A new legal grey area is sprouting up in Canada’s cities, where stores are selling psychedelic mushrooms. As of November, police have raided several Vancouver magic mushroom shops, seizing tens of thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs. Read more https://shroomscanada.cc

The storefronts are hard to miss. The doors at a Toronto shop named Fun Guyz feature paintings of colorful fungus, and staff hand out discount fliers to passing pedestrians. But though the storefronts are open, they still operate in a legal grey area — as do many Canadian online sites.

Legal Insights: Navigating the Laws Surrounding Shrooms in Canada

Psilocybin, the chemical found in magic mushrooms, is Schedule III of the federal drug act. A person can only legally take it in a regulated clinical trial or with the minister’s exemption. But in the wake of Oregon’s decision to legalize psilocybin, Thomas Hartle became one of the first Canadians with cancer to get an exemption from then-health minister Patty Hajdu and access to shrooms to help ease end-of-life anxiety.

But since then, he says his exemption has expired and legal avenues for psilocybin have closed off. Meanwhile, the illicit market is booming. And while he has no problem with people buying from the illegal black market, he wants to see the government allow more legal avenues for people like him to get access to this medicine.