Other - Legality of Psilocybin Mushrooms: Canada

Does anyone know if its legal in Canada???


i dont think it is but im just wondering


peace

[bigPaPPaNoLaN]

nope, im from edmonton and it is quite illegal!11 but thats half the fun of it, now you can trip and be on a crazy adventure escaping from tons of cops.......that i was informed later, never existed..........OR DID THEY!?!?!?!


lol

[icemaster]

they are only illegal in dried form, but generally I don't think the police care too much about them, a friend of mine got caught with an ounce of dried shrooms and the charges were dismissed.

[poorphucker]

spore possesion and the actual mushrooms growing I believe are legalbut not picked, dried, transported and such. But I think they allow the growing in order to get the spores which are legal to sell in Canada

[pharmapsyche]

SWIM isn't a resident in Canada but has high hopes of moving there sooner or later in life and has been doing a good amount of research about the country. SWIM has talked to a few Canandians and have heard a few different stories and just wants know the truth. How laid back are the Marijuana laws in Canada? Do the laws differ in Ontario and Vancouver? SWIM has also heard that are head shops in Canada that sell "100% legal magic mushrooms" but that sounds to good to be true. Do those "magic mushroom's" actually contain psilocybin or psilocin?

[freedom]

maybe they meant to say legal buds? because i have heard of legal buds which arent marijuana which are complete crap. as far as i know all psilocybin/psilocin containing muchrooms are illegal when cultivated.

[bcStoner420]

No it's true, just as I said before. Unprepared psilocybin mushrooms are legal to sell and possess. SWIM has bought them from the headshops many times before. Trust me, it's not too good to be true, Ireland had it up till not long ago there. Who knows when Canada may follow their footsteps.

[bcStoner420]

Dunno where your info is coming from Chilly Willy. But from personal experience you CAN find headshops selling mushies(at least in Vancouver you sure can) and you CAN get a criminal record for much less than 3 ounces. Although they are usually very lenient and unless you have past drug charges or are being a hassle to them, you get off quite easy. In fact SWIM's buddy just got caught with about a half ounce weighed up into gram bags, he told the cop he just likes to know how much he's smoking and the kind cop let him go (of course he took his marijuana though).

P.S. I am, obviously, also a Canadian citizen.

Here is a link to Erowids current legal info on Psilocybin- http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushroo...ooms_law.shtml It states they are illegal, but from what I hear there is another law which opens a loophole allowing them to be sold/posessed unprepared. Either way, they are available, legal or not.

[motorhead]

O canada. Drug laws in Canada are regulated by the federal government, unlike in the states where each state has different laws penalties etc. If you get busted in Alberta or Nova Scotia the judge will be looking at the criminal code of Canada and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
The laws themselves arent that lax, just the system that implements them. It's common knowledge that you can smoke fairly openly in Vancouver. Not quite as laid back here on the East coast, but the cops dont tend to make a big fuss about simple possesion. Shrooms are illegal. If head shops in Vancouver are selling them, its not legal just the cops turning a blind eye. Somewhat like the coffeshops in Amsterdam.
The proposed Decriminalizaion bill would have made possesion a simple fine with no criminal record, but we all know that aint gonna happen any time soon. friggin tories

[bcStoner420]

Ya, it's true you can smoke pretty openely over here. Basically nobody even cares except the cops themselves which more often then not also tend not to care. SWIM will often find himself smoking a pipe or a joint on a parkbench(fairly busy park too) when someone else sits down beside him to do the same. Cops will still take your weed though, so don't exactly think your in some safe haven and can go blow smoke in a cops face.

[fee17]

i live in toronto, () and it's pretty lax. a lot of my friends, they have had run ins with cops and they just take it away without much of a hassle.

[fatmanstan]

Near the middle of this great land, I can say that it is pretty laid back, although, as mentioned, you can't go and blow smoke in some cops face. As long as you are just smoking, or doing whatever you're doing, and not causing any trouble or putting anybody's life in danger, the police are pretty tolerant, usually turning a blind eye or at most confiscation. Hell, pretty much same goes for open liquor charges where I live, although again as long as you are not being an idiot.

