"Easy solution": Vancouver re-instates magic mushroom shop's business licence

Vancouver City Council voted to end the suspension of a magic mushroom dispensary’s business licence at a hearing Tuesday.

Drug legalization advocate Dana Larsen went before council asking them to overturn the licence suspension, arguing the inspector’s finding of gross misconduct was unfair and that his shops provide a benefit to the city.

“Our goal was never to trick anybody or deceive anybody,” Larsen said. “Our goal is not to go against bylaws … it’s to seek reasonable regulation of these kinds of activities. We would comply if those bylaws were in place.”

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Chief licence inspector Sarah Hicks suspended Larsen’s shop’s licence in May 2023 because it misrepresented what they were selling. In Hicks’ eyes, that amounted to gross misconduct.

The licence application included the term “party supplies,” but Hicks said staff wouldn’t have understood that meant controlled substances. The licence ended up being issued for gifts and novelties, which didn’t encompass the illegal drugs the shop was selling.

There was some debate about whether Larsen’s businesses deceived City staff.

“Anecdotally I’ve referred to party supplies in a broader sense,” Councillor Pete Fry said during the hearing. :”Not just balloons but other things.”

City staff learned of the shop’s intention to sell controlled substances via social media ads, and presence of substances was confirmed by a police raid.

Hicks has sole discretion to issue a licence suspension and faced questions about her decision.

Some councillors and Larsen’s lawyer, Jack Lloyd, urged Hicks to remember the City’s process for granting business licences for medical cannabis dispensaries before legalization in 2017, drawing parallels between how dispensaries were allowed to sell substances before their broader legalization.

They also brought up the need for safe supply amid the city’s continuing poisoned drug crisis. As well, some Canadians have legal exemptions to access psilocybin products through Health Canada’s Special Access Program.

Lloyd shared a story of terminal cancer patients he also represents who’ve been approved by Health Canada for an exemption to access psilocybin. The exemption doesn’t come with a method to purchase the substance — that’s up to patients to figure out on their own. He argued the shops are filling a need.

“There’s a serious lack of access,” he said.

Lloyd asked council to overturn Hicks’ finding of gross misconduct. He argued no business licence category existed under which the shops could apply.

Larsen suggested the City amend its business licence rules to create a category for selling Schedule 3 substances, even though selling them remains illegal at a federal level. Trafficking remains illegal, Larsen pointed out he has not been charged with a criminal offence over his activities. He viewed adding conditions to the licence as an “easy solution” for the business to keep operating.

The mushroom dispensary’s updated application for 2024 specifies it plans to sell hallucinogenic substances.

Representatives for the City, however, pointed out that it’s a condition for business licence holders not to violate any federal or provincial laws — whether or not they’ve been convicted for offences.

Larsen himself doesn’t hold the business licence but says he is the director of a non-profit that works with a numbered company to operate the shops. He argued his stores protect the safety and health of drug users. The shops provide drug testing services, and customers have said using psilocybin in small doses has helped them curb their use of opioids or amphetamines.

This motion was passed by Vancouver City Council

In the end, a motion proposed by councillor Adriane Carr and seconded by Fry to overturn the suspension and issue Larsen a new business licence passed with support from those two councillors but opposition from councillor Mike Klassen.

“A great deal of harm that could come from a cavalier dismissal,” Fry said of the decision.

Larsen hopes decision paves way for easier access

Speaking to Daily Hive after the hearing, Larsen shared his excitement that the committee voted to give back his business licence.

“I was sort of cautiously optimistic when I saw the makeup of the councillors — we had two Green Party councillors on there,” he said. “I didn’t think it was going to be a slam dunk by any means. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But we probably got the most positive decision we could’ve got.”

The decision allows Larsen’s shop to get its business licence back, and he hopes it sets a political precedent for a broader conversation at council about how the City will approach mushroom dispensaries going forward.

There are already more than a dozen in operation, and as Fry noted at the meeting, psilocybin is only gaining popularity.

“Hopefully this creates a trend in other city councils across the country,” Larsen said. “They made the right decision.”