CANADA — Magic Mushrooms Canada have popped up in cities across Canada. It’s a development that echoes what happened with cannabis before the drug was legalized in 2023.

The slender, colourful mushrooms are known as Psilocybe or “magic mushrooms.” They contain a psychoactive substance called psilocybin, which is regulated internationally under the United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs and in Canada by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Possession and sales are prohibited unless approved by Health Canada.

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Psilocybin is also sold as a prescription drug in some countries, and is used in research into conditions such as depression and anxiety. But the psilocybin-assisted therapy is still a long way off, and the mushroom’s popularity in the marketplace has triggered questions about its legal status and the risks of overuse.

In the past, locals and itinerant mushroom pickers fought over harvesting rights to pastures and ditches where the mushrooms grow on Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and the mainland coast of British Columbia. The mushrooms were valued at $2,000 a pound or more.

The mushroom harvesters were often armed, and police clashed with them in a conflict called the “mushroom wars.” But the conflict appears to have ended this year. After a high court ruling, picking, possessing and even selling the psychedelic mushrooms is now legal in B.C.

At Optimi Health, which is cultivating the mushrooms, owner Andrew Larsen says he wants people to try the mushrooms in a safe and responsible environment. He gives CBC a tour of his 10,000-square-foot production space and shows off his latest harvest. He sent each of the 87 members of the B.C. legislature festive cards at Christmas, and in them he included a gram of Golden Teacher mushrooms and a membership form for his storefront.

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