Mushrooms are illegal here, you can't buy them at the headshops (at least no one I know of, athough I'm sure some people have better hook ups than I do), but you can get spore prints and syringes.

All in all, I would say much more relaxed attitude towards drugs (softer drugs, anyway) then US, although not likely as relaxed as some european countries. But then it really depends on where you are and the personal attitudes and points-of-view of the local law enforcement members individually.

[Alfa]

What kind of shrooms are for sale in the Canadian headshops?

[Alfa]

I've been looking into the Canadian law on this and found a suppreme court ruling that fresh unprepared mushrooms are legal in Canada. However there are several court cases where the court did not distingish between the mushrooms and the (illegal) active substances there in. i.e. if caught with 250 grams mushrooms, the court would describe this as 250 grams psilocin and prosecute you like you had 250 grams psilocibin in your posession.

Here is a press release from 2002: http://www.drugwar.com/pkubbynofugitive.shtm
Canadian Federal Court Adjudicator D. Shaw "Dyck noted that possession of peyote is legal under Canadian law." "Dyck noted that possession of live mushrooms is legal and only the dried form is illegal, in Canada. She also acknowledged that possession of a small amount of dried mushroom would probably not be prosecuted in Canada. "

This ammendment of the CDSA says:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-38.8/
2.
...
(2) For the purposes of this Act,

(a) a reference to a controlled substance includes a reference to any substance that contains a controlled substance; and

(b) a reference to a controlled substance includes a reference to

(i) all synthetic and natural forms of the substance, and

(ii) any thing that contains or has on it a controlled substance and that is used or intended or designed for use
...
4. (1) Except as authorized under the regulations, no person shall possess a substance included in Schedule I, II or III.
...
5. (1) No person shall traffic in a substance included in Schedule I, II, III or IV or in any substance represented or held out by that person to be such a substance.
...
(6) For the purposes of subsection (4) and Schedule VII, the amount of the substance means the entire amount of any mixture or substance, or the whole of any plant, that contains a detectable amount of the substance.
...
(8) For the purposes of subsection (5) and Schedule VIII, the amount of the substance means the entire amount of any mixture or substance, or the whole of any plant, that contains a detectable amount of the substance.

This ammendment was needed to make magic mushrooms illegal. Without it psilocybe mushrooms would be completely legal. From the above ammendment / section of the CDSA you can deduct that psilocybe mushrooms are illegal since they contain illegal substances. But so does phalaris grass(DMT), which grows abundant in Canada and is used as dry flower. Dried poppies, also used as dry flowers, contain the illegal opium & heroin. Nutmeg contains MMDA. Potatoes contain Diazepam and Lormetazepam. So anyone possessing or growing any of these substances is liable to prosecution. There is no difference between the legality of nutmeg or psilocybe mushrooms in Canada. In fact nutmeg is probably more illegal, since it is ground up. i.e. a preparation.

If I lived in Canada, I would be on my way to press charges against a wide spectrum of companies that carry these products. These companies can easely defend themselves and would in effect also defend mushrooms. If one would be vigilant in this, the above law would be overturned. So, the question is:

Does anyone want to make magic mushrooms legal in Canada?

[bcStoner420]

That's great info Alfa thank you very much. There is no way my search engine skills woulda been able to find all that. I'm actually stunned at these facts,don't get me wrong though, it's awsome(assuming I understood properly, a little out of it ATM).

