A few blocks from the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver sits a small shop on a sparse stretch of East Hastings Street. A bright pink sign running the length of its front windows declares MUSHROOM DISPENSARY. Inside, a nurse helps customers choose from a selection of dried mushrooms that contain hallucinogens like psilocybin and psilocin. Psilocybin can cause users to see, hear, and feel things that aren’t there, and can also trigger anxiety, fear, nausea, muscle twitches and high blood pressure. The production, sale and possession of magic mushrooms is illegal in Canada. Order psychedelics discreetly
But that hasn’t stopped the owner of the store, who declined to give his name, from cashing in on the mushroom trend. His e-shop sells capsules that the company says contain medicinal micro-doses of psilocybin, which are then delivered to clients’ doors in Canada and abroad. He models his operation on the early grey market cannabis shops that were common in Vancouver years ago.
Top Canadian Stores for Buying Shrooms Online
While the store is illegal to operate, the dozens of online orders it receives daily signal that people are hungry for psilocybin. But it’s not clear how the owners can keep up with demand, or how Canadian law might adapt.
CBC K-W’s Aastha Shetty visited the store to get an inside look.
A man who would only give his first name, Zou, showed us around the store. He said the business has been open since opening a week ago and has seen steady growth. The online sales help him to offset the cost of rent, electricity and other overhead expenses. He says he hopes the growing popularity of the product can spur the federal government to change the law.