Mushroom Shop Determined to Open in Montreal, Mayor Vows to Crack Down

The owner of a chain of stores that sells psilocybin mushrooms has plans to set up shop in one of Canada’s largest and most culturally vibrant cities––but the mayor has other ideas. According to CTV, the “chain is called FunGuyz, which operates nine dispensaries across Ontario and has plans to open another spot in Montreal in three weeks.”

The station reported that the owner of FunGuyz, Edgar Gorbans, “did not want his face shown on camera, and instead chose to be interviewed by CTV News wearing a mushroom costume.”

The sale of psychedelic mushrooms is very much illegal in Canada, as in most jurisdictions around the world, but Gorbans is defiant. 

CTV reports that Gorbans insists “his products are for therapeutic use.”

“We’re trying to provide access to psilocybin that the government can’t,” he told the station.

The government, including the one in Montreal, has different ideas.

The city’s mayor, Valérie Plante, said local law enforcement will respond to the illicit business accordingly.

“Mushrooms [are] not legal in Canada so, of course, we will apply the law and Montreal police officers will be ready to act based on the law,” Plante told CTV.

Montreal police explained to the station how officers will approach the situation, saying that they will “evaluate the various possible intervention scenarios, on our respective territories and in concert. Responsible officers will be identified in each of our police departments. We will also be checking with our police partners across the country to see what kind of response has been given to this type of commercial activity. We are also evaluating the possibility of meeting with the managers of the establishments in advance to validate their intentions and explain our orientations.”

With growing acceptance and accessibility, psilocybin figures to be the next focus of the drug reform movement. Researchers continue to be impressed with its therapeutic value, while a swelling number of lawmakers worldwide have signaled a desire to change the laws surrounding mushrooms.

That includes Canada, where last year a pair of professors at UG’s Ontario Agricultural College received a “dealer’s license” to cultivate psilocybin mushrooms for research purposes, making it one of the first universities in the country that received permission to do so.

“We are very excited about this approval as it will allow us to study these psychedelic mushrooms to better understand their biology and genetics, examine what other functional compounds they might contain, and provide well-characterized and chemically consistent material for preclinical and potentially clinical evaluation,” said Dr. Max Jones, one of the professors who received the license.

“There is a real need for a public supply of these mushrooms,” Jones added. We aim to create a supply of mushrooms to be used for preclinical and perhaps clinical trials in which the genetics and cultivation methodologies will be fully disclosed to researchers and the public.”

The pro-mushroom push has even found its way to Capitol Hill.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said during a hearing that he has “been an advocate of psychedelics in terms of magic mushrooms for PTSD and for veterans especially.”

“I always thought it could be—and maybe I’m wrong—an amazing economic kind of boom for the mushroom [sector],” said Fetterman, a freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania. “I think it could be a revolution in mental health.”

Fetterman has long been a vocal drug reform advocate. During his campaign for Senate last year, he called on Biden to decriminalize pot.

“It’s long past time that we finally decriminalize marijuana,” Fetterman said then. “The president needs to use his executive authority to begin descheduling marijuana, I would love to see him do this prior to his visit to Pittsburgh. This is just common sense and Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support decriminalizing marijuana.”