Vancouver city council to vote on regulation of mushroom dispensaries

Activist Dana Larsen says he’s approaching Vancouver city council’s Wednesday meeting with cautious optimism, as a motion to regulate mushroom dispensaries in the city is set to be tabled.

The dispensary owner says he’s not sure the motion will pass, but regardless of the meeting outcome, he sees the regulation of these stores as inevitable.

“We went down this already with cannabis dispensaries,” he said.

“Pre-legalization and pre-licensing there was over 100 cannabis dispensaries operating in the city and Vancouver city council wisely decided to start licensing and regulating those dispensaries to try and get a grip on things in the years before legalization.”

The motion, to be tabled by Green Couns. Pete Fry and Adriane Carr, 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. Larsen says after a decision by city council last month, his mushroom dispensary is the only one currently operating with a business license.

“The reality is, if Vancouver city council wants to get a grip and control over mushroom dispensaries, they need to license and regulate them. If this council doesn’t decide to do it now, they’re going to be leaving it for a future council to have to make the same decision.”

Psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, is a kind of entheogen that would be regulated under the Greens’ plan. As stated in the councillors’ motion, their goal is to regulate a safe supply of mushrooms and entheogens as a form of harm reduction.

The motion also states entheogenic substances are “generally considered safer than opioids since psychedelics are not known to cause physical dependencies or risk of overdose.”

Larsen says licensed storefronts can play a key role in making sure this kind of psychedelic is being used safely and responsibly in the city.

“It’s much better to be buying something from a storefront, where you can go back and talk to them and they’ll give you good information,” he said.

“(Instead of) going out to try and pick these kind of mushrooms from a field, which can be quite dangerous, or buying them from someone who may not know exactly what they’ve got.”

That’s where regulation comes in. Larsen says if shops are licensed and allowed to operate without the risk of being raided, they can continue to teach people how to use safely.

While he says the business license fees charged by the city when the first cannabis dispensaries were licensed pre-legalization were more than he’d like to pay, Larsen says there are other ways the city could profit off of this regulation.

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If regulation is introduced, he says the city could avoid the costs incurred from litigation, court battles or police raids with local dispensaries.

“Going to battle against these kinds of shops, battles which the city usually loses, can be very expensive and kind of pointless in the end,” he said.

He adds when his shops were raided last November, he was able to reopen pretty much the next day.

While Larsen says continuing with police raids will waste the city’s time and money, this motion could bring about real change.

“City bylaws and regulations do work, and they were effective in getting the number of cannabis dispensaries down,” he said.

“It’s going to be legal in a few years anyways, it’s time for the city to take the first step and do the responsible thing which is licensing and regulating these kinds of shops.”

With files from Michael Williams, Charlie Carey and Dean Recksiedler.