[motorhead]

It is good news if you like Peyote. Mescaline is a schedual III drug but the exception is noted:
17. Mescaline (3,4,5--trimethoxybenzeneethanamine) and any salt thereof, but not peyote (lophophora)

But there is no such exception for psilocibin or psilocin:
11. Psilocin (3--[2--(dimethylamino)ethyl]--4--hydroxyindole) and any salt thereof
12. Psilocybin (3--[2--(dimethylamino)ethyl]--4--phosphoryloxyindole) and any salt thereof

So i can see how Kubby got off on the peyote, but I can't see where Dyke finds the difference between fresh and dried shrooms. Alpha's paste of the Act clearly states that a person cant hold any form of a schedual III substance, including 11 and 12. There is no distinction between fresh and dry on the Schedual nor anywhere else in the Act. (At least i cant find it, ill look at it again). So I am at a little loss my self. BC, straiten out and help me look lol

As far as your plan Alpha it certainly makes sense and it could work. The one major hitch that I could foresee is in the realm of public opinion. You are talking about bringing charges against companies that sell the agricultural products you mentioned. Canada is large, it is rural, blue collar if you will. Such actions could easily be construed in the media as attacks on the agriculture industry itself. An industry deeply rooted in the Canadian culture and economy. I couldnt see any government, even an NDP majority, making a favourable amendment to the CDSA after headlines like "Mushroom activists put strain on local farmers". Im pretty damn sure thats what one would be up against.

[Alfa]

Before the ammendment I posted was made, fresh mushrooms where legal.

As far as my plan, there is no need to do this as a mushroom activist. One can just state that since it is the law and people are prosecuted by this law, you think the law should be followed and others should be prosecuted as well. The public will quickly see the absurdity of this law. It is a prohibition of natural growing plants. Of nature if you will.

[bcStoner420]

Ahh, I realize how it is now that I'm thinkin a little clearer. That is pretty absurd, though it is odd to find that peyote is legal (but a good thing). Alfa, your points were made well saying things like nutmeg are now just as illegal as mushrooms (I better be understanding things right this time). This being the case I can see a posession charge of magic mushrooms could be fought quite easily. If someone was to bring up such points in court I could see that law being ridden of because it's just rediculous when you think about it. All I know is there is a major problem there, all it would probably take is 1 person to challenge to courts on this since with these laws intact many food distributors are breaking the law everyday.

[motorhead]

You should be a lawyer Alpha. lmao. Dyke must just have been having a lazy day and wanted to get the whole thing over with. http://www.cfdp.ca/drug.htm. This is the act repealled by the CDSA. Mushrooms were never legal. But crystal meth was, go figure.

[bcStoner420]

I thought they were legal fresh before the amendment Alfa posted was made? Anyway seems the more I look into Canadian Law the crazier I think it is. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it's definatly got some strange parts to it.

They were just not thinkin one bit when they passed that.

[Alfa]

A good lawyer would have a very strong case to make mushrooms legal. Yes, it would probably take a few years to acomplish. I would suspect you've got more time than that.

[turfshark_40]

(ii) any thing that contains or has on it a controlled substance and that is used or intended or designed for use

I'm not a law man by any stretch, but the way I read this is that anything that contains a substance and which is also intended to be used for that substance. So by my interpretation, nutmeg, poppies, etc. are legal so long as they aren't being intentionally used for the illegal substance they contain.

Of course there is usually no way of knowing the person's intent, but the vast majority of people don't see any use for psilocybe mushrooms other than for the drug they contain, whereas nutmeg, poppies, and potatoes all have very obvious and common legal uses.

Anyone else read it that way?

[Alfa]

Nutmeg, poppie seeds are used for consumption i.e. use though.
But in fact what you have pointed out here, may be that magic mushrooms are already legal in Canada if sold for other purposes than consumption.

If someone would check with a lawyer, if it's legal to sell dry flower boquets containing magic mushrooms online and get yes for an answer, that person would make a small fortune.

[motorhead]

I havent forgotten this thread alpha. I havent been pursueing it like a mad dog but surfing through Canadian legal sites and the like I havent seen any evidence that anyone has undertaken this approach, or has plans to, in regards to mushrooms. There are definate possibilities here, precedents can be set! I wonder though if something ever comes of this how are you to get credit for your wonderful disection of the CDSA?

[PsychedelicNavigator]

I would think the person who is going to set these precedents will need alot of money and alot of time on their hands