Vancouver city councillors propose motion to regulate mushroom dispensaries

Two Vancouver city councillors are tabling a motion to regulate medicinal mushroom stores in the city.

In their motion, Green councillors Pete Fry and Adrian Carr state, “Vancouver has seen the number of unlicensed and unregulated retail shops selling 'magic' mushrooms (psylocibin) and other entheogens rapidly increase in recent years.”

Fry told CTV News if passed, the motion would direct staff to create a plan that would address when and where stores operate and prohibit sales to minors.

“As a city, we don’t have any role to sort of designate the legal status of a controlled substance, but what we do have the powers to do is put in a framework around how a business operates – so that’s the idea of the mushroom dispensaries,” he said.

‘We’re here to stay’

Dana Larsen, the director of a non-profit that oversees three mushroom dispensaries in Vancouver, said he thinks regulation could be a great first step.

“Whether you support or oppose these kinds of shops being there, the reality is we’re here and we’re here to stay,” he said.

According to the motion, the plan would be to model the licensing after what the City of Vancouver did in 2015 with cannabis stores. That year, it introduced the Medical Marijuana Related Uses (MMRU) framework.

Larsen said he had some issues with how cannabis stores were licensed, but that he’d rather see bylaws introduced as opposed to blanket prohibition.

“Before they licensed cannabis shops, there were over 100 in the city operating without a licence,” he said. “With mushroom shops like ours, there’s at least 20 I know of operating without a licence.”

Cannabis industry weighs in

Jeremy Jacob, a co-owner of Village Bloomery, said watching what’s unfolding in the mushroom industry reminds him of what he went through nearly 10 years ago when his cannabis shop was licensed. He said if the City of Vancouver eventually decides to go through with regulation, he hopes they make some changes.

“For example, the restriction in certain commercial zones where you can have every other business type but a cannabis dispensary, means that cannabis shops cluster in the approved zones,” he said. “So this really enhances competition in those areas. It means that other areas are underserved. That definitely shouldn't be repeated if they go ahead and regulate mushroom shops.”

ABC Coun. Mike Klassen said this green-led initiative isn’t a priority for the city right now. Klassen was the lone ABC member who was outnumbered at a March meeting that saw Carr and Fry vote to reinstate Larsen’s dispensary licence. 

“This particular matter is again something that needs to be dealt with through a federal level and not a city council meeting,” he said.

The motion will be voted on April 10.