The owner of Detroit Michigan’s Psychedelic Healing Shack has decided to put his trippy vegetarian cafe up for sale due to constant conflict with officials in the motor city.
Robert Pizzimenti, AKA Dr. Bob, has listed the Woodward Avenue property for US$600,000. He says it is only worth just over half that much and that he doesn’t want to sell, but the constant harassment has left him no choice. In September, local police raided and temporarily shut down the shack, seizing about 100 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and some weed.
“It’s kind of a protest,” he told the Detroit Metro Times this week. “They’re fining me, bullying me.”
Following the raid last year, Detroit cops didn’t press charges but said that Pizzimenti would have to agree to let them conduct random inspections if he wanted to keep the place open. He was quite upset about their request.
Pizzimenti decided to make the Psychedelic Healing Shack part of the local “Sugarleaf Church” religious group that worships psychedelics to try and protect himself and his cafe with the First Amendment.
Dr. Bob also filed a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and defamation regarding statements that the city’s prominent lawyer Conrad Mallett Jr. provided to Detroit Metro Times.
“Like others before him Mr. Pizzimenti is trying to hide behind the church and mask his criminal behaviour,” Mallett said in the Dec. 3 article.
He wants millions, but that’s not likely
Pizzimenti sought US$4.2 million in damages over the above and other “malicious statements [that] were false and defamatory” regarding the legality of the psychonaut hut. The suit also claimed that the city’s actions were “undertaken with the intent to intimidate and suppress the Plaintiff’s lawful religious practice.”
Information regarding the status of these legal proceedings is currently unavailable, but Pizzimenti reluctantly agreed to the city’s terms recently. The agreement he signed last month also stipulates that he must admit to illegal activity and waive his right to sue the city.
“As part of the consent agreement he acknowledged that his marijuana and psilocybin sales were, in fact, illegal,” Mallett Jr said in a statement sent to the Detroit Metro Times this week.
If Pizzimenti can sell the shack for his desired price he plans to just open up a new one nearby.
Photo credit: Lee DeVito, Detroit Metro Times
Read more: Detroit’s ‘Psychedelic Healing Shack’ determined to open back up after police raid
Read more: New Mexico follows in Oregon & Colorado’s footsteps by legalizing psilocybin therapy
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