The Legal Status of Magic Mushrooms, Psilocybin and Dispensaries

I’ve got an interesting topic for you today. What is the status of magic mushroom, psilocybin and dispensaries in Canada at this point? Well, you may have all read the headlines that there’s dispensaries popping up across Canada that are dealing in shrooms, so to speak. Is that legal? Is that really legal? Well, the first thing to know is that magic mushrooms and that psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, that’s a schedule III control substance under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act. So it’s illegal. It’s illegal to possess it, and it’s illegal to traffic it. So first of all, the dispensaries are illegal. And you may have read some headlines that certain dispensaries have been raided and the person’s been charged with trafficking, so that’s a pretty serious criminal offense. Now, I don’t mean to minimize being in possession of magic mushrooms, and by the way, it’s a it gives euphoria, a hallucinogenic type of fact, it’s a compound found at about Oh, 200 different type of mushrooms and psychedelic compound that’s broken down and causes these this euphoria that some people seem to enjoy. So what if you’re charged now? Well, it depends on the province. Some of the provinces are dealing very leniently now with minor drug possession charges. Some police are choosing not even to proceed with particular charges. But if you are charged in a particular province, and I won’t break down the provinces, it can be dealt with if it’s simple possession, hopefully fairly leniently. Sometimes the police, I should say, the Crown will allow you to enter into diversion program to avoid a record. Maybe take some counseling. Some crowns might decide not even to proceed with the charge, depending on the particular province, and same with the police. There’s some provinces that are taking different approaches, and maybe that’s a topic of a different video to compare how Ontario is compared to BC or Alberta or Newfoundland in their approach to minor possession. But that’s the trend we have in our country, that they’re tending to either not prosecute or lay charges for minor possessions such as marijuana, or certain provinces and counties are taking a very lenient approach to it, but hopefully you can avoid a criminal record if you do happen to get charged, depending on your province. Certainly trafficking, though much different situation, obviously, trafficking at a high level, like a dispensary that can clearly attract the jail term and not something to be done. So I guess the moral of the story is it’s still an illegal drug, and these dispensaries, they should really pack up shop, because they’re going to continue to get raided and we haven’t got to the point now where trafficking is ever going to be legal. Maybe possession will become legal at some point in Canada. But we’re  not necessarily consistently at that level with the various provinces, either. Thank you for watching our video. We are absolutely committed to bringing you the best possible criminal and DUI educational videos. If you found this video helpful, please like it and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you’ve been charged with the criminal offense in Ontario and require our services, please click on the link in the description below.