In cities across Canada, storefronts with names like Fun Guyz and Shroomyz are popping up, selling psilocybin in different forms. Inside one, I saw a selection of mushroom-infused drinks, including the TikTok-famous Psychedelic Water, which contains kava root and damiana leaf, as well as a MusciMind Amanita gummy that delivers a small amount of psilocybin, great for microdosing.

Other vendors sell dried magic mushroom dispensaries, which can be mixed into tea or baked into edibles. In a sign of the mushroom industry’s growing popularity, a new product is making headlines: psilocybin-infused vape juice. The new products are popular among those who use psilocybin to help with anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.

As a drug, psilocybin is illegal. But it’s hard to justify a crackdown on something that many people say is helping them deal with life’s challenges. The response from governments has largely mirrored the reaction to medical cannabis, with some patients able to get special access through their physician or applying for a personal exemption (few of which are granted).

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But that may be changing. Subtle policy shifts have sparked optimism and given a raison d’être to the mushroom stores. A case in point came in 2022 when Canada’s government granted permission for police to relax possession charges for drugs such as heroin and cocaine but not psilocybin.