A psychedelic mushroom store, also known as a magic mushroom dispensary, is a retail outlet that sells hallucinogenic mushroom products. [1] [2] [3] [2] They are analogous to cannabis dispensaries. [1] [3] [2] Spurred by the 21st-century psychedelic renaissance, by increasing societal acceptance of psilocybin mushrooms, and by loosening of regulations, psychedelic mushroom stores started to be opened and to gain popularity in the early 2020s in certain parts of the United States and Canada. [1] [3] [4] [5] There have also been earlier instances of such stores, for example in Europe in the 2000s. [6] [7] In addition, magic mushroom products are or have been sold by stores and cafes in other parts of the world. [8] [9] [10]
The stores may sell actual hallucinogenic mushrooms such as psilocybin mushrooms and Amanita muscaria mushrooms. [1] [2] Additionally or alternatively, they may sell mushroom edible products such as chocolate bars, gummies, or drinks that contain hallucinogenic mushroom constituents like psilocybin or muscimol or that contain synthetic analogues of these compounds such as 4-AcO-DMT (O-acetylpsilocin; psilacetin). [1] [2] [11] Some notable brands of mushroom edible products include PolkaDot and Tre House. [12] [13] [14] [2] Both psilocybin and 4-AcO-DMT are prodrugs of the serotonergic psychedelic psilocin. [1] [15] [2] [11] Psychedelic mushroom stores operate in a legal grey area and the products sold by these stores may be either illegal controlled substances (e.g., psilocybin mushrooms, psilocybin) or legal (e.g., Amanita muscaria mushrooms, 4-AcO-DMT). [1] [2] [11] [5] Some of the more brazen stores selling obviously illegal products have been raided by government authorities and shut down. [5]
The mushroom edible market is unregulated and it is frequently unclear what these products actually contain or what doses are present within them. [1] Oftentimes the products may only be labeled with ingredients like "mushroom blend", "magic blend", or "mushroom extract". [13] [1] [14] [2] There have been cases of poisonings linked to certain mushroom edible products, for instance hundreds of cases of poisonings with Diamond Shruumz products. [1] [16] [17] [18] [19] These have included several deaths. [20] [21]
Magic mushroom stores are known to exist throughout certain states in the United States like California and certain provinces in Canada like British Columbia and Ontario. [1] [2] [4] A notable example is a store called ShroomLand LA in the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles in California. [1] [3] [2] Psychedelic mushroom stores are also known to operate online in the United States and Canada. [5] Numerous stores were prevalent in the United Kingdom in the 2000s when a legal loophole allowed magic mushrooms to be sold, [6] but the loophole was closed in 2005 and the products stopped being sold. [22] [23] Similarly, there were numerous stores selling magic mushrooms in the Netherlands in the 2000s, but magic mushrooms became illegal in this country in 2008. [7] However, magic truffles, which are the psilocybin-containing sclerotium of magic mushrooms, have remained legal in the Netherlands due to another legal loophole and have continued to be sold. [7] [8] [24] Stores and/or cafes in other parts of the world have also been known to sell magic mushroom products, including in Brazil, [8] [25] Indonesia, [9] Jamaica, [8] and Thailand, [8] [10] among other countries and territories. [8]
In 2007, the Minister of Health of the Netherlands requested the CAM (Coordination point Assessment and Monitoring new drugs) to assess the overall risk of magic mushrooms. The present paper is an updated redraft of the review, written to support the assessment by CAM experts. [...] In the Netherlands, the prevalence of magic mushroom use was declining since 2000 (last year prevalence of 6.3% in 2000 to 2.9% in 2005), and further declined after possession and use became illegal in December 2008. [...] The present report reviews psilocine and psilocybine containing mushrooms, i.e. magic mushrooms. Types of magic mushrooms most commonly sold by head or smart shops in the Netherlands are Psilocybe cubensis varieties, most notably the Psilocybe mexicana, none of which are reported to grow wild in Europe. [...] When magic mushrooms were still legal in the Netherlands, the users purchased their mushroom products mainly from smart shops, souvenir shops and via the internet. In 2006, when magic mushroom were still legal in the Netherlands, there some 120–150 smart shops in the Netherlands selling magic mushrooms and other legal psychoactive drugs (Dutch Association of Smart Shop Owners, 2006): about 35 in Amsterdam and a total of about 15 in four other larger towns. Since December 2008 however, the use and possession magic mushrooms has become illegal in the Netherlands, and fresh magic mushrooms are placed on List II in the Dutch Narcotic Law together with cannabis. [...] the recent prohibition of psilocybin and psilocin containing fungi in the UK appears to have provoked an emerging interest of retailers in legal, types of magic mushroom such as Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) (Black Poppy, 2006).
The brand is actually Polkadot Bar. And they've become increasingly common in the psychedelic grey market. As more states open up laws around cannabis, Polkadot Bars and a range of other magic mushroom containing-candies – including One-Up Bars, Holy Grail Bars, Magic Bars and Mushie Gummies – have become common, under-the-counter offerings in cannabis boutiques, smoke shops and corner bodegas. The bars come in a range of flavours, from Ferrero Rocher, Twix and Fruity Pebbles to matcha, blueberry acai and "strawnana".
Due to a legal loophole, fresh psychedelic mushrooms were legal in the UK until 2005, but this loophole was closed making fresh and dried magic mushrooms illegal. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was considering rescheduling psilocybin mushrooms, with no further discussion from his administration.