(Montreal) Defying Canadian drug laws, “magic mushroom” stores are opening illegally here and there across the country, including one in Montreal this week.
But experts believe that these illegal sellers will not be very useful in radically advancing the acceptability of hallucinogenic mushrooms with the authorities and the population.
Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, is increasingly undergoing clinical trials to investigate its potential therapeutic effects.
But a rapid growth in the illegal trade could slow medical progress by turning public opinion against these substances, fears Dr. Andrew Bui-Nguyen, whose Montreal clinic offers certain patients federally approved psychedelic treatments.
“Everyone, I believe, is excited about the revival of psychedelics [en psychothérapie]but I think there are ways to do it in collaboration with policymakers,” said Dr. Bui-Nguyen, medical director of the Montreal clinic Numinus, which has received Health Canada approval to use psilocybin. , under strict conditions, to treat depression.
Montreal is the latest hotbed of the debate over psychedelic drug use. On Tuesday, the FunGuyz store, which is located in the Sainte-Marie district, began selling magic mushrooms. Within hours, the Montreal police conducted a search and made four arrests. A woman, Feila Alichina Idrissa, faces a charge related to drug trafficking.
The store was closed and virtually empty on Wednesday. The illustrations of blue and pink mushrooms that lined shop windows on Tuesday were gone, revealing a messy interior with only a handful of clear plastic bins strewn across the floor.
It’s unclear who exactly owns FunGuyz, which sells psilocybin online and has ten locations in Ontario. A man claiming to be the store’s spokesman gave two different spellings of his name to The Canadian Press and refused to show identification.
He said the Montreal store opened to protest prohibition and to increase access to psilocybin in Canada.
Other illegal retailers of psychedelic drugs have also appeared in Manitoba.
But hallucinogens like psilocybin are still subject to bans on sale and possession in Canada, and can only be used in very limited clinical settings.
Rare exemptions
Furthermore, clinical trials with these drugs have been slow to develop in Canada.
Until now, Dr Bui-Nguyen explained, Health Canada has only granted exemptions for the treatment of patients with end-of-life distress or severe depression – but only if other modes of treatment had failed. .
There has been recent progress, however, including a $3 million investment from Ottawa in June to support three more clinical trials involving psilocybin. Dr. Bui-Nguyen expects psychedelic treatment to expand further if these clinical trials show positive results.
It is not known, however, if psychedelic drugs “for recreational use” will ever be legal in Canada. But if drugs like psilocybin became more widely available in the country, that process likely wouldn’t come from illegal stores, believes Daniel Weinstock, a law professor at McGill University who studies public policy ethics.
“I think that the appearance here and there of illegal stores like this actually demonstrates more ‘the failure of prohibition’ than a solution to the problem,” according to the philosopher.
Weinstock recalls the long process of decriminalization of cannabis in Canada, where the legalization of recreational use has only followed widespread medical application and widespread social acceptability – two key elements that psychedelic drugs still lack, he says. .
“The road is not as smooth” as illegal shops might suggest, he says.
Dr. Bui-Nguyen advocates for the decriminalization of psychedelics and their increased medical use, but fears that illicit stores like FunGuyz will undermine the process of acceptability among the public and with lawmakers.
“Sometimes just acting blindly and without thinking about the possible impacts can […] be counterproductive, to some extent. »
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.