Long gone are the days when the only way to purchase cannabis was through an unlicensed retailer or street dealer. Some users still swear by buying through the illicit market, and there’s no shame in that.

In fact, there are new kinds of unlicensed retailers hitting Canadian streets, selling the illegal psychedelic substance psilocybin.

CBC reports how The Golden Teacher, an unregulated magic mushroom shop in downtown Ottawa, is selling the substance to protest against unjust laws.

“We provide you with a safe, controlled dose, with a clear idea of how it’s going to affect you,” said Jordan Armstrong, who runs the Golden Teacher storefront. He added that “laws that are unjust don’t change unless you go out and you make a statement about it. So we’re looking to change laws that we believe are outdated.”

Similarly, another unregulated psilocybin storefront is set to open in Ottawa on May 1, dubbed Shroomyz, reports CBC.

If we take a trip out west, the public’s stance on magic mushrooms leans even more progressive. Vancouver, British Columbia, was one of the first cities to majorly capitalize on cannabis long before it was legal in Canada.

Some would argue that Vancouver’s trailblazing dispensaries are what sparked Canada‘s interest in legalizing cannabis roughly four years ago. Now, store owners out west are hopeful that psilocybin dispensaries will bring a blanket of new hope for modern medicine.

As a Toronto native, I personally cannot wait to enter a psilocybin dispensary and have my needs met with help from educated employees who can help me navigate the substance’s effects per different doses.

That’s exactly what the workers inside Vancouver-based Zoomers dispensary storefront aim to do, which calls itself Canada‘s first medical psilocybin dispensary, reports Insider.

Allana Akhtar of Insider took an in-depth tour of the dispensary and spoke with a nurse who shared the rundown of the store’s purchasing process.

Noting the store was not very big but always busy, the Zoomers dispensary has nurses on deck ready to help you find which product would benefit your specific circumstances, similar to a medical cannabis budtender.

Insider notes, “some mushrooms are better for energy and focus, while others provide relaxation,” adding that Zoomers has about 30 different varieties of dried mushrooms on the shelves.

With such a carefully curated product selection and educated healthcare-oriented nurses looking out for the consumer, we can only imagine that Canada‘s illicit psilocybin market will flourish into something bigger, better, and more accepting in the years to come.