shop review
ENTER THROUGH THE ZIDE DOOR
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O A K L A N D I S H O M E T O C A L I F O R N I A’ S F I R S T ENTHEOGENIC CHURCH SELLING PLANT MEDICINE TO ITS CONSTITUENTS.
leafmagazines.com
IT’S A SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN 2019 and the clock reads 4:20 p.m. Dave Hodges stands on a stage and delivers a sermon to a group of 40 people seated in pews, dressed in the garb of a Roman Catholic bishop – only, instead of his attire displaying traditional emblems of the Christian faith, his miter (or tall, pointed hat) and chasuble (a cape that’s worn over other vestments) feature the two sacraments of his religion: an unmistakable Cannabis leaf print and images of psychedelic mushrooms. You see, Hodges is the founder of the Church of Ambrosia – a nondenominational entheogenic church in Oakland, Calif. that doubles as a dispensary of plant medicines known as Zide Door.
ZIDE DOOR ZIDEDOOR.COM @DAVEHEMP
aug. 2022
ZIDE DOOR opened to the public as a Cannabis church in January 2019, offering a variety of flower, edibles and other weed products to its members using a Prop. 215 donation-based model. Technically, Zide is operating outside of Prop. 64’s (very flawed) pot regime, as the law doesn’t outline a framework for the religious use of Cannabis or the creation of churches (or the sale of psilocybin mushrooms, but more on that in a second). While Zide Door may look like a dispensary, there are nuances differentiating it from other Cannabis shops – perhaps the most striking in pre-pandemic times, when people would gather for sermons on Sundays.
