Vancouver Greens want to regulate magic mushrooms like cannabis before legalization

Two Vancouver city councillors want to bring in a framework that would regulate magic mushroom stores in the city.

Green Couns. Pete Fry and Adriane Carr will be bringing forward a motion to Vancouver city council on April 10, which, if passed, would see magic mushroom dispensaries given similar licences the city gave illicit cannabis shops back in 2015.

As it stands, there are several unregulated stores already operating in Vancouver.

“It’s already happening, anyway,” Fry told CityNews Thursday. “This is exactly the situation we found ourselves in 2015 with cannabis and the proliferation of a bunch of cannabis stores.”

“The reality is, we had dispensaries all over the place. We had some that were operating less scrupulously, and we wanted to protect kids and communities and make sure that the displays were frosted, and that they were operating in a way that balanced their sales with the needs and wants of the community,” Fry explained.

Psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, is a kind of entheogen that would be regulated under the Greens’ plan.

He adds when a regulatory framework was introduced for cannabis in the city, less than 150 people were killed that year from the unregulated toxic drug crisis.

“In 2023, in Vancouver, we had 644 overdose deaths for the year,” Fry explained.

“I think recognizing that people do drugs, we want people to be safe, we recognize now that a part of the popularity of psilocybin is apparently because people don’t want to die.

“They want to get a safer drug that can still alter their mood and function as a therapeutic or recreational substance, but get it from a reputable source. I think the danger in driving this trade underground and ignoring this demonstrable need, is that we could run into a situation where there is an unsafe supply of psilocybin entheogens out there being marketed in capsules … and effectively being cut with much more dangerous, but cheaper to deploy, substances.”

In its release Thursday, the Greens explained the proposed framework is “informed by principles of harm reduction.” Fry adds that magic mushrooms and entheogens are classified as Schedule 3 drugs — not considered addictive nor do they pose a risk of overdose.

“I think it would be a mistake to give a blanket condemnation of all mind-altering substances,” he said. “Of course, mind-altering substances can have negative interactions, and we see probably the majority of them are from the most legal mind-altering substance, which is alcohol.”

“It would be a mistake to characterize psilocybin under the same kind of blanket as crystal meth[amphetamine] and fentanyl, which are far more disruptive.”

Fry says he and other council officials don’t hear or see “a bunch of street disorder or break-ins” resulting from people’s psilocybin consumption.

“I think it’s a false narrative to equate the two. And, and the reality is, people are doing them anyway. So, we want people to be safe. At the very least we want communities to be safe. And I think this is potentially a tool to do just that.”

–With files from Dean Recksiedler