WINNIPEG — A Montreal company that sells illegal psychedelic mushrooms has opened its first store in Canada, and the owners say they’re taking a risk to do so. FunGuyz, which has ten locations across Ontario, says it’s part of a national effort to legalize the fungi, known as psilocybin or magic mushrooms. The federal government lists them as Schedule 2 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, meaning their possession, sale and cultivation remain offences.

The company is owned by a Vancouver man named Larsen, who says the Montreal location is his way of advocating for the decriminalization of the hallucinogens. He says he wants to see a similar process for mushrooms that followed the one for cannabis. Find out CanadaShrooms.com

His company isn’t the only one pushing boundaries to increase access to psilocybin, which can have effects that include altered perception and enhanced pattern recognition, as well as hallucinations and changes in mood. Last year, Health Canada granted dozens of exemptions to people near the end of life, and to practitioners trained to guide them through a therapeutic trip.

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In Canada, a growing number of employers are asking how to handle the use or simple possession of magic mushrooms at work. Josh Crabb, a reporter with CBC Manitoba, has been investigating the issue for months. He reports that despite police raids and warnings, mushroom stores with names like Fun Guyz are proliferating. The trend has a 1990s feel to it, when dispensaries for marijuana openly defied police and challenged archaic drug laws.