Walking up a few stairs and through Mushroom Cuts‘ glass doors, you’ll see two salon chairs framed with neon lights that pop against the navy blue walls. Behind them, there’s buy shrooms canada a glass divider, and a voice behind it asks,
“Looking for some mushrooms?”
“We initially had a barbershop running, then COVID-19 hit and lots of businesses had to pivot to figure out different revenue streams,” store manager Bryan Jacob told Daily Hive.
“We were seeing a big uptake in the mushroom and psilocybin market, and we decided to make it a mixed-use retail space.”
The business used to be a six-chair barbershop known as Multi Culture Cuts, and now four have given way to a dispensary that’s part of Vancouver’s new crop of shops selling mushrooms and psilocybin products.
The People behind them view psilocybin as the next cannabis — and say boundary-pushing stores are a key step toward legalization.
The first brick-and-mortar shop was Dana Larsen’s Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary, which opened in the fall of 2020. Then the Fungi Shop opened downtown in spring 2021, and Mushroom Cuts joined in June.
Larsen is a long-time advocate for safe supply and decriminalization of all drugs, and was involved in the Vancouver movement to legalize cannabis.
“I think access to psychedelics is going to follow a similar path,” he told Daily Hive. “Civil disobedience…and making things available is part of the path.”
The psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms is psilocybin, and it can result in a mood boost when taken in small doses or induce hallucinations and euphoria when taken at higher doses.
Psilocybin is a controlled substance in Canada, and the sale, possession, or production of it is illegal unless authorized by Health Canada, spokesperson Mark Johnson told Daily Hive.
But so far, Larsen hasn’t had any trouble with the police.
Sgt. Steve Addison, media relations buy shrooms canada officer for the Vancouver Police Department, told Daily Hive the force’s prime concerns are elsewhere.