City councillors reinstate mushroom dispensary licence, spark Vancouver mayor’s ‘disappointment’

A Vancouver City Council sub-committee has voted to reinstate the business licence of a magic mushroom shop — drawing the ire of Vancouver’s mayor.

The business license hearing on Tuesday featured three city councillors — two Green Party and one ABC — who were drawn at random to vote on the reinstatement of The Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary’s licence.

The dispensary on West Broadway was the target of a search warrant on Nov. 1, during which Vancouver police say they were raiding storefronts that sold illegal psychedelic drugs.

Councillor Pete Fry, who voted in favour of the motion alongside fellow Green councillor Adrienne Carr, says the decision was made because there wasn’t a clear history of multiple violations to back up the “gross misconduct” the dispensary was accused of.

He adds their decision was made based on the recommendations put forth by the city’s chief licence inspector.

According to the business’ licence application, it initially applied to sell “party supplies” and the city changed that to specify that the store sold “novelties.”

“We’ve suggested the licensee come back with requesting a licence under something that’s a little more specific,” Fry said.

However, Mayor Ken Sim sent out a statement Tuesday afternoon calling the Green Party councillors’ decision “disappointing” and an act of “activism” on matters not dealt with by under the city’s jurisdiction.

“While we acknowledge the significance of this national conversation, we firmly believe that this discussion should take place at the federal level, rather than at a City Business License Hearing,” Sim stated.

But Fry says he’s hoping this decision will help inform council as he plans to bring forward a motion to advance the idea of creating regulatory framework to support the medicinal use of psychedelics.

With more than two dozen mushroom dispensaries in the city, Fry suggests there’s enough demand to force councillors to consider how they can play a role in regulating a safe supply.

“I think there’s a larger conversation here,” he said.

Fry adds buying psychedelics in stores gives drug users a greater sense of safety and accountability, and he’d like to see council have an “intelligent discussion” about how this could affect harm reduction.

“Under Ken Sim’s leadership we’ve seen a rollback on lifesaving overdose prevention services across the City of Vancouver,” he said.

“I think this is an opportunity to set the record straight on where exactly Mayor Sim and his party sit on issues like harm reduction, safe supply, and a more progressive approach to people who use drugs.”

Meanwhile, the psilocybin in magic mushrooms is still a restricted substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act — something the Public Safety Minister underlined during a press conference Wednesday morning.  

“I find it rather bizarre that a product that is illegal in Canada – a store was given a business license – and then that business license has been revoked. And now they’ve been given a business license again. It makes absolutely no sense to me,” said Mike Farnworth, minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

Dana Larsen, director of the non-profit Get Your Drugs Tested which runs the dispensary, says he thinks the sub-committee made the right decision in what he thinks are the years leading up to the legalization of psychedelics.

He says there are “very strong parallels” between this decision and the one made by the city in the lead up to cannabis legalization.

“Even the wording and the phrasing that they used is very similar to what was used in 2015 to license and regulate medicinal cannabis dispensaries in the city,” Larsen said.

More decisions like this would be even better, Larsen adds, as it would reduce the risk of other psychedelic dispensaries in the city being raided.

“The reality is the choice of the city is to have these places operate with no oversight or control, aside from the occasional police raid, which is not very effective,” he said.

“Or (the city could) put in rules and regulations which the dispensaries will follow and if they don’t, it’s much easier to enforce against them.”

In Toronto, magic mushroom stores have been operating in a similar way – but Toronto police say enforcement is mostly focused on the trafficking of illegal drugs that cause overdose deaths  

The Vancouver Police didn’t make a spokesperson available for an interview, but in a statement to CityNews it says, in part “…anyone trafficking a controlled substance can face arrest and criminal charge. The existence of a business license does not change this reality or the law … The results of our investigation, and recommendations for criminal charges, will soon be forwarded to Crown council.”  

With files from Srushti Gangdev and Kier Junos.