Looking for a psychedelic experience?

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Vancouver last year were mushroom dispensaries who openly sell products such as psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, peyote and several other forms of psychedelics to the public...

ZOOMERS, a psilocybin-only dispensary on Granville St, is a cozy and intimate shop that takes pride in its customer service.

Every customer that enters the store is asked about their previous experience with psychedelic drugs, if any, and receive a recommended product with an appropriate dosage to ensure a good experience.

Psychedelic drugs, however experienced the user, will always be unpredictable. An experience can range from euphoric to downright terrifying - elements such as mood and setting must always be taken into consideration when tripping.

Psilocybin capsules offered at various doses.

Blinding Lights - a psilocybin-infused soda - comes in multiple different flavours but "Peach Buzz" is by far the most popular.

Different strands of mushrooms - all offer slightly different experiences from one another.

Vancouver-based couple, Marissa and Alex, shopping for psilocybin products.

One of the most famous mushroom stores in Vancouver is Coca Leaf Cafe.

Visitors can find a wide range of hard-to-find products here - drugs like psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, peyote and kratom are all available for purchase with a signed medical form.

Though the title of "cafe" seems like a bit of a stretch, Coca Leaf is indeed a cafe. They're the only cafe in Vancouver, and indeed throughout Canada, that sells tea made with coca leaves.

Coca tea, also known as mate de coca, is an herbal tea that is made using the raw or dried leaves of the coca plant native to South America. It's commonly consumed in the Andes mountain range, throughout Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and is often given to tourists as a traditional medicine to cure altitude sickness.

More commonly, it's known as the base for cocaine. The leaves of the coca plant contain alkaloids that, when extracted chemically, are the main ingredient for the widely used stimulant.

To make the beverage more approachable, Coca Leaf Cafe offers it in many forms - cocaccino (aka capuccino), coca latte and coca mocha are all cafe-inspired variations on the traditional, grassy flavour of the tea.

The two employees I've met here, Lilith and Karen, were both very excited to talk about their experiences with psychedelics.

Lilith, in particular, was very knowledgable about the psychedelic experience. They offered helpful advice to anyone who is interested in taking psilocybin, such as proper mood and setting, as well as appropriate dosage levels.

Lilith mentioned an important figure in psychedelic history - Timothy Leary, an American psychologist known for his strong advocacy or psychedelic drugs - and his "five levels" of the psychedelic experience. As some users will want to take stronger doses, a brief glance into the five levels can help prepare for what's to come.

As one of Coca Leaf Cafe's first employees, Lilith is passionate about the potential uses of psychedelics, especially psilocybin, to help people overcome mental illness and substance use.

Cafe owner and founder Dana Larsen has been a subject in many news stories about the potential benefits of psychedelic use, and is an activist for harm reduction and policy reform in Canada.

“I think we’ve already created a pathway with cannabis that involved hundreds of shops across the country openly selling cannabis before it was legalized. I think we’re going to see a very similar path with mushrooms,” Larsen told CTV News.

Indeed, mushroom dispensaries are currently functioning in legal grey zones similar to that of cannabis stores before the drug was legalized.

Perhaps, not so far into the future, stores like ZOOMERS and Coca Loaf Cafe will pave the way towards legalization.

For now, they're looking to eliminate any stigma behind drug use and are continuously educating visitors about the potential benefits of consuming psychedelic drugs.