘loophole’ and laughed when corrected. He also said ‘look how stupid they are, they wrote it all down,’” the church’s lawsuit says.
However, prosecutors argue the Utah sites are best defined as shops and not churches, since Department of Commerce records indicate that multiple business entities were operating at the same location as Blackhouse Sanctuary, including Blackhouse Vapor Company LLC. That fact, the prosecutors wrote, rebuts the claims that the activities at the Sugar House location were solely religious.
The District Attorney’s Office also pointed out that “plaintiffs assert religious use of marijuana and psilocybin; they do not assert any religious belief or practice relating to flavored vape cartridges.”
This story was first published by Utah News Dispatch.
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