As the nation experiences a mushroom boom, ostensibly fueled by research and evolving medical use, shops peddling psychedelic mushrooms are popping up across Canada. Despite federal drug laws that make the cultivation, sale and possession of magic mushrooms illegal, dispensaries like Vancouver-based Shroomyz are opening and taking in customers. Go here magicmushroomsdispensary.ca

The storefront is a replica of a typical weed shop, with a buzz-in entrance and an ID check upon entry. Inside, customers browse a menu of dried mushrooms, microdose capsules, gummies and chocolate bars that contain different levels of psilocybin.

Legal Considerations for Magic Mushroom Dispensaries in Canada

A man in his 20s sits at the counter, talking with the woman behind the screen about the different types of mushrooms on offer. “My girlfriend drinks but doesn’t smoke, so I thought I’d try mushrooms with her,” he says.

But police swooped in on the Bank Street location Thursday, seizing packages of dried psilocybin mushrooms and other products, along with $6,000 cash. They shut the shop down temporarily, but it has since reopened. It’s a pattern familiar to Canada’s pot shops, which are raided frequently by police who seize products and take away cash, only to reopen again after a short closure.

The ostensible reason police raided the shop is that it violates the law by selling products that aren’t authorized by Health Canada, and allowing people to grow their own mushrooms without an official licence. But the manager of two local stores, Brian Patterson, says the city is wasting taxpayers’ money cracking down on psilocybin when there are more pressing issues to address, including fentanyl and other street drugs.