Kitchener psilocybin shop reopens after two police raids in one week
A magic mushroom store in Kitchener has reopened its doors after a pair of raids by police.
The Kitchener FunGuyz location was once again open for business on Wednesday after Waterloo regional police raided the store on April 10 and April 13, seizing product and making arrests.
Waterloo Region Police Services Chief Mark Crowell was asked about the reopening on Wednesday following the police service’s board meeting.
“We’re making our best efforts, from an enforcement standpoint, to conduct investigations that will lead to, hopefully, the closure of these businesses, but there’s a process that’s involved. So we’re looking for local support from the courts and the Crown attorney’s office locally with the charges that have been laid. We’re also looking to coordinate this from a provincial standpoint because there are other jurisdictions that have this business operating as well.”
He added the police will use whatever means they can to continue to take action against the stores.
Speaking Monday, CTV News public safety analyst and former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Chris Lewis said while the stores are illegal, the raids cost taxpayers money.
“You’re taking a number of officers off what they normally would be doing. There is no end to the work that’s available to them out there, so for them to prepare a warrant, execute the warrant, put people before the courts, it’s a lot of work.”
Lewis also said police have more serious, and potentially more harmful, drugs to focus on.
“[Psilocybin] can be physically harmful, but on the big scale of things, when you look at opioids that are actually a very micro-dot of them can actually kill somebody, there’s not that physical danger immediately in terms of fatality.”
For the moment, it appears as though the owners of psilocybin shops have no plans to shut down for good.
“This is like some kind of terrible drug war anachronism from some other era that shouldn't even be on the books and we're hopefully going to change that,” FunGuyz lawyer Paul Lewin said during an interview with CTV News earlier this week.
With reporting from Hannah Schmidt and Colton Wiens
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Blaine Higgs 'furious' over sexual education presentation
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has shared his anger on social media over a presentation in at least four high schools.
Grayson Murray's parents say the two-time PGA Tour winner died of suicide
Grayson Murray's parents said Sunday their 30-year-old son took his own life, just one day after he withdrew from a PGA Tour event.
The dreams of a 60-year-old beauty contestant come to an abrupt end in Argentina
A 60-year-old woman saw her dreams of becoming the oldest Miss Universe contestant in history melt away in a haze of sequins and selfies Saturday at Argentina’s annual beauty pageant.
At least 15 dead after severe weather carves path of ruin across multiple U.S. states in the South
Powerful storms killed at least 15 people and left a wide trail of destruction Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S.
2 died in plane crash near Squamish, B.C., police confirm
Two people died after a plane went down in a remote area near Squamish, B.C. on Friday, authorities have confirmed.
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
After more than 100 years, Newfoundland's unknown soldier returns home
An unknown Newfoundland soldier, who fought and died on the battlefields in northeastern France during the First World War, is back home this weekend for the first time in more than a hundred years.
Some birds may use 'mental time travel,' study finds
Real quick — what did you have for lunch yesterday? Were you with anyone? Where were you? Can you picture the scene? The ability to remember things that happened to you in the past, especially to go back and recall little incidental details, is a hallmark of what psychologists call episodic memory — and new research indicates that it’s an ability humans may share with birds called Eurasian jays.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.