Illegal magic mushroom shops in downtown Barrie, whether closed by raids or police-assisted eviction, are popping back up again within days in what is becoming a proverbial game of whack-a-mole — and a headache for city hall and local police.
In the latest violent incident to strike a local psilocybin dispensary, community safety has been further heightened.
Police continue to investigate after the blaze, which fire officials described as “suspicious in nature.” It appears to have been intentionally set outside of a building which houses an illegal magic mushroom shop at downtown’s Five Points intersection in the overnight hours Tuesday.
On July 15, fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze, after receiving the call around 4 a.m., at Bayfield and Dunlop streets. The building houses a take-out restaurant on the ground floor and Shroomyz, a psilocybin dispensary, on the second floor.
Although the extent of the damage to the building has not been released, a broken and blackened entrance to the Shroomyz store is clearly evident.
Officials have said the fire could have been much worse, considering the susceptibility to out-of-control burning, as seen with past downtown fires involving Victorian-era structures.
Psilocybin, the official name for magic mushrooms, and commonly referred to as “shrooms,” is classified as a Schedule 3 narcotic under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
According to a Government of Canada web page, research around psilocybin use continues to grow.
“There is increasing interest in the potential therapeutic uses of magic mushrooms and of psilocybin, one of the active ingredients in magic mushrooms,” states the web page. “While clinical trials with psilocybin have shown promising results, at this time there are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin in Canada or elsewhere.”
Despite police action and the recurring attacks on the illegal businesses, the managers of the shops remain defiant in their efforts to stay open to the public. Multiple local shops operate openly, with brightly coloured signs and facades.
“We’ll always keep reopening,” said Summer Snow, manager of FunGuyz on Dunlop Street, a stone’s throw from the Shroomyz location.
“What are they going to do, put me in jail? … Make me a martyr, but I’m not going to stop,” she told BarrieToday on Tuesday.
Mayor Alex Nuttall, however, faces increased pressure to keep the illegal shops shuttered.
“Barrie will not be held hostage by criminals who believe they can operate outside the law,” he told BarrieToday.
“I fully support the Barrie Police Service in their efforts to investigate these incidents thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice,” Nuttall added. “Illegal drug shops have no place in our city. They are not welcome, and they never will be.”
The mayor says there’s no place for this type of criminal activity.
“Barrie is a safe, family-oriented city. We intend to keep it that way,” he said. “Anyone who threatens that safety through violence or illegal activity will be met with the full force of the law.”
As for Tuesday’s intentionally set fire at Shroomyz in the early morning hours?
“Let me be absolutely clear. The arson that occurred (July 15) is a criminal act and it is being treated as such,” Nuttall said.
“This is not an isolated incident. The repeated use of arson at illegal drug shops points to a deeply concerning pattern that appears to involve organized criminal elements,” he added. “Setting fires in our city is an extremely dangerous act that puts lives at risk and endangers the safety of our entire community. These attacks are not only unlawful, they are violent and deliberate.”
But the mushroom dispensaries are popping back up almost as fast as police have been able to shut them down lately, and law enforcement authorities say that is due to the legal processes at work.
“It is a two-pronged approach that requires co-operation from the property owner and involves a lawful eviction process, the changing of locks and signage removal,” Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday. “This co-operation will result in the illegal business being shut down.”
Leon said the other aspect of the approach requires the lawful execution of a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) search warrant, which allows police to lawfully enter the property and seize any illegal items which are being offered for sale.
“This process takes time, patience and a thorough police-related investigation is necessary before any search warrant is prepared and ultimately authorized,” he said.
“The work required by police to effectively shut down these illegal establishments does not happen overnight and must be done in accordance with a judicial and lawful process,” Leon added.
BarrieToday also asked what those efforts involve.
“We will respectfully defer from comment at this time,” he said.
During a Barrie Police Services Board meeting on June 19, answering concerns of a citizen who questioned the pace at which enforcement unfolds, Nuttall admitted there are “difficulties” with the enforcement needed to clamp down on illegal magic mushroom shops in the city.
“If an owner of a building is going to lease space to an illegal operation, there needs to be consequences for those actions, and we are working through it,” he said during the meeting.
“There are difficulties with who is actually in charge of policing an edible substance such as shrooms, and what body would come in and how we get at it,” Nuttall added. “I can tell you that the conversations are constant between the city, the police service looking to federal authorities to deal with edibles and trying to do the right thing on that front.
“And I’ve been clear: My belief is, if you’re selling drugs in an organized fashion and those drugs are illegal, there’s nothing else you can call it except organized crime, and I would be suspicious that there are other types of organized crime happening in behind those establishments,” the mayor said.
