CBC News

At Dana Larsen’s magic mushroom dispensary shop, the gray exterior conceals a mosaic of psychedelia inside. There are paintings of Incan gods spewing fire and lightning, shelves filled with hemp lip balms and stoner-centric comic books penned by Larsen, who’s been selling mushrooms openly in Vancouver since 2020. Despite some raids and arrests, more shops are opening than closing. This is due to a combination of growing demand, evolving research and small changes in drug policy.

The Rise of Magic Mushrooms: Exploring Their Popularity in Modern Culture

Those small changes in drug policy are bringing hallucinogenic mushrooms back into the mainstream. They’ve been banned since the 1960s, but they’re starting to appear in stores across the country. They’re being marketed for everything from helping people overcome depression to dealing with end-of-life dread. One store, Epic Healing Eugene, is America’s first licensed psilocybin service center, where visitors are given a safe place to experience what many users call vivid geometric shapes and a sense of connection to the universe.

The store is part of a national movement to legalize magic mushrooms. Psilocybin is an hallucinogenic compound, and it’s been shown to help treat depression, PTSD, anxiety and even depression in cancer patients. It’s also been linked to spiritual transformation, but it’s still illegal in most states.

The Waterloo region’s latest magic mushroom store opened last Friday at a corner of Victoria and Park streets in Kitchener. Customers are asked to sign a waiver and show a government-issued photo ID, though FunGuyz’s website lists locations in London, Windsor, Toronto and six cities in Montreal. They sell a variety of products, including microdosing capsules that allow people to consume a low dose without experiencing full-on hallucinations.