Mushrooms

There are more than 200 species of the fungi, and some have been used for thousands of years. The active ingredients in magic mushrooms are psilocybin and psilocin. As psychoactive substances, they produce effects similar to LSD, including hallucinations and an altered state of consciousness. Effects appear within 15 to 45 minutes and usually last four to six hours.

They are sold either as dried whole mushrooms or as a powder. Whole mushrooms can be eaten raw or cooked, ground up and used to make tea, while the powder can be swallowed in capsule form or snorted.

They are commonly known as magic mushrooms, also called caps, booms, blue meanies, golden tops, mush, mushies, shrooms, psilo, fungus and fungus delight.

There is a growing interest in the potential therapeutic benefits of magic mushrooms for mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinical trials have shown promising results. As of 2026, no psilocybin-based product has been formally approved or registered as a therapeutic product in Canada. Health Canada does allow limited case-by-case access through the Special Access Program for patients with serious conditions when conventional treatments have not worked, but this is not the same as a product approval. Internationally, Australia became the first country to permit authorized psychiatrists to prescribe psilocybin, for treatment-resistant depression only, under strict government controls, effective July 2023. Even there, no psilocybin product is formally registered. Most countries, including Canada, have not approved it as a standard medical treatment.

Despite their availability both online and in some physical stores in cities like Vancouver, magic mushrooms remain illegal in all parts of Canada. The drug is included in Schedule IIIMost hallucinogens of the CDSA. The prohibition applies to possessing, distributing, cultivating, importing, and exporting psilocybin and psilocin, the active compounds in these mushrooms.

Exceptions to these laws exist under certain circumstances, including:

• Participation in clinical trials involving magic mushrooms
• Enrollment in a special access program allowing physicians to request drugs showing potential in clinical trials or approved in other countries
• Acquisition of an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA)

While British Columbia decriminalized personal possessionHaving knowledge and control of something — not only physically holding it, but also an item kept somewhere else that you know about and control. of up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA on January 31, 2023, this change did not affect the legal status of psilocybin. In 2023, law enforcement raided stores in Windsor, Ontario, and Ottawa that sold magic mushrooms openly.

To find you guilty of possessing magic mushrooms, the Crown must establish beyond a reasonable doubtThe standard that must be exceeded to find someone guilty that you were in possession of the drug. Possession is not only having the mushrooms on your person, in your car or house. It means that you had some degree of control and knowledge of the drug.

The Crown must also prove that the substance is listed in the CDSA and that you knew what it was, such as mushrooms containing psilocybin. The Crown does not have to prove that you knew the exact law. But if you genuinely did not know what the substance was, that may matter.

The Crown has the discretion to treat the charge as a summary convictionUsed for lesser offences or indictable offenceA more serious type of Canadian criminal offence.. If it is your first offence and you are found guilty on summary conviction, you face a maximum fine of $1,000, imprisonment of up to six months or both. For a subsequent offence, the maximum fine is $2,000, one year in jail, or both.

If the Crown treats your possession charge as an indictable offence, the maximum prison term is up to three years.

If you possessed magic mushrooms for the purpose of traffickingInfluencing the movements of a person in order to exploit them or exporting, the possible penalties include a prison sentence of up to 10 years if the charge is treated as an indictable offence or 18 months for a summary conviction.

Sentences will vary depending on how many magic mushrooms you possessed and if there were any aggravating factorsAny information or evidence that may result in a heavier sentence such as distributing the drug to minors.

November 17, 2022
Update: Bill C-5: Mandatory Minimum Penalties Repealed.

Psilocybin and psilocin are currently treated as Schedule III substances under the CDSA.

Some legal access may exist through specific exemptions, clinical or medical pathways, or other authorizations. Those pathways are narrow and do not mean psilocybin mushrooms are generally legal.

Therapeutic-access discussions do not mean psilocybin mushrooms are generally legal in Canada.