Could Canada legalize magic mushrooms? We asked federal parties their stance

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Advocates and business owners are pushing for psilocybin (i.e., magic) mushrooms to be legalized in Canada, but the federal parties seem less than keen to make it happen soon.

Canada just celebrated the fifth anniversary of cannabis legalization, and BC is going even further by decriminalizing possession of hard drugs in an effort to combat overdose deaths.

At the same time, mushroom dispensaries are popping up in many Canadian cities, with owners and advocates envisioning a similar path to legalization as cannabis — when not-quite-legal dispensaries dotted Vancouver’s corners long before the substance was officially legalized.

Health Canada is also approving exemptions for certain patients to consume psilocybin within the context of a clinical trial. Plus, if you spend some time scrolling on TikTok, it won’t be long before you stumble across a young Canadian touting the benefits of micro-dosing. All around, it appears magic mushrooms are shedding their stigma and becoming more widely accepted.

In fact, Vancouver-based advocate Dana Larsen believes we may only be a few short years away from federal legalization.

“This is going to get legalized in the next five, 10 years … we’re moving toward this,” Larsen told Daily Hive last month. “It’s coming … it’s very similar to cannabis in the late ’90s and early 2000s.”

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But are Canada’s politicians ready to give psilocybin proponents what they want in the next election?

What Canada’s political parties had to say on magic mushrooms

Daily Hive sent requests to the four major Canadian political parties to ask whether they’d consider making psilocybin legalization part of their platform for the next election in 2025.

Parker Lund, director of communications for the Liberal Party of Canada, didn’t reveal much — only saying the platform hasn’t been created yet.

“The Liberal platform for the next election will be developed through conversations with business, labour, environmental, Indigenous, and community leaders across Canada, in addition to through consultations with the Liberal caucus, grassroots Liberals, and Canadians across the country,” he said.

The Conservative Party of Canada, Canada’s New Democratic Party, and the Green Party of Canada did not return Daily Hive’s request for comment.

Advocates, businesses call for change

Psychedelic Water/Submitted

Many people across Canada support legalizing magic mushrooms, and Brandon Samuel is among them. He’s the director of sales with Psychedelic Water, a company whose founders have all had profound experiences with psychedelics.

They make drinks and powders with legal ingredients (kava and velvet bean) that Samuel says deliver some aspects of the onset of a mushroom micro-dose, and are popular as an alternative to alcoholic drinks. But as soon as psilocybin is legalized, the company plans to launch new products containing it.

“We want to be first to market with a consumer product,” he said. “We’ve spent all this time building a brand and becoming recognize-able … we have the framework in place to be agile and come out with new formulations.”

Optimistically, Samuel hopes to see psilocybin legalized within five years. But he knows that may not be realistic, especially since psilocybin presents more unknowns than cannabis did.

Non-profit Therapsil wants to see medical legalization (or “medicalization,” as their CEO Spencer Hawkswell says) of psilocybin because of its therapeutic potential. The organization facilitates therapy training using psychedelics, helps patients with mental illness and terminal diseases access them legally, and fosters public education about the substance.

A 2022 poll by Therapsil and Pollara found that 80% of the nearly 1,200 Canadian adults surveyed supported the federal government legalizing psilocybin mushrooms for medical use.

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Hawkswell’s organization has brought up the issue with every federal party and said it’s unfortunate there’s a lack of political will to regulate and improve access to medical psilocybin. His organization has even spent tens of thousands drafting a regulatory framework similar to when medical cannabis was legalized that politicians could use as a template for new legislation.

“They are very aware of it,” he said. “This is a major issue for a small minority of Canadians who are contemplating opioid replacement therapy, medical assistance in dying, and who are suffering severe treatment-resistant depression — but for whom there is a very clear and compassionate option.”

He wonders if parties may be nervous about adopting medical legalization over fears it could lose votes — and believes Canada may need to wait until public approval for medical legalization is even more widespread.

In the interim, though, he’s concerned that Canada seems to be moving faster toward the recreational legalization of psilocybin than regulated medical use based on a lack of enforcement of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Psilocybin is a Schedule III controlled substance.

“You know, I can go buy mushrooms in just about any major city in Canada at a store that looks like a liquor or cannabis store. The stores are operating with impunity, and the only people unable to access it are the patients and doctors most in need,” Hawkswell said.

There are currently several mushroom dispensaries operating in Vancouver alone, although the City is currently challenging them in court to revoke their business licences. The Vancouver Police Department has said they’re not an enforcement priority as they’re not tied to violent crime.

Hawkswell called the situation “backward” and “chaotic.”

“The studies on medical use are extremely clear,” he said. “Recreational use, you’ve got to weigh the pros and cons, and I would just say, at present, we don’t know what those are.”